88 



AMERICAN SPIDEKS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 



the larger end, so as to form an angle of 45° with the lower side. About 

 a quarter or third of an inch from the cork both sides of the pin were 

 bent outward so as to double the space between them. In use, the foil 

 was so placed that the prongs of the hairpin passed underneath the card, 

 on the beveled face of the basal cork, and the upper cork itself rested upon 

 tlie heads of the common pins therein. Then the spider was laid upside 

 down into the groove, so that the projecting anterior part of the abdomen 

 brought up against the edge of the card, and the legs were in front of the 

 pins. Next, the foil was pushed genth' down, the prongs passing vmder the 

 card until the narrow part near the cork embraced the spider's pedicle. 

 The legs, being then set free, clasped the foil, which thus effectually with- 

 held them from the spinnerets. 



The natural tendency of the spider being to throw up its spinnerets 

 against the top cork and make an attachment disk, a thread was thus 



. • obtained from which to begin reeling. Dr. Wilder 

 states that Nephila could retard the flow of silk 

 by pressing the spinnerets against one another, but 

 says that if the reeling is regular she cannot 

 wholly prevent it. He suggests the use of some 

 aniesthetic for the silk worm, to permit direct 

 reeling of thread from the mouth tube, but appa- 

 rently did not think of rendering Nephila com- 

 plaisant and tractable by similar treatment. He 

 suggests methods for reeling silk from several 

 spiders at a time, but seems not to have tried the 

 experiment. He computes that one spider will 

 yield at successive reelings one grain of thread, ^ 

 and that four hundred and fifty would be re- 

 cpiired to yield one yard of silk, or hfty-four hundred for an ordinary 

 dress pattern of twelve yards ; this is less than half the amount produced 

 by the same number of silk moth larvse, a comparison which corresponds 

 substantially with that of Reaumur, although the two men greatly differ 

 in their estimate of the number of spiders required to obtain a fixed amount 

 of silk. 



The most recent and apparently the most successful attempt to procure 

 spider silk from culture I find described in a paper of M. Gauti^ on the 

 habits of spiders.'^ He there informs us that an Englishman named 



Fig. 56. Nephila in position for 

 reeling silk. (After Wilder.) 



' This requires seven thousand spiders to the pound of avoirdupois of silk, which seems 

 a much smaller estimate than Reaumur's. But no comparison can be made, since one esti- 

 mates from reeling product, another from cocoons ; one from Nephila, another from Epeira ; 

 and indeed one cannot always determine which method is referred to by the various writers. 



^ I have not the original, and quote from a translation printed in the New York Sun. 

 In the summer of 1892 I tried to tind some one in London who knew of this gentleman, 

 but failed therein. The story, however, bears the appearance of authenticity. 



