Johnstown weekly Democrat. (Johnstown, Cambria County, Pa.) 1889-1916, 1890-06-27
SILK FROM THE SPIDER.
DIFFICULTIES IN THE WAY OF PRO-
DUClNG QUANTITIES.

stilIbers Compared with the Researches
of Noted Frenchmen = Success with
American and African Insects.
NJ. Emile Gautier, French writer,
discussed in an article the history of
spiders from the consoler of the prisoner
Pellison down to the nutritive spider in
whom the geometrician Laplace found
the flavor of nut.
There are also, it appears, spinning
spiders, whose web can be used to weave
serviceable stuffs, and according to old
documents dealing with the subject, M.
Bon, president of the court of accounts
of Montpelier sent, as early as 1909,
mittens and stockings made Of spiders
web to the Academy of Sciences
He set to work in the following man.
ner: Having collected large number of
spiders cocoons he beat them so as to
expel all dust. Then he washed them
carefully in warm water and allowed
them to boil for three hours in apot con-
tanning water, soap, saltpeter and a little
gum arabic. The cocoons, after being
washed and carefully dried. were at last
carded with extremely fine combs
This was, of course, very primitive
proceeding. NJ. Bon obtained gray
thread with which he was able to make
the articles before mentioned. The
pamphlet which he published regarding
his experiment obtained considerable
success, and was translated into several
languages.
| FRENCH EXPERIMENTS.
Fifty years later, in 1862, the Able
Raymond de Termeyer made expert
ments in America, in Spain, and in
Italy. He worked on the living spiders,
whose web he wound on a bobbin as fast
as it came out. This abbe was remark
ably patient and tenacious, for he car
ried on this operation uninterruptedly
for thirty-four years from 1862 to 1866,
but apparently all his labor was in vain,
for he only succeeded in obtaining 673
grammes of cobweb as a result of his
| thirty-four years work.
The question, however, seemed suf-
ficiently interesting to the Academy of
Sciences of Paris to induce them to
charge the celebrated Reaumur with
the drawing up of report on the inven-
ton Of NJ. Bon.
Reaumur arrived at conclusions very
unfavorable to the developments of cob
web industry. Stuff, he said, made of so
called spiders silk could not be employed
in the manufacture of any useful article,
on account of its fragileness.
The strength of the silk thread was
ninety times greater than that of the
other, and it required $1,000 threads of
spiders web to furnish solidity equal to
that of one silken thread. The learned
entomologist demonstrated further that
twice as many spiders as silllworms
were needed to produce the same guam
tity of thread, so that to provide one
pound of spiders silk $4,000 spiders
would have to spin To obtain such
number Of cocoons much larger num-
ber of spiders would have to be kept, for
only the females spin web round eggs.
Then, again, the product of the spider
had less luster than that of the silk
worm. Reaumur added, however, that
although there was no future for the
spiders of France, except to catch blue
bottles and flies, the exotic kinds might
repay the labor of study.
AN EEGIIsHMAN's SUCCESS.
The idea has recently been taken up
by an Englishman named Stillbers, who
has made cloth ofspider's web which has
been employed for the purposes of sur
gerry He only uses tropical spiders,
from which, thanks to scientific cult
ure, he has obtained much greater re-
turn than was foreseen by Reaumur.
The spiders which he uses are big ones
from America and Africa They are
placed in octagonal cases, where a sufi-
cheney of insects is served to them every
day. In the room where the cases are
kept a constant temperature of 60 deg.
Fahrenheit) is maintained, and liquid
composed Of chloroform, ether and fusel
oil is allowed slowly to evaporate. That
is to say, spiders spin best when they
are drunk.
Mr.. Stllbers keeps 5000 of these cases
in room forty meters long by twenty
wide and five high. The spiders lay
eggs of various colors, covered with
cocoons. These are gathered up and
prepared by the same mechanical and
chemical operations as the cocoon of the
bombyx.
One cocoon yields 100 to $50 meters of
thread The weaving process is kept
absolutely secret.
The stuff obtained is of a texture re-
sembling ordinary silk, but thick, stiff,
and of a dirty gray color. 1t is all the
more necessary to bleach it because the
color is by no means uniform. 1t is
bleached by treatment with oxygenized
water. Then it is tanned and softened
1t assumes a pretty yellow tint, and be-
comes brilliant and smooth.
To make a thread $3.50 hlometers in
length 25, 900 cocoons are requisite. This
/ is great advance on Reau.lur's calcu-
lations But still $4,000 cocoons only
supply thread of 800 French leagues in
length. The stuff obtained must be sold
at very high price in order to obtain
the merest compensation for all this
trouble and expense. Proprietors of
mulberry trees and silkworms need not
be afraid of the competition of the spider
yet awhile-New York Evening Sun.
|
Its Virtues as "a Soporifc.