A DRESS OF SPIDERS' WEBS.

Manawatu Times, Volume II, Issue 50, 11 April 1877, Page 2

A DRESS OF SPIDERS' WEBS.

The Empress of Brazil has presented the Queen of England with a dress, the equal of which has never been seen. It is woven of spiders' webs, and is, as may be imagined,, "a work of art as regards quality: and beauty. The handsomest silk dress cannot compare with it ; but it can only be admired, hardly imitated. . There . have -already . been many attempts to make use of thethreads spun .by spiders,; but up to the present the experiments have not been satisfactory enough to encourage any further efforts m this direction. In the year. 1710 it was. discovered that to make a piece of silkit would%require;the websof 700,000 spiders. The Spaniards had already tried to use the spiders 5 threads, and make glove's; stockings,, and' other articles of the sort"; but' even these were so troublesome, . and yielded so little profit, that m spite of the f aubuloiis prices paid, they were obliged to abandon the trade. In certain parts of South America 1 , garments made of. these threads are worn, but the spiders m these lands are : unusually large. v ltig likely that' the above-nientidhed dress was made of the. threads of the smaller" species of American spider. There is therefore some hope : that the time is not " far distant when, thanks to the progress of modern industry, fashionable ladies may -have the satisfaction of . wearing elegant silks of delicate texture. _ o_j