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Historical Uses
Throughout history humans have used spider silk for a variety of purposes. Ancient Greeks used spider webs to seal cuts and wounds. Silk has also been used to make fishing lines and nets. After reeling silk from a spider's spinnerets, Australian aborigines crushed the spider and rubbed its guts against the silk line to attract fish. Solomon Island natives used silk to make fishing nets by stretching multiple webs around looped bamboo frames.
Spider silk has also been used for war purposes. The silks of black widow, brown barn, and garden spiders were used throughout World War I and World War II as crosshairs for gun sights, bomb sights, and telescopes. In fact, war programs established spider ranches where spiders were bred and forcibly silked.
Silk was also available to the public. In the late 1930s, the Central Scientific Company of Chicago sold spools of 100 feet of spider silk at hardware stores across the country for $9 (Bedini, 2005).
Image from Bedini, 2005 depicting silk crosshairs from the Ketteringham collection. George Ketteringham specialized in making silk crosshairs for periscopes, microscopes, and bomber sights during World War II.
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