Illustration: SPINNING THE YARN.
Illustration: SPINNING-WHEEL.
Is a combination of the fibres of hemp or other material, so arranged
as to form a tenacious cord or band, retaining, as far as possible,
their collective strength. The first process in rope-making consists
in twisting the hemp into thick threads, called rope-yarns. This,
which resembles ordinary spinning, is commonly performed by hand, in
a rope-ground or rope-walk, an enclosed level piece of ground, about
six hundred feet in length, at one end of which a spinning-wheel
is set up, that gives motion by a band to several small rollers or
“whirls,” each of them furnished with a hook on the end of its axis
next the walk. The rope spinner carries a bundle of hemp about three
feet long round his waist, with the fibres all laid even, and having
their ends in front of him, and from these he pulls out sufficient
for the thickness of the “yarn” he is spinning, and after slightly
twisting it with his fingers, attaches it to the hook of a “whirl,”
which is set in motion by the wheel, and as the fibres are twisted he
walks backward, gradually adding more and more, a little at a time,
so as to keep the yarn of the same thickness throughout. When the
spinner has traversed the whole length of the rope-walk, he stops,
and another spinner detaches the yarn from the whirl, and it is
then wound on a reel or bobbin. The yarns being spun, they are next
“tarred” (if they are to be much exposed to wet, as for the rigging
of ships), which is done by drawing them through a kettle full of
melted tar, being wound off from one reel on to another, and the
superfluous tar wiped away by means of tow (rough hemp) fixed in a
hole through which they are drawn.
Illustration: HAWSER-LAID ROPE.
Illustration: CABLE-LAID ROPE.
What is called “laying” the rope consists in twisting a certain
number of yarns together, so as to form a strand, and these
strands into a rope. Large ropes are chiefly of two kinds, called
respectively “hawser-laid” and “cable-laid,” the latter including
only the very largest ropes. “Hawser-laid” ropes consist of a certain
number of yarns (according to the size of the rope) twisted into
a strand, and then three of these strands twisted together. The
“cable-laid” rope is composed of nine strands, that is to say, three
strands each composed of three others, and these composed of yarns,
so that three “hawser-laid” ropes, twisted together, would make one
“cable-laid” rope.
Illustration: ROPE-MAKING BY MACHINERY.
Laying the ropes and twisting the yarns into strands are both
accomplished by the same process. The yarns are attached--in
sufficient quantity for the strands--to three hooks, each turning in
the same direction, while the other ends are collected together and
turned in the opposite direction; the three hooks twist the yarns
into strands, and a hook at the other end twists the strands into
rope.
Of course, machinery of various descriptions has been applied to
rope-making, and ropes are frequently made entirely by machinery with
great rapidity. The annexed cut represents one mode of rope-making by
machinery, in which the yarn is shown being twisted into cord or rope
from the reels or bobbins on which it was wound after spinning.