Post by LDS Anarchist on Apr 15, 2004 0:34:49 GMT -5
Even without farmland and cotton crops or sheep for wool or other means to produce the raw material for the clothing necessary to supply the needs of the people, there is an alternative which would be cheaper and better to produce: spider silk.
We are all familiar with silkworm silk. It is smooth and soft and luxurious. It can be made into pure silk fabric or combined with other material to make satin, etc. What people don't realize, though, is that silkworm silk is obtained by killing the silkworms. Unlike cotton, which is picked from the cotton plant without harm to the plant, or wool which is sheared from the sheep without harm to the sheep, silkworm silk is produced once by the silkworm as it builds its cocoon and then the worm is killed, removed from the cocoon and the silk is carefully unwound. Millions upon millions of silkworms die to produce silk.
A better way to obtain silk is through spiders. Spiders produce silk which is as smooth and silky and luxurious as silkworm silk, but they do so without harm to themselves and they can produce it continuously. Spider silk is six times stronger than steel, pound for pound, and extremely flexible. Used as a building material, it would have no equal. Used as clothing, it would be waterproof, light, strong, elastic, stretchable and long-lasting. It would also be bio-degradable.
Spiders produce many different types of silk, but the dragline silk has the following specs:
Also, each spider produces an array of silks, whose properties vary from silk to silk and from spider to spider. If spider silk harvesting is, as expected by this writer, possible, then a variety of different spiders could be used to produce threads and fabrics of varying characteristics. The combination of these silks would likewise produce fabrics of different characteristics.
The main problem with producing spider silk is that spiders are territorial animals and will attack and eat their neighbors. According to one expert, "It's like raising tigers." No spider silk farming venture has ever been successful. Nevertheless, when a spider is calm, you can touch its spinerets to a wheel and roll the wheel and the spider will continuously spin webbing onto that wheel. A calm spider can spin continuously for eight hours straight, which equates to a lot of material. Multiply that by a hundred or more spiders, and you can quickly amass a good deal of spider silk, which can then be make into thread and fabric for clothing or used for other purposes.
How to calm a spider
According to the experts, it is impossible to calm a spider. However, I am not convinced. There are two technologies which have not been used in spider silk farming.
Technology #1: Magnet Field Therapy and Magneto-hydrodynamics
Insects, it is reported, receive up to 95% of their energy needs from magnetism. The north pole of a magnet has a calming effect on all living organisms: humans, animals, plants, bacteria. Although spiders are not classified as insects (they are arachnids), there is the possibility that the north pole of a magnet will affect their biological system in the same way as other life forms: calming them.
Calm spiders may lose their aggresiveness and their disposition to attack and eat their neighborhood spiders. If this is so, then spider farming is entirely possible. No one, as yet, has done the research to determine whether spiders are affected in this way by magnetic fields. I, personally, have done a preliminary experiment which seemed to indicate that they are attracted to the north pole of a strong magnet, but as yet I don't know if the magnetic field will calm them.
If, indeed, the magnetic field calms them, takes away their natural aggression, and supplies them with the bulk of their energy needs, it may be possible to feed them through their water, by mixing raw insect juices with north pole magnetized water. This would take away their necessity to build webs. They could remain calm and spin for long hours at a time, producing plenty of silk.
Additionally, simultaneous application of the magnetic field over the spiders' spinerets while spinning may cause the silk to obtain improved qualities or different characterics. Exerimentation with both poles over the spinerets while a spider spins and subsequent examination of the properties of the silk would be needed to determine the effect, if any.
Technology #2: Oxytocin
Use the hormone oxytocin to tranquilize the spiders. Oxytocin apparently causes mammals to feel motherly and reduces or eliminated aggression. Although arachnids are not mammals, it would be worth a shot to find out if oxytocin had the same effect on spiders.
We are all familiar with silkworm silk. It is smooth and soft and luxurious. It can be made into pure silk fabric or combined with other material to make satin, etc. What people don't realize, though, is that silkworm silk is obtained by killing the silkworms. Unlike cotton, which is picked from the cotton plant without harm to the plant, or wool which is sheared from the sheep without harm to the sheep, silkworm silk is produced once by the silkworm as it builds its cocoon and then the worm is killed, removed from the cocoon and the silk is carefully unwound. Millions upon millions of silkworms die to produce silk.
A better way to obtain silk is through spiders. Spiders produce silk which is as smooth and silky and luxurious as silkworm silk, but they do so without harm to themselves and they can produce it continuously. Spider silk is six times stronger than steel, pound for pound, and extremely flexible. Used as a building material, it would have no equal. Used as clothing, it would be waterproof, light, strong, elastic, stretchable and long-lasting. It would also be bio-degradable.
Spiders produce many different types of silk, but the dragline silk has the following specs:
- Almost as strong as high tensile steel wires of the same thickness
- 6 times stronger than steel, weight for weight
- 5 times tougher than Kevlar
- Weighs 3 times less than Kevlar
- 8 times more extensible than Kevlar
- Twice as elastic as nylon
- Waterproof
- Biodegradable
- Biocompatible
- Made of fibers 10 to 100 times smaller in diameter than a human hair
Also, each spider produces an array of silks, whose properties vary from silk to silk and from spider to spider. If spider silk harvesting is, as expected by this writer, possible, then a variety of different spiders could be used to produce threads and fabrics of varying characteristics. The combination of these silks would likewise produce fabrics of different characteristics.
The main problem with producing spider silk is that spiders are territorial animals and will attack and eat their neighbors. According to one expert, "It's like raising tigers." No spider silk farming venture has ever been successful. Nevertheless, when a spider is calm, you can touch its spinerets to a wheel and roll the wheel and the spider will continuously spin webbing onto that wheel. A calm spider can spin continuously for eight hours straight, which equates to a lot of material. Multiply that by a hundred or more spiders, and you can quickly amass a good deal of spider silk, which can then be make into thread and fabric for clothing or used for other purposes.
How to calm a spider
According to the experts, it is impossible to calm a spider. However, I am not convinced. There are two technologies which have not been used in spider silk farming.
Technology #1: Magnet Field Therapy and Magneto-hydrodynamics
Insects, it is reported, receive up to 95% of their energy needs from magnetism. The north pole of a magnet has a calming effect on all living organisms: humans, animals, plants, bacteria. Although spiders are not classified as insects (they are arachnids), there is the possibility that the north pole of a magnet will affect their biological system in the same way as other life forms: calming them.
Calm spiders may lose their aggresiveness and their disposition to attack and eat their neighborhood spiders. If this is so, then spider farming is entirely possible. No one, as yet, has done the research to determine whether spiders are affected in this way by magnetic fields. I, personally, have done a preliminary experiment which seemed to indicate that they are attracted to the north pole of a strong magnet, but as yet I don't know if the magnetic field will calm them.
If, indeed, the magnetic field calms them, takes away their natural aggression, and supplies them with the bulk of their energy needs, it may be possible to feed them through their water, by mixing raw insect juices with north pole magnetized water. This would take away their necessity to build webs. They could remain calm and spin for long hours at a time, producing plenty of silk.
Additionally, simultaneous application of the magnetic field over the spiders' spinerets while spinning may cause the silk to obtain improved qualities or different characterics. Exerimentation with both poles over the spinerets while a spider spins and subsequent examination of the properties of the silk would be needed to determine the effect, if any.
Technology #2: Oxytocin
Use the hormone oxytocin to tranquilize the spiders. Oxytocin apparently causes mammals to feel motherly and reduces or eliminated aggression. Although arachnids are not mammals, it would be worth a shot to find out if oxytocin had the same effect on spiders.