Samuel took apart one of our small etch-a-sketches a few days ago. I took some pictures because what was inside was so curious- the tiniest balls of what we found out later to be aluminum. We also discovered these tiny aluminum balls are fragile and easily crushed by human fingers. (Later, we saw some of our local "small" ants carrying away some of the balls to their nest. Building material? Housing supplies? Who can say.)



Sorry- nothing to properly give them scale, but you can imagine if one of the smallish ants could carry two at a time in her mouth.



And here is some of the smashed aluminum immersed in water.

The rest of the contraption consisted of two knobs, the purple, plastic shell, and glass for the screen. There was surely something more? Something else set aside with the test tube of aluminum Samuel saved. Some small, nifty, gadgety piece of goodness, no doubt, to preserve and treasure and remember the experience by.