The large wheel, usually turned by a boy, is used to convey power to
the “whirls,” or small spindles carrying hooks upon which the fiber
is fastened. These whirls, revolving, give the twist to the yarn as
the spinner deftly pays out the fiber, regulating it with skillful
fingers to preserve the uniformity and proper size of the yarn. As he
goes backward down the long walk through the “squares of sunlight on
the floor” he throws the trailing yarns over the “stakes” placed at
intervals along the walk for the purpose.
The spinning “grounds” were usually arranged with wheels at either
end, so that spinners reaching the farther end, could go back to their
starting point spinning another set of yarns.
Then in the case of small ropes, the strands could be made by attaching
two or more yarns to the “whirl” and twisting them together, reversing
the motion to give the strands a twist opposite to that given the
yarns. These strands were twisted together, again reversing the motion,
making a rope. Thus it will be seen that, reduced to its lowest terms,
rope-making consists simply of a series of twisting processes. The
twisting of the yarns into the strand is known as “forming” or putting
in the “foreturn.” The final process is “laying,” “closing” or putting
in the “after turn.” Horse-power was used in old times for forming and
laying rope which was too large to be made by hand.
How all this work is now done in a modern rope factory by ingeniously
devised machinery we shall now see.
The opening room where the fiber is made ready for the preparation
machinery is a reminder of the days when all rope-making processes
were hand work. The bales are first opened up--in the case of Manila
this means cutting the straw matting put on to protect the fiber in
shipment. Then the hanks which are packed in various ways--sometimes
doubled, sometimes twisted--are taken out and straightened and the band
at the end of the hank removed.
No machinery has yet been perfected for doing the work just described
but the first of the preparation processes, a short step beyond, tells
quite a different story. Here the hanks of such fibers as require a
special cleaning treatment are placed on fast working hackling machines
which comb away most of the snarls, loose tow and dirt.
At this point hard fibers--Manila, Sisal and New Zealand--are usually
oiled to soften them and to make them more workable for the operations
that follow. The oil, furthermore, acts as a preservative. It is a
matter of importance to the buyer, however, that the fiber should not
be too heavily oiled, for that merely increases the weight and cost of
the rope without improving its quality.
The wonder of modernism in rope-making is nowhere more striking than
in the preparation room. To pass from one end, where the raw hemp is
received just as it left the hands of the native Filipino laborer with
his crude methods, down through the long rows of machines to the draw
frames from which the sliver is delivered in a form that can be likened
to a stream of molten metal, is to cover decades of inventive genius
and mechanical development.
The mechanism performs its work so accurately that at first glance the
man feeding the fiber into the machine and all the other men, busy
about their various duties, would appear to be playing very minor parts
in modern rope making. In reality, expert workmanship and watchfulness
are very important factors. Good rope depends no more upon scientific
machine processes than upon ceaseless attention to the little details,
and this is especially true in the preparation room.
Before taking up the distinctly modern machines so largely used now
in the final processes of rope-making--the forming of strands, laying
of common ropes and closing of cable-laid goods--we will describe the
rope-walk where much of this work is still best carried on.
[Illustration: HUGE BALES OF RAW ROPE MATERIAL