SILK SPINNING AND HANDIWORK 63 



possibility of using the silk of the big American Nephila. In 1866 

 he extracted silk directly from the body of this spider unaware, at 

 the time, of the earlier European experiments. Wilder was amazed 

 by the ease with which it was possible to reel off the golden silk, 

 and intrigued by the possibility of producing quantities of it for 

 textiles. From one spider he reeled off silk for an hour and a quarter, 

 at the rate of six feet per minute, taking a total of one hundred and 

 fifty yards. Later he devised an ingenious little apparatus to hold 

 the spider during the reeling, and was able to obtain quickly the 

 full quota of available silk. In addition to holding the creature 

 firmly in stocks, the device had a round piece of cork on which the 

 spider could rest its legs, thus being prevented from interfering with 

 the flow of silk from its spinnerets. 



Dr. Wilder found that one female would yield at successive reel- 

 ings one grain of silk, and that four hundred and fifteen spiders 

 would be required to yield one square yard of commercial silk. 

 For an ordinary dress requiring twelve yards of material, therefore, 

 nearly five thousand spiders would be required. This was quite 

 bountiful production for spiders, yet it is still only half the amount 

 obtainable from an equal number of silkworms. 



Today we are no nearer than Saint-Hilaire and Wilder to a 

 realization of spider silk as a practical commercial textile. The 

 basic obstacles remain, inherent in the characteristic differences be- 

 tween the silk spider and the silkworm. 



USE OF SILK BY PRIMITIVE PEOPLES 



A material of such abundance and strength as spider silk could 

 scarcely have failed to be used by primitive peoples for some of 

 their needs. Indeed, it is surprising that we do not have more 

 records of its use in the Americas, where the same types of spiders 

 abound that have supplied the Papuan and Oriental natives for gen- 

 erations. From the great Nephila spiders comes silk to supply cer- 

 tain New Guinea natives with gill nets, kite nets, dip nets, and va- 

 rious lures for their fishing activities, silk with which to weave bags, 

 caps, and headdresses, and silk for other purposes. Strength resides 

 not in a single strand of silk but rather in the twisted and matted 

 threads, which form a tough fabric. The large aerial webs of Ne- 

 phila are made with a very strong silk, and are capable on occasion 

 of ensnaring birds in their viscid and elastic lines. 



