Everybody knows what rope is, but everybody does not know how rope is
made or of what kinds of fiber it is manufactured. And very few probably
know the history of rope making, or how it developed from the simple
thread to the great cable which now holds giant vessels to their wharves
or aids to anchor them in ocean storms.
Let us go back and try to trace the history of the rope. It is a long
one, going out of sight in the far past. In very early times men must
have used some kinds of cords or lines for fishing, for tying animals,
at times for tying men. These may have been strips of hide, lengths of
tough, flexible wood, fibrous roots, and such gifts of nature, and in
time all these were twisted together to make a longer and stronger cord
or rope.
[Illustration: SCENE IN EGYPTIAN KITCHEN, SHOWING USE OF A LARGE ROPE TO
SUPPORT A SORT OF HANGING SHELF]
We have evidence of this. Tribes of savages still have in use cords made
of various materials and some of them very well made. These have been in
use among them for long centuries. Take the case of our own Indian
tribes. They long made use of cordage twisted from cotton and other
fibers, or formed from the inner bark of various trees and the roots of
others, and from the hairs, skins and sinews of animals.
[Illustration: REPRODUCTION OF SCULPTURE FROM A TOMB IN THEBES, SHOWING
PREPARATION OF LEATHER CORDS BY PROCESS SIMILAR TO ROPE MAKING]
Good rope was made also by the old Peruvians, by the South Sea
Islanders, and by the natives of many other regions. Those on the
seashore made fishing lines and well-formed nets, and certain tribes,
among them the Nootka Indians, harpooned the whale, using cords made
from the sinews of that animal, these being very strong and highly
pliable. The larger ropes used by them, two inches in diameter, were
made from the fibrous roots of the spruce.
Civilized Rope Makers.
All the ancient civilized peoples used ropes and cordage, made from such
flexible materials as their countries afforded. We have pictures of this
from ancient Egypt, in which the process of twisting strips of leather
into rope is shown on the walls of their tombs. One workman is seen
cutting a long strand from a hide which he turns round as he cuts, while
another man walks backward with this, twisting it as he goes. The
Egyptians also made ropes from papyrus and palm fibers, of which
specimens still exist. Only by the use of large and strong ropes could
they have moved the massive stones seen in their pyramids and temples.
[Illustration: CORDAGE MANUFACTURE BY THE ROPE WALK METHOD
Yarns passing from bobbins through perforated plates in forming of
strands.
Top truck used in laying of rope.
Forming machine making strands.
Closing tarred Russian hemp cable, 15-3/4 inch circumference, for
Argentine Battleship “Rivadavia.”]
When men began to move boats by sails, ropes of some kind must have been
needed, and the early ships no doubt demanded long and strong cordage.
We have pictures of these from several centuries before the Christian
era, and we are told by Herodotus that Xerxes, when he built his famous
bridge of boats across the Hellespont, 480 B. C., fastened them together
by enormous cables which stretched from shore to shore, a distance of
nearly a mile. Twelve of these ropes were used, about nine inches thick,
some of them being made of flax and others of papyrus.
[Illustration: EARLY TYPE OF MACHINE FOR SPINNING ROPE YARN]
During the medieval and later centuries rope making was an active
industry and America was not long settled before the rope maker became
active. John Harrison, an English expert in this line, set up a ropewalk
in Boston in 1641 or 1642, and for many years had a monopoly of the
trade. But after his death the art became common and in 1794 there were
fourteen large ropewalks in that city. In 1810 there were 173 of these
industries in the United States, and from that time on the business has
grown and prospered.
Hand Spinning.
In the period referred to all the work was done by hand, machine
spinning being of later date. American hemp was used, this softer fiber
being spun by hand long after Manila hemp was spun by machines. The
hand-making process, long used, is an interesting one. The first step
was to “hackle” the hemp. The hackle was a board with long, sharp steel
teeth set in it. This combed out the matted tow of the hemp into clean,
straight fiber. The instrument used in spinning was a large wheel,
turned by hand, and setting in motion a set of “whirls” or revolving
spindles, which twisted the hemp by their motion. The spinner wrapped a
quantity of the hackled hemp around his waist and attached some of the
fibers to the whirls, which twisted the hemp as he walked backward down
the ropewalk, pulling out new fiber from his waist by one hand and
pressing it into form and size with the fingers of the other.
[Illustration: FOUR-STRAND COMPOUND LAYING MACHINE MAKING STRANDS AND
LAYING ROPE IN A SINGLE, CONTINUOUS OPERATION]
[Illustration: SIXTEEN-INCH TOWLINE WITH EYE SPLICE]
In forming a small rope, two of the yarns thus formed were twisted
together in a direction opposite to that of the first twist. Then a
second twisting followed, the direction being again reversed. Thus rope
making may be seen to consist in a series of twisting processes, each
twist opposite to the former, the rope growing in size and strength at
each operation. Horse power or water power was used when the ropes
became too large to be made by hand.
