Transcriber’s Note: Italic text is enclosed in _underscores_. Small
capital text has been changed to all capital. Additional notes will be
found near the end of this ebook.
CORDAGE AND CORDAGE HEMP AND FIBRES
[Illustration: ROPE DRIVE FOR A MILL SHAFT
_Frontispiece_]
_PITMAN’S COMMON COMMODITIES AND INDUSTRIES_
CORDAGE AND CORDAGE HEMP AND FIBRES
BY
T. WOODHOUSE
HEAD OF WEAVING AND DESIGNING DEPARTMENT, DUNDEE TECHNICAL COLLEGE AND
SCHOOL OF ART;
FORMERLY MANAGER, MESSRS. WALTON AND CO., LINEN MANUFACTURERS,
BLEACHERS AND FINISHERS, KNARESBOROUGH;
AUTHOR OF “THE FINISHING OF JUTE AND LINEN FABRICS”; “HEALDS AND REEDS
FOR WEAVING, SETTS AND PORTERS”; JOINT AUTHOR OF “TEXTILE DESIGN: PURE
AND APPLIED”; “JUTE AND LINEN WEAVING MECHANISM”; “CALCULATIONS AND
STRUCTURE OF FABRICS”; “JUTE AND JUTE SPINNING,” ETC.
AND
P. KILGOUR
HEAD OF THE SPINNING DEPARTMENT, DUNDEE TECHNICAL COLLEGE AND SCHOOL OF
ART;
FORMERLY MANAGER, BELFAST ROPE WORKS; JOINT AUTHOR “JUTE AND JUTE
SPINNING,” ETC.
London
Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons, Ltd., 1 Amen Corner, E.C.4
Bath, Melbourne and New York
Printed by Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons, Ltd., London, Bath, Melbourne and
New York
PREFACE
The function of a small article in commercial undertakings is often
overshadowed by that of the larger and usually more valuable article,
and yet the use of the former is often an absolute necessity for the
safety of the latter. This relative value is emphasized in the use of
cordage, because the successful prosecution of many industries depends
in no mean way upon the utilization of this useful and common commodity.
Some of the various types of cordage are well known to the general
public, but the methods employed in their manufacture, the machinery
used, and the sources of the fibres are not quite so well known. We
trust that these phases are discussed in as brief but as complete a way
as is possible in this little book, which we hope will take its own
place in the literature of our Common Commodities of Commerce.
We take this opportunity of recording our warmest thanks to Messrs.
David Bridge & Co., Ltd., Castleton, Manchester, for loan of blocks; to
Messrs. The Edinburgh Roperie and Sail Cloth Co., Ltd., Leith, for
assistance and for several photographs; and to Messrs. Landauer & Co.,
London, for some of the statistics regarding the fibres.
T. WOODHOUSE.
P. KILGOUR.
_September, 1919._
CONTENTS
CHAP. PAGE
PREFACE v
I. INTRODUCTORY 1
II. DEFINITION OF CORDAGE AND SOURCES OF FIBRES 5
III. CLASSIFICATION OF FIBRES 16
IV. THE CULTIVATION OF HEMP 19
V. RETTING, BREAKING AND SCUTCHING 24
VI. THE CULTIVATION OF PLANTS FOR HARD FIBRES 31
VII. THE PREPARING AND SPINNING MACHINERY FOR HEMP AND OTHER
SOFT FIBRES 55
VIII. THE PREPARING AND SPINNING MACHINERY FOR MANILA AND
OTHER HARD FIBRES 87
IX. TWINES, CORDS AND LINES 93
X. ROPES AND ROPE-MAKING; YARN NUMBERING 100
XI. MARKETING 108
ILLUSTRATIONS
FIG. PAGE
ROPE DRIVE FOR A MILL SHAFT _Frontispiece_
1. TWO-YEAR-OLD SISAL PLANT 6
2. AGAVE AMERICANA 8
3. TRANSVERSE SECTION OF A LEAF OF AGAVE AMERICANA 10
4. PHOTOMICROGRAPH OF A SECTION OF FIBRES OF AGAVE
AMERICANA 11
5. PHOTOMICROGRAPH OF FIBRES OF AGAVE GROWN IN MEXICO
SHOWING OXALATE OF POTASH CRYSTALS 12
6. GROUP OF HEMP PLANTS 13
7. CROSS-SECTION OF PLANT 13
8. LONGITUDINAL VIEW OF COTTON FIBRES 15
9. CROSS-SECTIONAL VIEW OF COTTON FIBRES 15
10. MANILA FIBRES: ORDER OF GRADING 35
11. BRIDGE’S “ACME” GRAVITY PATENT SISAL BREAKER 38
12. BRIDGE’S “CLIMAX” PATENT SISAL DECORTICATOR 40
13. WASHING TANKS 43
14. HOUSING FOR POWER PLANT 43
15. CUMMINS’S PATENT HORIZONTAL HYDRAULIC BALING PRESS 43
16. MAURITIUS FIBRE PLANT 47
17. BALES OF MANILA, NEW ZEALAND AND SISAL FIBRES 54
18. BREAKING MACHINE 60
19. HACKLING MACHINE 62
20. SPREAD BOARD 69
21. BREAKER AND FINISHER CARDS 74
22. DRAWING FRAMES 80
23. ROVING FRAME 81
24. DRY SPINNING FRAME 84
25. HACKLER AND SPREADER 87
26. INTERMEDIATE MACHINE 89
27. AUTOMATIC SPINNING MACHINE 91
28. DRYING BLEACHED YARNS 93
29. ROPE-MAKING (HOUSE MACHINES) 101
30. LAYING OF A FOUR-STRAND CABLE-LAID ROPE IN THE ROPE WALK 105
31. VIEWS OF LARGE AND MEDIUM-SIZED COILS OF ROPE 106
CORDAGE AND CORDAGE HEMP AND FIBRES
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY
Records of civilization are incapable of furnishing the era when the
equivalent of strands or cords were first used, singly or collectively,
for the purpose of holding two or more articles securely in position.
