Amy Greer, age 12, of Glendale, Ariz., for her question:

WHO INVENTED THE FAN?

We don't know who invented the fan. But we do know that back in ancient times men learned they could make themselves feel cooler on hot days by waving a leaf throught the air and creating an artificial breeze.

The early Assyrians and Egyptians also used hand fans made of palm leaves. Wealthy persons had servants fan them with these huge leaves.

Artists decorated many early Greek vases with pictures of pretty fans.

Fans were also used to brush flies from sacred vessels in the Christian church from about A.D. 300 until 1300.

Historians believe that the folding fan was invented in Japan about A.D. 700. The inventor may have made his fan after noticing the way in which a bat folds its wings.

The Chinese soon began using the folding fan, and in the 1500s the Portuguese brought it to Europe.

In the 1800s fans became very fancy. Some were made from lace, gauze, ostrich feathers or peacock feathers. The fans had beautifully carved handles of ivory, tortoise shell, horn or sandalwood.