The Atlantic Monthly | Page 3

hunting spiders, I entangled
him--I didn't then know it was her, so let it pass--in the web, and
carried it to my tent. The insect was very quiet, and did not attempt to
escape; but presently, after crawling slowly along my sleeve, she let
herself down to the floor, taking first the precaution, after the prudent
fashion of most spiders, to attach to the point she left a silken line,
which, as she descended, came from her body. Rather than seize the
insect itself, I caught the thread and pulled. The spider was not moved,
but the line readily drew out, and, being wound upon my hands,
seemed so strong that I attached the end to a little quill, and, having
placed the spider upon the side of the tent, lay down on my couch and
turned the quill between my fingers at such a rate that in one minute six
feet of silk were wound upon it. At the end of an hour and a half I
estimated, with due allowance for stop-pages, that I had four hundred
and fifty feet, or one hundred and fifty yards, of the most brilliant and
beautiful golden silk I had ever seen.
During all this operation the spider had remained perfectly quiet, but
finally put an end to my proceedings by grasping the line with the tip of
one of her hind legs so that it snapped. I was tired, however, and
contented myself with the quantity already obtained, which now
formed a raised band of gold upon the quill. This specimen is now in
my possession, but has been removed from the quill to ascertain its
weight, which is one third of a grain.
It is worthy of notice, perhaps, that in all this was involved no new fact,
but only a happy deduction from one known ages ago; namely, that a
spider, when dropping, leaves her line attached, and so allows it to be
drawn from her body. Nothing was more natural than to simply reverse
the position of the fixed point, and, instead of letting the spider go
away from the end of her line, to take the end of her line away from her.
So natural, indeed, did it seem, that my gratification at having been (as
was then supposed) the first to do it was, on reflection, mixed with
surprise that no one had ever thought of it before, and I am very glad to
find that at least four individuals have, within the last century, pulled
silk out of a spider, though of these only one, whose researches I hope

to make known, regarded the matter as anything more than a curious
experiment.
I had never before seen such a spider, nor even paid attention to any
geometrical species; though one large black and yellow variety is, or
used to be, common enough in our fields at the North. Neither had I
ever heard of such a method of obtaining silk. But though my first
specimen was not preserved, and a second was never seen on Folly
Island, yet I was so impressed with its size and brilliant colors, and
especially with the curious brushes of black hairs on its legs, that when,
during the following summer, another officer described to me a great
spider which was very common on Long Island, where he was
stationed, I knew it was the same, and told him what I had done the
year before, adding that I was sure something would come of it in time.
With leisure and many spiders at his command, this officer improved
upon my suggestion, by substituting for my quill turned in the fingers a
wooden cylinder worked by a crank, and by securing, at a proper
distance, (between pins, I think,) one or more spiders, whose threads
were guided between pins upon the cylinder. He thus produced more of
the silk, winding it upon rings of hard rubber so as to make very pretty
ornaments. With this simple machine I wound the silk in two grooves
cut on a ring of hard rubber and parallel except at one point, where they
crossed so as to form a kind of signet. Another officer now suggested
and put in operation still another improvement, in the shape of the
"gear-drill-stock" of our armorer's chest. This, being a machine for
drilling iron, was rough in its construction and uneven in its action, but,
having cog-wheels, a rapid and nearly steady motion could be given to
its shaft. To this shaft he attached a little cross of rubber, and covered it
with silk, which was of a silver-white color instead of golden-yellow,
as in other cases. The difference in color was then supposed to depend
upon individual peculiarities, but the true explanation will be given
farther on. With