Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1943-02-21

- in for She's yours
y Bombardier: Bombs away! Take her"
Pilot: Turning for observation"
Tail gunner: Target demolished Wow"
But the little creature that made much of that mission
successful gets little credit, 1t spider.
owly spider has done much to make the duties of
Air Force bombardiers navgators machine gunners
gnners and aircraft spoilers and Army snpers eff
fective.
being trained to give up her web for the
OF cross-hairs in bombsghts, telescope sights
finders navigation instruments and many other pre-
csion instruments that are vital to the effort,
At one time platinum wire was used but it was found
be too thick and too fragile for accurate observation
Human hair especially the fine blond kind was found to
too silk too brittle and etched lines
have been and still being used for instruments
spider silk the strongest and the most durable
its yet known TO science 1t is finer than
ANYTHING else some OF measuring 500 600 thcnesses
inch ii is smoother and has sharper edge 1t
elasticity indefinitely that the finest crosshairs
keep straight and tau matter what conditions affect
All the world knows that the spider secrets milky
liquid spnnerets of its body This liquid is the stuff
and it becomes solid contact with the
air But how persuade the spider to produce to order
1t is a good trick and here is how it's done.
ordnance factory in England the powers that be
employ species of arachnd which noted for the
uniformity and the strength of its silk This creature is
placed fork-shaped instrument and then Is gently
shaken off Naturally the spider commences to spin in
order keep itself from falling Then az the bug bangles
slowly revoved until 100 feet of silk Is wound
it. This done the spider Is given couple OF days Off
uniform width of thread the spider Is
starved for two days before "silking"
Mrs. Nan songer of Yucapa, California, keeps spider
consisting of hundreds of the little resd
ing glass bottles When she needs silk she fastens
with hairpn) a section of yucca plant Then she
gently the spinnerets with shellacked needle
carefully drawing out the silk discharged. She
winds the stuff carefully spool Keeling it in fast
the spider spins it out These spools carefully
packed such optical organizations the spen
Lens Co. Bausch Lomb, and other sight manufac-
turers.
coarse durable silk required the intrepid Mrs
Songer chooses healthy Black Widow spider which has
been starved for two days This creature Is carefully
pinned up and its hind legs held down with glass
plate prevent them from cutting the silk Then the Cali
forna relieves Of the usual 100 feet of delicate
thread
an especially fine silk is needed Mrs. songer takes
weeod spider and gently extracts about 80 feet of silk
which measures as little as twelve mionths of an inch
in diameter
Sometimes says Mrs songer spiders become irritated
when being ked and secree dozens of fine sprays of web
which break the main thread and are too fine To be OF
Then the spider returned To its box and left
pose itself Spider silk the material that loses
uniformity droughts dampness rough usage The
bright green Lynx spider to be the favorite silk
spider she has large quantity of web and doesn't make
too much fuss over giving IT up
The spider has many spinnerets from which the silk is
discharged but she does not all of them at The
trick 10 make two three. strand would
have not enough elasticity So the adults spin three-py
web and as mat comes out strong elastic but umpy 1t
useless for the microscopcally
So just the silk appears S separated
strand from strand by dssectng needles job requiring
steady and fingers and only the uniform silk wound
the spool
When done spoiled silk is delivered to
the optical manufacturer highly skilled operator ruudy
10 mount the erosshars on their detectives The length
required shipped off the spool mounted on fork
shaped rod IL Is then dipped ~ water blown upon until
the silk stretches And while stretched fastened with
minute dsbs Of shelack 10 the ring Of telescope
IN the finished job the silk looks like II re-
way too. must becauAe on the uniformity
thickness line that fragile Whsp Of spider web
depends the accuracy the bombsgh that registers hit
with a bockbuster type Of bomb from height over
eight miles
But al spiders canubalstic they must be kept
H separate Jars until they called upon their