[A scientist from the Grand Academy of Lagado experiments with spider webs] · Centre for Early Modern Visual Culture

Title: [A scientist from the Grand Academy of Lagado experiments with spider webs]
Period: 1800-1850;
Geographic: Balnibarbi; Laputa; England
Description: Here we see a scientist from the Grand Academy on Balnibarbi who was working to use spider’s webs to make clothing. Gulliver walks into his studio that is covered in cobwebs, and the scientist tells Gulliver not to disturb them. The scientist was attempting to domesticate spiders and use their webs in a similar manner to silkworms. He even went as far as to attempt to alter the spider’s webs through feeding them certain foods so that the webs they spun were colourful. In this image we see the scientist’s laboratory, whose walls are covered in cobwebs. On the table we see an apparatus used to wrap the webs into thread. The scientist wears a robe with images of insects on it. The same image appears in the 1839 Krabbe edition.
Image Creator: Grandville (Illustrator)
Type: StillImage; Vignettes
Identifier: mta:21695
Language: ger
Source Name: Gulliver's Reisen in unbekannte Länder
Parent Collection: Gulliver's Reisen in unbekannte Länder Vol. II. Vignettes by Grandville (1843); Gulliver's Reisen in unbekannte Länder Vol. II. Vignettes by Grandville (1843)
Image: mta_21695_OBJ.png
Collection: Gulliver's Travels
Subject: Learned Institutions and Societies; Satire; Scientists; Fictional Works; Fictitious Characters; Imaginary Places; Imaginary Creatures