The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-06-15
SELF SPINNING SPIDERS.

the Way From Madagascar.
 I know, from visits to the interior that the webs, spun many feet across the walks, or shady avenues of gar dens, are sufficiently strong to hang thereon light bambo walking cane. At the Paris Exposition of 1900 a whole piece of fabric, IS yeards long, and IS inches wide, was exhibited, which was woven out of this web for which it was necessary to provide lOO,OOO yards of spun thread of 24 strands. For its manufacture 25,OO0 spiders had to be brought into requi- sition, and these were procured by offering the natives so much a hun dred; but not knowing or ignoring the purposes for which the insects were required, and having a get-rich- quick desire, they brought them i'm by basketfuls, mostly dead. So it was found necessary for the winding off machines to go to the spiders, instead of calling in the spiders to the fla tories. However, tine piece of cloth was completed, and was of a shim- mering golden yellow color. l The idea of obtaining silk from spi- ders, is an old one, as distinguished men discoursed on the subject as long ago as 1710 in France, but. the first study of this Madagascar spider (halable, big spider) came up some years ago, and the spinning of it's web was then undertaken. It is only , the female that spins. @
 The first difficulty in securing the thread direct from the insect con- sisted in contrivtng how to secure the ] living spider so as to wind off by some mechanical process from the insect. This was originally performed by confining the spiders in empty match boxes with the abdomen protruding. which could be compared to so many reels from which the fiatory winds them off. The extraction. of the web does not apparently inconvenience the insects although care has to be taken not to injure them. From that stage was derived a frame of "A small guil- lotines, in each of which a spider is secured in such a manner that one 1 side protrudes the abdomen, while on the other the head, thorax, and legs are free. This precaution of keeping the legs out of the way is necessary, because the spiders, when their secre- tions are spun eff in this fashion, are liable to break off the web with their 1 legs. .s...{,. s.>~ It appears in the opinion of many, ! to be an established fact that the Madagascar spiders web is capable of being woven into cloth which might warrant it's cultivation for pur- poses of the textile industry. The idea of using cobwebs as a hemostatic was known to the Greeks and Ro- mans, and before the present antisep- tics were brought into use by medical science 1t was in universal use for ! stopping the flow of blood from wounds and cuts. From an industrial point of view, the silk of the spinning spider (Epeira) has been known for centuries, even by the savages of Paraguay, and in the 17th century one Alcide d'Orbigny in South America ordered pair of trousers of the ma terial. Consul Plumacher, in his re- port of December 26, 1899, refers to the existence of spinning spider in Venezuela, which is apparently the same insect. ~'
 The Madagascar spider in question is the Nephila madagascariensis, and combines all the characteristics of Archnida in general. It's bite is not dangerous, although the irritation caused by it's legs is annoying. The egg which produces this spider is laid by the female in a silky cocoon, 1 inch in diameter, of a yellow color at first; but turning white after an ex- posture of two or three hours to the. air, at the end of which time several hundred insects, the size of a pin head, burst the shell and come out x The spiders are carniverous and by preference frequent the forests. In some of the wooded gardens in the suburbs of the capital, especially the old royal parks. they may be seen in millions, and would give the impress sion of. being gregarious, but this is not so, it being the abundance of food which brings them together in seem- ing peace and amity; but as soon as the supply fails, they fight and devour each other.
 In the early attempts to rear them, 200 were placed in wire cloth case;
 they spun their webs over the walls of their prison until it was so completely covered that no mosquitoes or other insects could get in. Thus deprivaed of food on the principal of the survi- val of the fittest, the stronger went to devouring the weaker until only few were taken out alive, but these had lattained all enormous size.
 This spider is little disposed to mic grate from it's abode, and submits
 without resistance, to the manipula- tion of the f1atory.
 The first experiments in Madagas- ca" were due to Catholic mission ary, and his experiments proed that
 after the laying period, or formation
 of the web. it can be reeled off five or six times in the course of a month, after which the spider dies, having yielded about 4,000 yards. Native girls do the work. Each one has straw
 basket to receive them after they have lbeen wound off. One dozen are locked In at a time, the ends of their
 webs are drawn out, collected into lone tn read, which is passed over 8
 metal hook, and the reel is set in mo-
 ton by a pedal. So soon as an insect
 gives out no more web it is replaced
 without stopping the wheel, and later FL, ,,1y