The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-12-24
THE SPIDERS WEB.
Experiment and Observation Show It's
Wonderful Strength.

Experiment and Observation Show It's
Wonderful Strength.
The strength of the spider, and of the
materials which he employs, is some
thing almost incomprehensible, when
the size of the insect and the thickness
of his thread are taken into account
Some recent experiments and observa-
tons reported to the Philadelphia acad-
envy of natural sciences on this subject
are quite surprising. A single thread
of a web. made by spider which
weighed fifty-four milligrams. support
ed, endwise, weight of four grams,
or seventy-four times the weight of
the spider. When, therefore, a spider
spins web to let himself down from
the ceiling or from the branch of tree,
and we see him descending without
seeing his thread at all, we may be per-
fectly sure that he is not only in no
danger of falling, but that he could
carry seventy-three other spiders down
with him on his invisible rope.
Knowing this fact with regard to
single thread, we need not be surprised
that the threads of web, interviewer
and reinforced one by another, have a
very considerable strength, and are a bile
to hold bees and wasps, themselves
very powerful in proportion to their
size, and to bend without breaking
under weight of a dew or rain.
Not insects alone, it appears, may be
held in spiders web. An authentic
report presented to the society named
above by Mr.. Hopper, of Louisville,
Ky, relates how a spider in that
city captured and held mouse in his
web.
The mouse, to be sure, was a very
little one; it was afterward found to
measure a little less than an inch and
a half from the tip of it's nose to the
root of its tail; but it was apparently
vigorous and lively mouse for it's size.
Coming into workroom at about
ten o'clock one morning, Mr.. Hopper
discovered the little mouse entangled
in spiders web which had been spun
from the edge of a bench to the floor
The animal had evidently got partly
through the web and then been held,
for his forefeet were on the floor; but
he could not pull his hinder parts
through the web.
The observer, in the interest of
science, set about watching the subse-
1uent proceedings. The spider who
resided in the web was already en-
gagged in running up and down excit-
eddy, and now and then viciously bit or
stung the tail of the mouse. The ami
NAL struggled, but failed to free him
self.
After time the spider began TO op-
crate its web in such way as to lift
the mouse clear of the floor and sus-
pend him in the web. At two o'clock in
the afternoon the mouse's feet no long
er touched the floor In the early eve-
ming he was nearly an inch in the air.
At nine o'clock in the evening the
mouse showed signs of death He was
indeed still alive, but made no move
ment except when the spider stung
him. Next morning he was quite
dead, and hung nearly three inches
above the floor.
The spiders effort in lifting and
singing the mouse was evidently not
to kill the mouse, but to free him from
the net-that is, to bring his weight TO
bear upon it and to stimulate him to
struggle. The spider did not want the
mouse; he wanted him out of his web.
Another observer, Mr.. Spring, report
ed to the same Philadelphia academy
of natural sciences that he had wit
messed the capture of a small fish by
large black spider in the water of
ditch. The fish struggled vainly to get
away from the spider, but plainly could
not have done so if Mr.. Spring, more
merciful than the other observer, had
not interfered and separated the sntag-
onistS-Iouth's Companion.