The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-01-18

at once, and the silk woven from the threads has been put on the market. It | is more beautiful than the ordinary silk, possessing a strange, glowing, old glod lustre in It's natural state. Under the miscroscope the separate threads look more like fine gold wires than flores, The price of the spider silk still is too high for it's use by any ex- 1 cept the rich but there appears to be little reason to doubt that with good commercial management it can be made cheaply as, if not more so, as the silk that is obtained from the mulberry worms.
 The experience of the manufacturers so far has shown that the silk can be obtained profitably from many different kinds of spiders. In the present stage of the industry however, 1t is found most practicable tho confine the work to large spider indigenous to the is- land of Madagascar, because this arachnid not only is remarkably plenti- ful and easily fed, but wonderfully pro- ductive. A record has been established fin it's case of 5000 yards of thread hav- ing been obtained from one specimen in enc spinning.
 The spider utilized for the purpose is large one known under the scientific name of Nephila Madagascariensis For many years the natives of Madagascar l have know of the fine silky quality of Its product, but their work has been confined to using the cocoons in which the females wrapped their eggs These cocoons are of beautiful pale yellow, and they were gathered in great quan- titles and the silk was spun from them crudely in manner similar to the way | in which silk Is spun from the coooons of the silkworm. But this method was slow and laborious besides being un- satisfactory, for the fine flores were | more or less bruised while being un- raveled and thus lost much of their 1 gloss. Besides that the thread so spun was uneven and often the tangle was so great that no continuous fibre could be obtained.
 There was a Catholic missionary in Madagascar who saw the great possi- bilities in the industry and realized that improved methods would mean a great deal to the natives. So he devoted his time to study of the spider. One day he was watching one of the big fellows spin his web and the solution of the problem came to him In a flash. Why thought he, wait until the spiders spin their cocoons? Why not take the thread directly from them?'
 From that the rest followed naturally. He discovered by experiment that 1t was perfectly feasible to draw the threads out of the glands. Then he studied and planned until at last he perfected an apparatus as simple as it was ingenious.
 He has named it the "guillotine. This gui1lotine, however, is not intended to cut the head off the spider. It is sim ply sort of straight waistcoat, which holds the savage creature firmly, so that it can neither bite nor wriggle un- til the glands have been denuded of their precious contents. Then the vic- tim is released without damage, to be cared for until the operatio can be re- peated.
 The guillotine consists of af rame di- vided into any desired number of little square compartments, each just large enough to hold one spider and permit } free manipulation. At the bottom ot each compartment are two small hlnS- ed doors that swing toward each other, : and each of the little doors has tiny semi circular place cut into it, exactly like the recess that is cut into the headpieoe of the gulllotine to receive the neck of the victim. Thus, when the little doors are shut there remains a , small hole that will just hold the thoraS of the spider firmly without injuring it. : The spider is fastened in the guillo- tine in such a manner that the head , with the wicked jaws and the legs are outside. while the harmless abdomen with the spinning glands is inside where the operator can get at it with complete ease. The doors can be shut more or less tightly, according to the size of the creatures When the frame is full it is stood on end, and the opera , i tors touch a glad with the moietened end of a forefnger. A wonderfully fine > thread adheres, and as the finger is ! withdrawn very slowly and carefully