In times of stress when the crosshairs of several telescopes are broken at Oak Ridge Observatory, the staff may be compelled to cease work and hunt spiders, according to George Z. Dimitroff, assistant in Astronomy. For the webbing of spiders is used as cross-hairs.
Usually Henry A. Fowler, technician in charge of instruments, has a supply of live spiders bottled for immediate use. A "lazy, male spider" will not produce the tiny, uniformly strong web which is required, so small female spiders must be caught.
It is often difficult to make a spider spin its web. Placing the spider on a table, Fowler harasses it to the point of fury with a pencil. The spider then drops off the table edge, spinning a web above it, which is handled with tweezers and a telescopic eyepiece.
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