Feliciana sentinel. [volume] (St. Francisville, La.) 1877-1892, 1891-10-17
FIeEas MADE or QuARTz

Coupared with Their ThinnaeA TAAs0 -
6ilk and OtIasr subsfaDcos Are NaWhsra. :
people commonly speak Of hair -.
representing the utmost conceiysble'
per wire can be spun much 6noess -
that its diameter will DO little more.
than a onc.thousandth of . inch.
with spun glass you can even sx-:
eel the copper wire in point Of thinness,
making it less than one-thousandth OF
an inch thick. However, silk 1ber -
finer by far than spun glass can be
made Each fiber of . silk cocoon l.
only one two-thousandth 81 m inch
thick. =
''But suppose that You want some.
thing finer than hair, or drawn copper.
or spun glass, OF silk nber, you can get
it by melting quartz under an
oxy-hydrogen blowpipe and pulling II
ont. So fine is the result obtained that
lengths Of quartz fiber.can be thus pro.
cured many yards long and not moro
than one -fh0uaandth Of an inch in
thickness Yet these are coaxee beside
others which you can get fron the
same material, which may be drpwn
out to a diameter that has been este
mated at one-millionth Of IN inch.
Such pipes can be made in this way,
but they are invisible under the micro
scope Of the highest power. You can
get notion Of their fiDeness when the
fact is stated that an inch cube OF
quartz drawn out to this degree would
go around the world 65s times To put
1t otherwise, a grain OF sand barely
large enough to be visible to the
naked eye would make 1.0o0 miles of
thread. The finest Of such fbers is
stronger in proportion to its thickness
than the best quality of bar steel
''Such minute figures, howeveE, cam
not be dealt with with comprehe1 1sion.
Suppose. therefore, that you draw your
quartz fbers to the thickness of one IF
teenth-thousandth part of an inch.
That is comparatively coarse, but Il
you were to take one hundred of them
and twist them into a bundle youwould
produce a cable of the diameter of q
single silk worms thread do not
mean the silk for sewing that is wound
upon q reel, for that is composed of an
enormous number of such threads, but
Of the fiber as. it Is wound from tho
cocoon.
cit is an interesting experiment to
make imitation spider webs from these
quartz fbers. The thing is easy enough
to do, and it is readily possible to coax
a spider from the real web to the false
one by the buzzing of fly. 1t is not
readily practicable to make q fly buzz
just so as to produce the result aimed
at, but the object in view is accom-
plished in moment by making an Or
linary tuning fork buzz against The
web. Immediately the spider jumps
for the imaginary fly, and your purpos-
is accomplished. Unfortunately Mis-
tress Arachnid is not able to climb
about without great difficulty upon the
artificial web, because it is SO slippery.
The web will not catch fies either, for
the reason that it is not sticky, as is
that made by a spider, but you can
make it sticky by stroking the quartz
fibers with a straw wet with castor oil,
and then the web will capture flies like
a real one.
eff you will examine such fbers un-
der microscope you will observe that
they exhibit the most beautiful color
ing. You can make bubbles out of the
quartz too, which have all the perfec-
ton Of form and rainbow tinting that
is possessed by the soap bubbles blown
with pipe-"-Washington Star. &.