158.  Lace made by caterpillars.  A most extraordinary species of manufacture, which is in a slight degree connected with copying, has been contrived by an officer of engineers residing at Munich.  It consists of lace, and veils, with open patterns in them, made entirely by caterpillars.  The following is the mode of proceeding adopted:  he makes a paste of the leaves of the plant, which is the usual food of the species of caterpillar(4*) he employs, and spreads it thinly over a stone, or other flat substance.  He then, with a camel-hair pencil dipped in olive oil, draws upon the coating of paste the pattern he wishes the insects to leave open.  This stone is then placed in an inclined position, and a number of the caterpillars are placed at the bottom.  A peculiar species is chosen, which spins a strong web; and the animals commencing at the bottom, eat and spin their way up to the top, carefully avoiding every part touched by the oil, but devouring all the rest of the paste.  The extreme lightness of these veils, combined with some strength, is truly surprising.  One of them, measuring twenty-six and a half inches by seventeen inches, weighed only 1.51 grains; a degree of lightness which will appear more strongly by contrast with other fabrics.  One square yard of the substance of which these veils are made weighs 4 1/3 grains, whilst one square yard of silk gauze weighs 137 grains, and one square yard of the finest patent net weighs 262 1/2 grains.  The ladies’ coloured muslin dresses, mentioned in the table subjoined, cost ten shillings per dress, and each weigh six ounces; the cotton from which they are made weighing nearly six and two-ninth ounces avoirdupois weight.

Weight of one square yard of each of the following articles(5*)

Weight of
Weight      cotton used
Value    finished of    in waking
per yard  one square    one square
Description of goods       measure     yard            yard

s. d.  Troy grains Troy grains

Caterpillar veils —­ 4 1/3 —­ Silk gauze 3-4 wide 1 0 137 —­ Finest patent net —­ 262 1/2 —­ Fine cambric muslin —­ 551 —­ 6-4ths jaconet muslin 2 0 613 670 Ladies’ coloured muslin dresses 3 0 788 875 6-4ths cambric 1 2 972 1069 9-8ths calico 0 9 988 1085 1/2-yard nankeen 0 8 2240 2432

159.  This enumeration, which is far from complete, of the arts in which copying is the foundation, may be terminated with an example which has long been under the eye of the reader; although few, perhaps, are aware of the number of repeated copyings of which these very pages are the subject.

1.  They are copies, by printing, from stereotype plates.

2.  These stereotype plates are copied, by the art of casting, from moulds formed of plaster of Paris.