Black Widow Spun a Victory Web
One of the deadliest of spiders, the Black Widow, has been drafted for an important war job in America. U.S. Army engineers at Camp Claiborne, in the Southern Mexican Gulf State of Louisiana, have found that the thread by the 131ack Widow has greater tensile strength than most metals of comparable dimensions. It is almost perfect for use as cross-hairs in engineers’ surveying instruments. Changes in weather have little effect on the spiderueb cross-hairs, and it is comparatively easy to collect the spinnings. lhc spider is lifted with tweezers from its glass-jar house, and held captivo on a small platform by a length of thread and weights. An attendant touches the “spinnerets” with a small brush, and the spider begins to produce. A s the thread is spun, ’the attendant cranks a small metal revolving irame behind the spider, winding the fibre and spacing it evenly for storage. One spider eau spin about 20 yards of threap in three days. After that it needs a rest. The spiders “spin themselves out” in two or three months.
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Bibliographic details
Manawatu Times, Volume 69, Issue 124, 29 May 1944, Page 8
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182Black Widow Spun a Victory Web Manawatu Times, Volume 69, Issue 124, 29 May 1944, Page 8
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