[Illustration: FORMATION OF SLIVER (FOR SPINNING) ON FIRST BREAKER]
[Illustration: INTERIOR OF PRESENT-DAY ROPEWALK]
Machine-made Ropes.
The old ropewalk is today largely obsolete, the rope-making machine
taking the place of the hand-making process, which was not adapted to
produce the large cables which in time were called for. Steam-driven
machines were first introduced about 1838. These are now used alike in
making fine threads and yarns and in large ropes.
There are two methods in the modern system of rope making. In one the
strands are formed on one type of machine and twisted into a rope on
another. In the second method both operations are performed on a single
machine. The latter saves space, but is not so well fitted for large
ropes as the former. A plant for the two-part method comprises two or
more horizontal strand-forming machines, several bobbin frames, and a
vertical laying-machine. The former twists several strands into a rope,
the latter several ropes into a cable.
The yarns, which are wound around bobbins, are drawn from them through
perforated plates, these so placed that the yarns converge together and
pass into a tube. In this they are compressed and at the same time
twisted by the revolution of a long carriage or flyer, which can be made
to vary in speed and direction. After being twisted the strands are
wound around reels in readiness for the second, or laying process.
In this the full reels are lifted by overhead chains and are placed in
the vertical flyers of the laying-machine. Here again the strands are
made to pass through openings and converge into a central tube, through
which they pass to the revolving flyers, which perform the final duty of
twisting them into rope. The finished product is delivered to a
belt-driven coiling reel on which it is wound.
[Illustration: REMOVING REEL WITH COMPLETED STRAND FROM FORMING MACHINE]
The most complete rope-making machine yet reached is that in which these
two machines are combined into one. It economizes space, machinery and
workmen, and also is more rapid in reaching the final result. But there
are disadvantages which render it unfit for the larger sizes of rope,
and it is therefore used only on a limited range of sizes.
American Hemp.
Among the fibers employed in rope making that of the hemp plant long
held the supremacy, though in recent years it has been largely
supplemented by other and stronger fibers. This plant is a native of
Asia, but is now grown largely in other continents, taking its name from
the country in which it is raised, as Russian hemp, Italian hemp, and
American, or Kentucky, hemp, it having long found a home in the soil of
Kentucky. It differs from the Manila fiber, which has now very largely
supplanted it, by being much softer, though of less strength. In the old
days of the sailing vessel hempen rope was largely used for the rigging
of merchant and war ships, but the use of other fibers and of wire for
rigging has greatly reduced the market for Kentucky hemp. There are
various other fibers known under the name of hemp, the New Zealand,
African, Java, etc., but the Manila and Sisal fibers, since the middle
of the last century, have largely taken their place.
[Illustration: HOW PINE TAR IS MADE IN THE SOUTH ATLANTIC STATES
1. Building the kiln.
2. Starting fire.
3. Racking back coals.
4. Tar coming from kiln.
5. Dipping and barreling.
6. Working around kiln.
7. After hard day and night.
8. Tar makers at home.
9. Burning completed.]
Manila and Sisal Fibers.
Manila hemp, as it is called, is a product of our Philippine dependency,
being obtained from a species of the banana plant which grows abundantly
in those islands. Its fiber is very long, ranging from six to ten feet,
and is noted for its smoothness and pliability, a feature which makes it
ideal for rope making. Gloss and brilliancy are also characteristics of
good quality Manila.
[Illustration: AMERICAN HEMP STACKED IN FIELDS]
Manila hemp is obtained from the leaf stalks of the Philippine plant
known as the Abacá, the leaf stems of which are compressed together, and
constitute the trunk of the plant. It is obtained by scraping the pulp
from the long fibers, drying these when thoroughly cleaned, and baling
them for market.
The high price of the Manila product, however, has brought a cheaper
fiber, of American growth, into the market; this being that known as
Sisal, extracted from henequen, a cactus-like plant of Yucatan. As a
substitute for or rival of Manila hemp it has come into common use. Its
cheapness recommends it despite the fact that it is not of equal
strength, and also that its fibers are shorter, being from two to four
feet in length. Sisal also lacks the flexibility of Manila, being much
more stiff and harsh. The development of the self-binding reaper on our
western grain-fields has opened a gold mine for Sisal cordage. Of the
annual import of this fiber to the United States, 300,000,000 pounds in
quantity, a large proportion finds its way to the wheat fields of the
West. It is also used in all other wheat-yielding countries.
[Illustration: PHILIPPINE HEMP CART]
[Illustration: LOADING FIBER FROM SISAL FIBER PLANT ONTO PLANTATION
CAR]
Henequen is now grown on large plantations, the plant being about five
years old before the long, sword-like leaves are ready to cut. It
continues to yield a supply for ten or twenty years, this lasting until
the flower stalk, or “pole,” appears, after which the plant soon dies.
