The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1905-03-19
SILK WEAVING
INDUSTRY
MADAGASCAR METHODS MAY BE
TRANSFERRED TO THE
UNITED STATES.

The use of spiders for making silk
is the subject of an interesting inquiry
by scientists of the department of
agriculture in Washington. Some
new data has lately been furnished by
the department of commerce and la
Dor, received through its consular bu-
reau.
William H. Hunt, stationed at Tam
ataVe, Madagascar, has been looking
into the matter, and has concluded
that the hedge spiders which inhabit
and taught to spin fabrics for the
American people. To certain extent
they have already been employed for
silk making, and in one instance a
whole piece of fabric eighteen yards
long and eighteen inches wide was
spun from these spiders webs, $4,000
spiders being employed in the labor
This was exhibited in Paris.
The Madagascar spiders build webs
across shady walks in the gardens on
that island which are many feet i'll
length and strong enough to support
a bamboo cane when placed upon
them. In making the web above men,
toned, it is related that the spiders
were confined in empty match boxes
with the abdomen protruding, and
afterward a frame was erected, con-
tanning twenty-four small guillotines,
in which the spiders were suspended
in such fashion that the head, thorax
and legs are on the opposite side of
the spinning operations. Then the
thread is drawn from the abdomen
and wound OF reels. 1t does not dis
turb the spider to have the thread
extracted, but If the legs are free she
will use them to break the thread.
The spiders were obtained by offer
ing the natives so much per hundred,
but some delay was caused at first by
the fact that the natives brought
them in dead, or nearly so by the
basketful.
Girls were first employed in this
the early experiments being conduct
ed under the auspices of the Catholic |
missionaries. Each girl sits down in
the morning with basketful of spid-
ers at one side and an empty basket |
on the other side. She takes out the |
spiders and confines them, twelve att
a time in the guillotine, and extracts
the threads, gathering them into one
thread, and winding it from foot
power reel When empty the spiders
are taken out and put into the empty
basket, and the process is continued
until all the spiders are empty, when !.
they are taken back to the park and
turned loose.
Each spider may be reeled- five "
six times in the course of a month, !
and directly after the egg-layingi !
period, after which she dies, having i
yielded 1000 yards of thread. Nine or
ten days are required for the spider
to form a new web after being reeled.
The silk made from this spider is of i
a wonderfully golden hue, and is esti-
mated to be worth $40 a pound.
This Madagascar spider will bite.
but its bite is not dangerous, and girls
soon get accustomed to them. The
animal is carniverous and freQuents
he forest. but will also live in parks
ind old gardens. They eat insects
when the latter are plentiful, and at
otheF times eat one another. The la
-er fact is one of the difficulties in
he way of DEMONSTRATING them.
On, one occasion an experiment was
ried, and two hundred were placed
n wire-cloth cage, which they at
,nce proceeded to cover on the inside
With their webs until no insect could
ret in, With the food supply thus ex-
.luded, they began their cannibalis-l
ic practices. and when the case was I
opened only few remained, and they