THE ROPE-MAKER.
1. Ropes may be made of any vegetable substance which has a fibre sufficiently flexible and tenacious. The Chinese and other orientals, in making ropes, use the ligneous parts of certain bamboos and reeds, the fibrous covering of the cocoa-nut, the filaments of the cotton pod, and the leaves of certain grasses; but the bark of plants and trees, is the most productive of fibrous matter suitable to this manufacture. That of the linden-tree, the willow, and the bramble is frequently used. In Europe and America, however, the fibres of hemp and flax are more frequently employed, for this purpose, than any other material.
2. The operations of rope-making are commonly performed in rope-walks, which are sometimes more than a quarter of a mile in length. These are usually covered with a slight shed, the nature and appearance of which are well exhibited in the preceding picture.
3. The first part of the process consists in spinning the material into yarn. The principle on which this is effected, is the same as that by which cotton or wool is drawn out and twisted into threads, although the machinery, and the mode of operating, are different.
4. The kind of wheel employed in spinning rope-yarn, is also exhibited in the cut. A band passes around the periphery, and over the semicircle above it, in which is placed a number of wheels, the pivots of which terminate, on the other side, in a small hook.
5. The spinner, having a quantity of the material properly disposed about the waist, attaches a number of fibres to one of the hooks, which, being put in motion by the band passing over the whirl, twists them rapidly into yarn. The part already twisted draws along with it more fibres from the bundle, and, as the spinner is regulating their uniform arrangement, he walks backward towards the other end of the walk.
6. When the thread has been spun to the proposed length, the spinner cries out to another, who immediately takes it off from the hook, gives it to a third person, and, in turn, attaches his own fibres to the same hook. In the meantime, the first spinner keeps fast hold of the end of his yarn, to prevent it from untwisting or doubling; and, as it is wound on the reel, proceeds up the walk, keeping the yarn of an equal tension throughout.
7. The second part of the process consists in forming the yarn into various kinds of ropes. The component parts of cordage are called strands; and the operation of uniting them with a permanent twist, is called laying, when applied to small ropes, and closing, when applied to cables or other large ropes.
8. The simplest twist is formed of two strands. The thread used by sail-makers, and pack-thread, furnish examples of this kind; but cordage with two strands is not much used; that with three is the most usual. Lines and cords less than one and a half inches in circumference, are laid by means of the spinning-wheel. Preparatory to this operation, the workman fastens the hither end of the yarns to separate whirl-hooks, and the remote ends to the hook of a swivel, called the loper.
9. The strands having been properly distended, the spinning-wheel is turned in the same direction as when twisting the yarns. A further twisting of the strands, during this part of the process, is prevented by the motion of the loper, which gives way to the strain, and, at the same time, causes the strands to entwine about each other, and form a cord. To prevent them from entwining too rapidly, an instrument is interposed, which, from its form, is called the top. It has two or more notches, which terminate at the apex, and a handle, called a staff. As the top is moved from the loper to the wheel, it regulates the degree of twist which the cord or rope is to receive.
10. The principle on which large cordage is laid, or closed, is the same, although some part of the machinery is different. The strands for large ropes and cables are formed of many yarns, and require considerable hardening. This cannot be done with whirls driven by a wheel-band; it requires the power of a crank, turned by hand, or by some other considerable force. The strands, also, when properly hardened, become very stiff, and, when bent round the top, cannot transmit force enough to close the unpliant rope: it is, therefore, necessary that the loper, also, be moved by a crank.
11. Cordage, which is to be exposed to the alternate action of air and water, is usually tarred. The application of this substance is made, in most cases, while the material is in a state of yarn. In effecting this object, the threads are drawn through boiling tar, and then passed between rollers, or through holes surrounded with oakum, to remove the superfluous tar. In like manner, ropes and cables are superficially tarred.
12. Various improvements have been made in the machinery, for performing the different operations of rope-making; but, these not having been generally adopted, it is unnecessary to notice them more particularly; especially, as they do not affect the general principles of the art.
13. Within a few years, cotton-yarn has been employed in the manufacture of ropes; but this material has not yet been sufficiently tested, to determine its fitness for the purpose. A kind of vegetable fibre, brought from Manilla, and hence called Manilla hemp, is very extensively applied in making ropes, and, for some purposes, is preferred to other materials.
14. The intestines of animals are composed of very powerful fibres, and those of sheep and lambs are manufactured into what is called cat-gut, for the use of musical instrument-makers, hatters, watch-makers, and a variety of other artificers. Animal hair, as that from the tail and mane of horses, is frequently employed as the material for ropes; and such are durable, elastic, and impervious to moisture. They, however, are not applicable in cases, where the rope is subject to considerable friction.
15. Hemp is cultivated in various parts of the world, and especially in Russia, whence it is exported to other countries in great quantities. It is also produced, to a considerable extent, in the state of Kentucky, and in many other parts of the United States. Flax is still more generally cultivated than hemp; but its chief application is to the manufacture of cloth, as it does not answer well for any cordage larger than a bed-cord. The formation of cloth from hemp is also very common; and, in this case, the yarn for the coarse cloths is spun on the rope-maker's wheel in the manner already described. The cloth is generally used for making bags, sacking-bottoms for beds, and sails for vessels.
16. Rope-making is a manufacture of general utility, as cordage of some kind is used more or less in every family in all civilized communities; nor are there many trades capable of being carried on, with convenience, without it. But the great utility of cordage, in all its varieties, is most conspicuous in the rigging and equipment of vessels; and the extensive demand for it, in this application, renders rope-making one of the most important and extensive of the primitive trades.
17. Nor does the utility of cordage end with its application to the purposes for which it was originally designed. Old ropes are converted into oakum by untwisting and picking them to pieces. The oakum thus produced is driven into the seams of vessels, to render them water-tight.
18. As regards the invention of this art, nothing can be gathered from ancient records. We only know, in general, that cordage was in considerable use among the nations of antiquity, especially among the Greeks and Romans, who probably learned its application to rigging vessels from the Phœnicians.
