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Article: The tensile & the tantric: choosing fibers that fit.
- Article from:
- Whole Earth
- Article date:
- June 22, 1997
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1997 Point Foundation. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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We had no intention to feature fibers in our revival issue. We intended to run a simple botanical on treefree paper. But our inventive (and humorous) contributors sent photos of "paper" made from cellulose fiber grown by bacteria; fiberglass bridges that helped save marbled murrelets; a futuristic horse blanket with fibers so sensitive they can adjust the blanket's insulation power to changing weather; hemp stone (a hemp-based plastic biopolymer) that can compete with petrolum-based fibers; and wallboard and trusses made from wastepaper pulps and soybean paste, urban wastewood, and agricultural waste straw. Fiber-thoughts flashed before us like draping silk, turned ...