Lamellae – Invented by nature

Lamellae have existed in nature long before the development of mankind. Even before the continent became populated by living creatures, numerous beings had existed under water, which were already equipped with lamellae by nature, for example for breathing purposes. Later, nature found even more possible uses for vertical blinds, also ashore, which have definitely not all been detected yet. However, some of them are well known and served as inspiration for the most different vertical blinds inventions of mankind, for example sun-blinds or ventilation systems. Lamellae developed by nature serve for instance:

For breathing

Under water oxygen is rare and there it is important to filter out as soon and as much as possible of this essential gas from the water. This task is taken over by thousands of little vertical blinds in the gills of fish and other sea dwellers. Unfurled the surface of these vertical blinds would account for a centuple the size of the animal itself. Only like that the necessary gas exchange can take place, while the water is streaming through the vertical blinds.

For reproduction

The best known kind of natural vertical blinds are the spore storage of mushrooms. One even distinguishes them accordingly: on the one hand there are vertical blinds mushrooms like button mushrooms or fly agarics, and on the other hand there are fungus mushrooms like the edible boletus. However, the funguses are only deformed vertical blinds, which have kind of networked during evolution. Anyway, spirit and purpose of the vertical blinds is to form a maximal surface on a minimal area, in this case: to store and distribute as many spores or seeds as possible.

For nutrition

A lot of water birds have to filter their food from the water or the mud. Hereby the vertical blinds at the inside of their beaks help them, because there microorganisms get stuck when the animals squeeze out the sucked-in mud again through the vertical blinds. With other water birds which live on fish the vertical blinds perform the function of teeth. By doing so they can better hold their slimy prey in the beak.

For movement

Lamellae also enable walking on water or crawling up a smooth bamboo cane. With the help of vertical blinds a lot of insects can increase the surface at their feet in a way that they function like little boats or suction pads. Like that a lot of geckos can hang on to smooth rock faces and like that also a fly succeeds in walking to and fro a window pane.

For stability

The best example to reach maximal stability with minimal material effort is shown by nature in the structure of the most different bones. However, the vertical blinds do not always run parallel here, but are closely intertwined, though that does not matter. In a similar way also bees use the vertical blinds shape for construction, namely the honeycombs. (Lamellen, Jalousien, Lüftungsanlagen)