CORDAGE. 



249 



results with the different fibers in use. If the 

 fibers or any of them are twisted too much, 

 the finished rope is weakened, and has a tend- 

 ency to kink ; if too little twist is given, the 

 rope is "dead,'' and the fibers do not properly 

 combine their strength. 



Fi;:. 1 is copied from a tomb at Thebes, 

 of the time of Thothmes III, the Pharoah of 

 the Exodus. It represents the interior of a 

 rope-maker's shop, and cleverly indicates the 

 material used (leather) by showing the hide 

 of an animal, presumably a goat, and two coils 

 of thongs cut from the hide and ready for 

 laying up into rope. The Egyptian rope- 

 makers worked in couples. One sat on a stool 

 and payed out the yarns, while the other, with 

 a belt about his waist, walked backward, twist- 

 ing as he went, and regulated the tension by 

 his weight. The yarns were made fast to a 

 swivel-hook, which in turn was attached to 

 the belt, and a weighted lever or twister en- 

 abled him to apply the necessary force of tor- 

 sion. Hemp, papyrus - fiber, palm -fiber, and 

 hair were also used by the Egyptians and by 

 other nations of antiquity in rope-making. 



The initial factor in modern rope-making, 

 shown in Fig. 2, is known as the " rope-maker's 



FIG. 2. ROPE-MAKER'S WINCH. 



winch." Such machines are often carried on 

 shipboard. With an ordinary winch, about fif- 

 teen inches in diameter, it is possible to make 

 good two- inch rope. A is the plan of the cogged 

 wheels, B is a "loper," or swivel-hook, to 

 which the farther ends of the yarns are attached. 

 C is the winch complete and in service, and 

 D is the " top " a conical piece of hard wood 

 scored at the sides, so that it can be grasped 

 by the hand without checking the passage of 

 the strands. Four hooks are provided, so that 

 either three-stranded or four-stranded rope can 

 be made, and the central hook is used upon 

 occasion for giving an extra twist to large rope 

 "hardening it up," as the sailor's phrase 

 goes, a service for which the small hooks are 

 not strong enough. One revolution of the 



large wheel gives nine turns to each of the 

 small ones and their respective hooks. 



The winch is generally used to make over 

 old junk into serviceable stuff. In this case, 

 one end of the length of junk is attached to 

 the loper, and the other end is untwisted suffi- 

 ciently to allow the separate strands to be at- 

 tached to the winch-hooks and insert the top. 

 By turning the crank in the required direction 

 it is evident that the twist will be removed 

 simultaneously from the rope and from the 

 separate strands that compose it. By reversing 

 the motion of the crank the rope can be again 

 laid up as it was before, or fresh yarns can be 

 substituted when required, and the junk made 

 over into serviceable rope. \\ hen new rope is 

 to be made, fresh yarns are attached to the 

 winch- hooks, the other ends being made fast 

 to the loper, and the crank is turned until a 

 sufficient tension is imparted to the separate 

 strands. The top is then inserted between the 

 strands near the loper, and the crank is turned 

 in the opposite direction. This permits the 

 strands to twist around one another, the pro- 

 cess being followed up and regulated by a man 

 who holds the top. "When four-stranded rope 

 is handled, the heart, or core, passes through a 

 central hole in the top and is attached to the 

 large central hook of the winch. 



Such is the simplest process of rope-makinir 

 by machinery, but it is largely a hand process 

 requiring at least one man at the crank, one or 

 two at the top to overhaul the separating or 

 uniting strands, and a third or fourth at the 

 loper to regulate the strain upon the entire 

 length of rope. In manufacturing rope on a 

 large scale, far greater rapidity of action is es- 

 sential, and further combinations of machinery 

 are necessary. 



The process with hemp is taken as the stand- 

 ard. When the bales are opened the fibers 

 are found somewhat loosely folded in large 

 hanks or bundles looking like masses of flaxen 

 hair. These are hackled (sometimes spelled 

 "heckled ") or combed out to remove the dust, 

 woody fiber, and the like. The hand-hackle is 

 a board set at a steep incline, and having at 

 its upper end a row of strong sharp steel hooks. 

 The hackler throws the end of the bunch of 

 hemp against these hooks, which engage it 

 and hold it firmly, while with a coarse comb 

 he straightens out the fibers and with a sharp 

 knife cuts away foreign substances. Machin- 

 ery has been invented that does away with 

 hand-haokling. When the first hackling is 

 done by hand, the hemp is then thrown into 

 a box and subjected to a further hackling pro- 

 cess by machinery. This is effected first by a 

 " spreader," a sort of endless comb formed by 

 steel teeth about three inches long set in an 

 endless band, which revolves over drums. The 

 hemp is fed to the spreader at one end and is 

 gathered into a loose strand called a ''sliver '' 

 at the other end. Thence it passes over 

 " drawing-boards," not unlike the spreaders 

 in construction, but which move faster, reduce 



