Spider’s Web for Micrometers. 
[March, 
246 
into the larder. The garden spider binds around his captive 
a cord of web. It is this cord that is used for collimation. 
In the autumn the mathematical instrument maker goes 
on his spider-hunting expeditions, generally on Sundays. 
He carries some pill-boxes in his pocket ; seledts well-fed, 
full-grown specimens, and puts each in a separate box, 
knowing the savage habits of his six-legged friends ; for if 
two or more were put together in the same box, only a col- 
lection of amputated limbs and mangled bodies would be 
found on returning home, 
The webs are secured for use and storage by making a 
fork of iron wire, 4 or 5 inches long, and ij to 2 inches be- 
tween the bifurcations. The spider is held in the left hand 
and allowed to drop, which he readily does when dissatisfied 
with his quarters, but before falling he glues an end of cord 
to the finger, and then lets himself down easily by gradually 
spinning it out and hanging by it as it lengthens. 
The instrument maker catches this cord across his fork, 
and, by turning, attaches it to one side ; then he goes on 
turning the fork and advancing it, so that as the spider con- 
tinues paying out his cable a series of obliquely crossing 
threads are wound upon the fork, which, when charged, is 
carefully laid in a box or drawer for use. The elasticity of 
the iron wire keeps the webs sufficiently stretched, and they 
are applied to the stop by simply laying the fork over it in 
such wise that one of the stretched webs shall fall upon the 
mark made on its face. When thus in position, a drop of 
varnish or glue, made by dissolving shellac in alcohol, is let 
fall upon each side ; the spirit rapidly evaporates, and the 
web is fixed. 
One of the odd results of this use of spiders is that many 
workmen become spider fanciers, and keep choice domesti- 
cated specimens that learn to spin their webs in convenient 
places above the work-benches, or in the bedrooms of their 
masters, who lovingly supply them with the fattest of blue- 
bottles. Though I forsook the trade on the expiration of 
my apprenticeship, I have not yet lost my affedtion for these 
animals — I never wilfully kill a spider. A sad story is told 
of the desolation of the late Mr. Troughton, who on one 
occasion engaged a new housemaid, and allowed her to 
commence professional operations without receiving the 
usual injunctions concerning his pets. — W. Mattieu Wil- 
liams, in Journal of the Society of Arts. 
