26 



NATUEAL SCIENCE NEWS. 



Honey costs more than molasses, 

 but every body of taste thinks it 

 worth the difference; a steel knife 

 is all very well, but a silver one is 

 worth the difference in cost to all 

 who can afford to pay it; a cotton 

 or woolen dress is not to be despis- 

 ed by any one, but every woman 

 prefers a silken gown, and counts 

 the increased price as small com- 

 pared to the greater satisfaction it 

 affords; and now, so far at least, 

 as we can judge, as honey is to 

 molasses, as silver to steel, as silk 

 to cotton, so is the product of our 

 spider to that of the worm; and the 

 superior beauty, and elegance, and 

 delicacy of the fabric will, no doubt, 

 more than compensate for the dif- 

 ference in its cost. 



MACHINERY. 



First catch your spider, is a nec- 

 essary preliminary, and although 

 this matter properly belongs to the 

 last division of our subject, it may 

 be well to quiet the apprehensions 

 of any one who suddenly recollects 

 the big body, and long legs, and 

 sharp jaws of the Nepliila plumipcs 

 and fears that it is an untamable 

 creature which will resist an attempt 

 to abstract its silken stores. I will 

 leave the complete removal of this 

 apparent obstacle until we come to 

 consider the spider itself in all its re- 

 lations, and merely say now that it 

 seldom tries to escape or to bite; 

 that you have only to get its body 

 between thumb and finger so that 

 two legs are turned backward, to be 

 perfectly safe from injury by its 

 jaws. 



After many trials, the contriv- 

 ance which I have adopted consists 

 of two large corks, a bent hair-pin, 

 two large common pins, a bit of 

 card and a bit of lead. One cork 

 serves as a base. Its bottom is 

 loaded with the lead, and one half 

 its top is beveled off at an angle of 

 forty-five degrees; upon the oblique 

 surface so formed is fixed the piece 

 of card, its upper edge projecting 

 an eighth of an inch; into the re- 

 maining half of the upper end is 

 cut a broad and shallow grove, and 

 upon each side of this groove, at 

 the middle of its length, the two 

 pins are stuck into the cork, so as 

 to be about an inch apart; and now 

 when the insect is held with the 

 legs behind the back and laid up- 

 side down into the groove, the pro- 

 jecting shoulders of the abdomem 

 bring up against the edge of the 

 card, and the legs are kept in front 

 of the two pins. The upper cork 

 is rounded and smoothed at its 

 smaller end, and a hair-pin is push- 

 ed obliquely through the lower cor- 



ner of the larger end so as to form 

 an angle of forty-five degrees with 

 the lower side; one or two tacks 

 will retain the pin in its place; at 

 the distance of a quarter or third 

 of an inch from the cork, the pin 

 is bent outward on both sides so 

 as to double its width, and then 

 straightened. Now push the ends 

 of the pin down between the card 

 and the first cork, with the round- 

 ed end of the second cork project- 

 ing over the card. This may be 

 done with the left forefinger, while 

 the first cork is held between the 

 second finger and thumb; the spi- 

 der's abdomen is now put through 

 the opening formed by the pin on 

 each side, the. cork above and the 

 cork below; its abdomen rests in 

 the groove, the shoulders come 

 against the card, the upper cork is 

 pressed down so that the narrow 

 part of the pin embraces the round- 

 ed upper cork, the lower one is fix- 

 ed upon a screw, turned around so 

 that the abdomen of the spider 

 points to the right; and we are 

 ready to begin the reeling process. 



The reel is either a cylinder or 

 ring of some smooth substance as 

 hard rubber, or consists of a set of 

 radii set into an axle, and having 

 their ends bent at a right angle and 

 enameled so as to present an even 

 surface to the delicate silk. The 

 reel I used had radii about three 

 inches, in length; this made the 

 whole diameter six inches, and of 

 course at every revolution eighteen 

 inches of silk were reeled upon it; 

 the motion could be quite rapid, 

 and if steady, one or even two feet 

 of silk could be drawn each second, 

 so that a very few minutes would 

 suffice to exhaust the day's supply 

 of a spider. 



The thread of a single spider 

 cannot be drawn from a reel In 

 order to obtain a compound thread 

 of such size as to permit us to un- 

 wind it from the reel, we have only 

 to arrange a large number of spi- 

 ders, and carry their combined 

 threads upon the reel; by well- 

 known mechanical contrivances the 

 reel itself (which must not be a 

 slender spindle) may be made to re- 

 volve in two directions, so as to twist 

 the thread properly, and then there 

 seems to be nothing to hinder car- 

 rying the silk directly from the spi- 

 der's body to the sewing machine 

 or the loom, for there is no gum to 

 be removed, and its natural colors 

 are beyond the capability of art. 



The spider can retard the flow 

 of silk from its spinners by strong- 

 ly pressing them against each oth- 

 er, but if the reeling is regular it 

 cannot wholly prevent it. 



Under the head of disadvantages 

 we must include two very unpleas- 

 ant facts: ist, that the young de- 

 vour each other to such an extent 

 that, as a rule, only a very few out 

 of the several hundred hatched in 

 every cocoon ever reach the age 

 when they separate and build iso- 

 lated webs; and 2d, that the fe- 

 male spider is apt to devour her 

 partner sometimes before, but more 

 often after the impregnation of the 

 eggs. 



The latter fact is not of so much 

 consequence; for the females are 

 the spinners, and are always in the 

 majority, not only in the number 

 but also in the size of the individ- 

 uals (the females being about 125 

 times as large as the male), and 

 the males can be easily protected. 



But the terrible destruction 

 which, in a state of nature, seems 

 necessary in order that a portion 

 shall grow at all, is a very serious 

 obstacle in the way of any increase 

 of the species. This killing of 

 each other, however, is not, ap- 

 parently, from malice but from 

 hunger, and both experiment and 

 inference indicate that it may be 

 almost entirely prevented by sup- 

 plying the young and growing spi- 

 ders with suitable food. Each co- 

 coon spun by the parent spider 

 contains from hundred to a thous- 

 and eggs, all of which hatch, gen- 

 erally in the course of a month. 

 For several days and even weeks 

 they remain huddled together in 

 the cocoon, and whatever growth 

 they have during. 'that time, aside 

 from absorption of moisture from 

 the air, must be at the expense of 

 the community; nor can it be well 

 prevented. But after this time 

 has passed, and they begin to come 

 forth, either singly or in parties, 

 and spin their little lines over the 

 leaf to which the cocoon is attach- 

 ed, they may be in a great measure 

 prevented from further cannibalism 

 by putting in their reach drops of 

 blood or crushed flies, or very mi- 

 nute flies, or bugs of almost any 

 kind. 



If large numbers of them are to 

 be reared, a special apartment 

 should be arranged for them; each 

 cocoon should be attached to the 

 top of a wire frame of, say a foot 

 in height and nearly the same diam- 

 eter, which must stand in a shal- 

 low dish of water, lest the spiders 

 travel about the room and collect 

 in great numbers at the top, where 

 they could not be cared for. They 

 will spin at first an irregular com- 

 mon web, and eat together from 

 whatever food falls upon it. As 

 they grow larger they may be sep- 



