Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-06-10
'ALOOK INTO THEWORLD
OF SPIDERS
BY GARRETT P. sERvIss

'T see you explain things that
ton 1 wish you would give me.
little light upon. 1t is this: How
can a spider spin q web from one
side OF a house to. the other and
have nothing to walk on? This hap
pened here in my office. Yours for
knowledge about the spider tribe"
H. l.. c., Mt. Selman, Texas
The spider is a greater geometer
than the bee. 1t even rises to the
level of trigonometry. Millions of
years before human intelligence Ia
boriously evolved the principles of
angular measurement these little
eight-legged engineers spun their
webs with mathematical precision
spaced the radii of circles without
"protractors;" described true cir
cumference without "dividers," BIZ
sected, tri-sected and multi-sected
angles with complete indifference to
Euclidian 'axioms" and in defiance
of hair-splitting logic, and squared
the circle" for all practical pur-
poses, as well as IL they had been
acquainted with "Pi."
The superiority of the spiders
mathematics consists in being in
born. If the spider had an intellec-
tual comprehension of geometry 1t
would get tangled up in it's own
web; but 1t goes about it as Zera
Colburn went about his amazing cal
culations-not by reasoning, but by
simple seeing" relations, as the eye
sees objects.
Some naturalists think they be-
little the geometry and trignometry
of the bee and the spider by show
ing that they are not the result OF
thought, but only of instinct. The
hexagonal cells and polygonal webs
are formed not by calculation, but
by an irresistible impulse, as natural
as eating or breathing. Well, so
much the better. Where is the
school boy who would not like to
have been born with an arithmetical
instinct? What a word of trouble 1t
would have saved him!
Now, as to a spider crossing emp
ty space without bridges, the fact
that it can be done is another eX-
ample of instructive engineering, in
the practice of which, it must be
acknowledged, the spider is often
safer than our school-taught engi-
neers are. Its structures never fall
under their own weight. 1t is an
unerring judge of the margin of
safety" without any formulas. 1t
has a deeper and surer knowledge
of air currents. ''air holes" barome-
trio changes, etc, than is possible to
the most experienced ACE"
| The delicacy of it's perception OF
tmospheric buoyancy, and of re'a-
tive specific gravities, goes beyond
the range of the chemists balance.
If it wants to span an open space
| it may take advantage of movements
of the air SO imperceptible to human
senses that the most elaborate ap-
paratus of observation might fail 10
reveal them. The spider throws out
thread from it's spinneret so fine
and almost weightless that it floats
more easily, than the finest down.
Tt is so thin that it makes no
impression on your sense of sight,
unless the infinitestimal waves" of
passing ray OF light chance to
break upon it, and then the thread
CLEANS for an instant like a math-
ematical line drawn with a micro
scopic point of fire. After all. the
spider is only doing, more easily,
what the builder of the first Niagara
suspension bridge did when he sent
a preliminary kite-borne line across
the gorge by the favor of q we'll
disposed wind. and used that line to
draw other heavier ones across.
The spiders line is very strong,
Tt is a line Of silk. A thread of It
too minute in croes-section to he
easily discerned. will bear the slight
weight of the spider, who can thus
cross wide space upon it when
once its farther end has been horne
over. and has securely fastened it,
self by means Of it's adhesive prop
ertv which fits il ~ cling to every
thing except the spider.
There is much evidence that the
spider employs what seems like rea-
sonine in selecting the places for
its webs. and in discovering the di-
rectiqn of the prevailing air currents