As Manila fiber is at times adulterated with Sisal, so has the latter
its adulterant in a plant called Istle, which grows in Mexico and has
hitherto been chiefly used in brush making.
[Illustration: NEW ZEALAND HEMP OR FLAX]
[Illustration: CRUDE HAND METHOD OF CLEANING MANILA FIBER ON PLANTATION]
These are the chief plants used in rope making. To them we may add coir,
obtained from the brush of the cocoanut, which has been long used in
India, and has come into use in Europe in recent years. It is fairly
strong and has the advantage of being considerably lighter than hemp or
Manila. And, unlike these, it does not need to be tarred for
preservation, as it is not injured by the salt water. Two other
rope-making fibers of importance are the Sunn hemp of India and cotton,
ropes of the latter being largely used for certain purposes, such as
driving parts of textile machinery.
Wire Ropes.
We have not completed the story of rope making. There is the wire rope
to consider, a kind of cordage now largely used in many industries, in
which it has superseded hemp ropes and chains. These seem to have
originated in Germany about 1821. In the bridge at Geneva, built in
1822, ropes of untwisted wire, bound together, were used, and some
fifteen years later “stranded” wire ropes were employed in the Harz
mines. These at first were made of high-class wire, but only steel is
now used in their manufacture. A strand of wire rope generally consists
of from six to nine wires and sometimes as many as eighteen, but much
larger ropes are made by twisting these strands together. They are
generally galvanized to prevent them from rusting.
[Illustration: STACKING BALES OF MANILA FIBER WITH PORTABLE COMPRESSED
AIR ENGINE]
[Illustration: HANK OF MANILA FIBER TWELVE FEET LONG]
The applications of wire ropes are very numerous, an important one being
for winding and hauling purposes in mines. For aerial ropeways they are
extensively employed, and are of high value in bridge building, the
suspension bridge being sustained by them. The strength of the steel
wire used for ropes varies from seventy to over one hundred tons per
square inch of sectional area, the weight of a hemp rope being about
three times that of a wire rope of equal strength.
Pine Tar for Ropes.
Who does not know of the tarred rigging that once meant so much to the
rope maker? Its very odor seems to cling to the pages of seafaring
books. When steam power took the place of wind power in ships the use of
tarred rigging naturally declined, yet tarred goods still form an
important branch of the rope business. Pine tar is the kind best suited
for cordage, the yellow, longleaf, or Georgia pine holding the first
rank in the United States for tar making. This tree is found along the
coast region from North Carolina to Texas.
In tar-kiln burning only dead wood is used, the green tree yielding less
tar and of lower quality. It is a slow process, as a brisk fire would
consume the wood without yielding tar. As the tar comes from the kiln it
is caught in a hole dug before the outlet and is dipped up and poured
into barrels, the average yield being one barrel of tar to the cord of
wood. As above said, it is indispensable to protect cordage exposed to
the effects of moisture, except in the case of coir ropes. Oiling is
also an important process in the manufacture of ropes from hard fibers,
as Manila, Sisal and New Zealand. This softens them and makes them more
workable, and it also acts as a preservative.
[Illustration: INSPECTING MANILA FIBER AT DOCK]
[Illustration: SHIPPING PLATFORM OF A LARGE FACTORY]
Why does Rope Cling Together?
This is probably due to a degree of roughness in the surface of fibers,
often imperceptible to the eye, yet preventing them when in close
contact from slipping easily upon each other. This is greatly increased
by twisting the fibers together, and is added to by the toughness of the
fibers themselves, the whole giving to rope a great resisting power. In
the case of wire rope it is the firmness with which the metal holds
together that gives it its great resisting strength. It is also not
unlikely that the pressure of gravitation takes part in rope making, by
holding the fibers in close contact, even if we do not know how this
force operates.
What is Rope Used for?
This is a question that has already been answered in great part. Its
uses, in fact, are innumerable. It serves to hold things together, and
also to hold them apart; to lift things into the air and to hold them
down to the ground; to pull things forward and pull things back--but not
to push things forward. For the latter something less flexible than rope
is needed. Animals are tied or tethered by it and led by it, and man,
himself, is one of its victims. This is especially the case in the
dismal way in which man’s career upon earth has so often been ended by
lifting him from the ground by the aid of a rope loop around his neck.
It is of some comfort to know that this brutal use of the rope is being
replaced by more humane methods of ending the lives of condemned
criminals.
* * * * *
How did the Expression “A-1” Originate?
We have all become so accustomed to hearing the term “A-1” used to
designate a thing as perfect that it does not occur to many of us to
wonder how it originally came to be used in that connection. Its first
use was as a symbol in the code by which vessels were graded in the
register of shipping kept by Lloyd’s, the originators of marine
insurance. “A-1” was the best rating given to the highest class vessels,
“A” standing for perfect condition of the hull of the ship and “1”
meaning that the rigging and whole equipment was complete and in good
order.
