288 



SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR 



FIG. 47. A young spider (four times the 

 natural length) raising its body upwards, 

 whilst the four silk threads (gossamer) 

 spun by it float in the air, and so draw out 

 further liquid silk from the spider. They 

 increase in length to three or four yards, 

 when they float upwards, carrying the 

 spider with them. (After McCook.) 



were covered last 

 autumn with gossamer, 

 my friends were asking 

 what was its origin, 

 some boldly asserting 

 that it was impossible 

 that such a vast acreage 

 of threads could be pro- 

 duced, as others main- 

 tained, by tiny unseen 

 spiders! Yet that is 

 the true history of 

 gossamer. Hundreds 

 of thousands of minute 

 spiders, young, and of 

 a small kind, are 

 present in grass fields 

 in autumn, and throw 

 out these marvellously 

 fine threads from their 

 little bodies (Fig. 47). 

 Those who at first 

 sight doubt this origin 

 of gossamer are only 

 in accordance with 

 their forefathers. The 

 French peasants call it 

 fil de la Vierge; old 

 English writers held it 

 to be " dew evapor- 

 ated." A great dis- 

 coverer and leader of 

 science in his time, 

 Robert Hook, who 

 was elected with Nehe- 



