Translations:AY Honors/Shells/Answer Key/76/en

Shells are used to mark the frets on a guitar's fingerboard

Shells have been used by man in the following ways:

Money: Shells have been used in many cultures as a form of money.
Buttons: Buttons were originally cut from shells. Plastic buttons we use today still resembled the pearly surface of the inside of a seashell.
Adornment: Many cultures made (and make) jewelry from shells. Holes can be drilled into shells to make beads. Shells are also inlaid into wood in an artform called intarsia (also in marquetry and parquetry).
Hair combs: Shells have been cut to shape and used to comb hair.
Fret board markers: The markers (often round dots) between the frets on the fingerboard of a guitar (or other stringed instrument) are made of shell.
Utensils: Shells were used to make spoons, knives, cups, and dishes by primitive cultures.
Chemistry: Shells are made from calcium carbonate, a chemical useful in the laboratory. Calcium carbonate is widely used medicinally as an inexpensive dietary calcium supplement or antacid. It is also used in the pharmaceutical industry as a base material for tablets of other pharmaceuticals.
Lime: Seashells can be crushed to make lime which is used to raise the pH level in soil.