How has Man Helped Nature Give Us Apples?
The original of all the varieties of the cultivated apple is the wild
crab, which is a small and extremely sour fruit, and is native of most
of the countries of Europe. We use the crab-apple for preserving even
now, although man’s ingenuity has succeeded in inducing nature to give
us many better tasting kinds.
The amazingly large number of different varieties which we have today
have all been brought into existence through the discovery of the
process of “grafting.” There are a half a dozen or more different
methods of grafting. The method most commonly practiced in working with
apple trees is called “bud-grafting,” and consists of transferring a
plate of bark, with one or more buds attached, from one tree to another.
The wood of apple trees is hard, close-grained and often richly colored,
and is suitable for turning or cabinet work. Apple-growers classify
apples into three different kinds, each consisting of a great many
separate varieties. The three general divisions are--table apples, which
are characterized by a firm, juicy pulp, a sweetish acid flavor, regular
form and beautiful coloring; cooking apples, which possess the quality
of forming by the aid of heat into a pulpy mass of equal consistency,
and also by their large size and keeping properties; and cider apples,
which have a considerable astringency and a richness of juice.
[Illustration: IN THE LAND OF THE APPLE
The Rogue River Valley, Oregon, in one section of which this photograph
was taken, is known all over America for its wonderful apples. One
apple-raiser in this district gathered two hundred bushels of apples per
acre from his six-year-old trees.]
What Kind of a Crab Climbs Trees?
Besides the water-crabs that we are most of us used to seeing and
eating, there are several different kinds of land-crabs. Probably the
most interesting of them all is the great Robber-crab, which is found on
certain islands of the Pacific. He is a creature of immense strength and
climbs palm trees in order to pick, and break open, the cocoanuts. He
lives in a den which he digs for himself in the ground.
Darwin gives an interesting description of these extraordinary animals:
“I have before alluded to a crab which lives on cocoanuts; it is very
common on all parts of the dry land, and grows to a monstrous size. The
front pair of legs terminate in very strong and heavy pincers, and the
last pair are fitted with others weaker and much narrower. It would at
first be thought quite impossible for a crab to open a strong cocoanut
covered with husk, but Mr. Liesk assures me that he has repeatedly seen
this effected. The crab begins by tearing the husk, fiber by fiber, and
always from that end under which the three eye-holes are situated. When
this is completed, the crab commences hammering with its heavy claws on
one of the eye-holes till an opening is made. Then turning round its
body, it extracts the white albuminous substance with its posterior and
narrow pair of pincers.
“Every night it is said to pay a visit to the sea, no doubt for the
purpose of moistening its gills. The young are likewise hatched, and
live for some time, on the coast. These crabs inhabit deep burrows,
which they hollow out beneath the roots of trees, and there they
accumulate surprising quantities of the picked fibers of the cocoanut
husk, on which they rest as a bed. To show the wonderful strength of the
front pair of pincers, I may mention that Captain Moresby confined one
in a strong tin box, the lid being secured with wire; but the crab
turned down the edges and escaped. In turning down the edges, it
actually punched many small holes through the tin!”
How are Files Made?
A good tool-kit holds a number of files of various shapes. Some are
flat, others half-round, three-sided, square and round. They are
generally thickest in the middle, while their teeth are of various
degrees of fineness and of different forms.
A file whose teeth are in parallel ridges only is called single-cut or
float-cut. Such are mostly used for brass and copper. When there are two
series of ridges crossing each other the file is double-cut, which is
the file best suited for iron and steel.
Rasps are files which have isolated sharp teeth separated by
comparatively wide spaces, and are chiefly used for soft materials such
as wood and horn.
Each of these three classes of files is made in six different degrees of
fineness, the coarsest being called rough, the next middle, followed by
bastard, second-cut, smooth and superfine or dead-smooth, each a degree
finer than that which precedes it.
Files are usually made with the hand, file-cutting machines not having
been as yet perfectly successful on account of the delicacy of touch
required in the work.
The blanks, as the steel before it has teeth is called, are laid on the
anvil and struck with the chisel, which rests obliquely on the blank,
each blow raising a ridge or tooth. The strength of the blow depends on
the hardness of the metal, and when one part is harder than another the
workman alters his blows accordingly. When one side is covered with
single cuts if the file is to be double cut he adds in the same manner a
second series, crossing the others at a certain angle.
In making fine files a good file-cutter will cut upwards of two hundred
teeth within the space of an inch. The files, except those that are used
for soft substances, are hardened by heating them to a cherry-red color
and then dipping them in water. They are then finished by scouring and
rubbing over with olive oil and turpentine.