But, although it is impossible to fix a period, one might safely say
that the original material which served the purpose was some kind of
light twig or lanceolate leaf, and that its appearance when in use as a
binder strip differed little if at all from its appearance in the
natural process of growth. Even at the present day some of these runners
are still used, notably with others the rattan canes for binding bales
of manila fibre and other purposes.
The wants of prehistoric man would be very few indeed, but, although he
was accustomed in many climates to make use of very scanty clothing or
covering, and, in many cases, was practically without any covering, it
is obvious that it would be necessary to provide himself with food--the
first essential condition to life. In his efforts to secure the
necessary food-stuffs, animate or inanimate, it is safe to conclude that
some type of ribbon-shaped vegetable material would be necessary or
desirable at an early stage, and probably at the same time or a little
later period sinews of different kinds would be brought into use.
As years rolled on, further uses would undoubtedly be found for various
kinds of fibrous material, and more improved methods would be applied in
adapting the vegetable matter and the like to the purposes intended, as
well as more care exercised in the selection of the materials. Some of
the characteristics which are essential in practically all binders or
tying strips are length, strength, pliability and a tendency to resist
atmospheric influences and other natural agents.
The gradual development of civilization, and the gradually increasing
demand for suitable substances to be used as binders and for various
other purposes would naturally lead to improvements in the utilization
of fibrous and other suitable plants, and ultimately to more or less
scientific methods of treating these plants with the object of removing
the objectionable constituents which are useless for cordage purposes,
and of retaining those parts which are considered to be most suitable
for the purpose in view.
A complete description of the evolution of modern cord and cordage is
practically impossible, for the simple reason that there is no full
record of the efforts of many of the earlier pioneers in the various
stages, and it is quite possible that many early and praiseworthy
improvements have been forgotten or overshadowed, or perhaps absorbed,
by the more modern and more elaborate methods which are now
indispensable for the successful prosecution of this important branch of
the textile industry.
The separation of fibrous material from various kinds of plants is by no
means of modern origin, for the great antiquity of yarns which have been
spun from vegetable and animal fibres is universally acknowledged.
Reference to the process of preparing flax for the purpose of spinning
appears in Exodus ix, verse 31, while the first Biblical reference to
thread--one of the technical names for a continuous length of prepared
fibrous material--is in Genesis xiv, verse 23: “That I will not take
from a thread even to a shoe-latchet.” Again, another early reference in
Chapter xxxviii refers to a scarlet thread, an indication or suggestion
that the art of dyeing was also known at this early period in the early
Biblical history.
Herodotus records garments made from hemp by the Thracians, and to the
present day hemp is largely cultivated in the vicinity of the lands
occupied by the descendants of this ancient race.
Moschion, whose writings appeared before the Christian era, states that
the “great ships of Syracuse which were built by command of Hiero II
were supplied with hemp and ropes from the Rhone districts. Hemp was
brought from Colchis to the ports of the Aegean Sea by the merchants who
were connected commercially with the north and east coasts of the Euxine
through their Milesian colonies.”
Pliny also records the use of hemp for ships, and states that it was in
common use among the Romans in the first century for ropes and sails, as
well as for other purposes.
The more or less uncertain knowledge of practically all the earlier
attempts at the solution of fibre extraction renders it impossible for
us to bridge the gap between the time when crude primitive methods were
practised and that which ushered in the more perfect methods described
by Pliny in the first century--methods which, in certain cases, have
varied little since this early period, and which are practised with a
high degree of success. We may, therefore, leave this interesting period
to the researches of students in history, and enter upon the description
and illustration of the various plants from which fibre is extracted,
and the actual processes which such fibre has to undergo before it is
ready for the market in one or other of the well-known types of cordage.