714 ROPE-MAKING 



standing and running rigging, it requires to be merely well covered. Tarred cordage 

 has been found to be weaker than what is untarred, when it is new ; but the tarred 

 rope is not so easily injured by immersion in water. 



The last part of the process of rope-making is to lay the cordage. For this pur- 

 pose two or more yarns are attached at one end to a hook. The hook is then turned 

 the contrary way from the twist of the individual yarn, and thus forms what is 

 called a strand. Three strands, sometimes four, besides a central one, are then 

 stretched at length, and attached at one end to three contiguous but separate hooks, 

 but at the other end to a single hook ; and the process of combining them together, 

 which is effected by turning the single hook in a direction contrary to that of the 

 other three, consists in so regulating the progress of the twists of the strands round 

 their common axis, that the three strands receive separately at their opposite ends 

 just as much twist as is taken out of them, by their twisting the contrary way, in the 

 process of combination. 



Large ropes are distinguished into the cable-laid and the hawser-laid. The former 

 nre composed of nine strands, namely, three great strands, each of these consisting of 

 three smaller secondary strands, which are individually formed with an equal number 

 of primitive yarns. A cable-laid rope, 8 inches in circumference, is made up of 333 

 yarns, or threads, equally divided among the nine secondary strands. A hawser-laid 

 rope consists of only three strands, each composed of a number of primitive yarns, 

 proportioned to the size of the rope ; for example, if it be 8 inches in circumference, 

 it may have 414 yarns, equally divided among three strands. Thirty fathoms of yarn 

 are reckoned equivalent in length to 18 fathoms of rope cable-laid, and to 20 fathoms 

 hawser-laid. Kopes of from 1 inch to 2 inches in circumference are usually hawser- 

 laid ; of from 3 to 10 inches, are either hawser- or cable-laid ; but when more than 10 

 inches, they are always cable-laid. 



Every hand-spinner in the dockyard is required to spin, out of the best hemp, six 

 threads, each 160 fathoms long, for a quarter of a day's work. A hawl of yarn, in 

 the warping process, contains 336 threads. 



The following are Captain Huddart's improved principles of the rope manufac- 

 ture : 



1. To keep the yarns separate from each other, and to draw them from bobbins re- 

 volving upon skewers, so as to maintain the twist while the strand, or primary cord, 

 is forming. 



2. To pass them through a register, which divides them by circular shells of holes ; 

 the number in each concave shell being conformable to the distance from the centre 

 of the strand, and the angle which the yarns make with a line parallel to it, and which 

 gives them a proper position to enter. 



3. To employ a tube for compressing the strand, and preserving the cylindrical 

 figure of its surface. 



4. To use a gauge for determining the angle which the yarns in the outside shell 

 make with a line parallel to the centre of the strand, when registering ; because, accord- 

 ing to the angle made by the yarns in this shell, the relative lengths of all the yarns 

 in the strand will be determined. 



5. To harden up the strand, and thereby increase the angle in the outside shell ; 

 which compensates for the stretching of the yarns, and the compression of the 

 strands. 



The improvements in the manufacture of cordage at present in use either in Her 

 Majesty's yards or in private rope-grounds, owe their superiority over the old method 

 of making cordage to Captain Huddart's invention of the register-plate and tube. 



Captain Huddart invented and took a patent for a machine, which, by registering 

 the strand at a short length from the tube, and winding it up as made, preserved an 

 uniformity of twist, or angle of formation, from end to end of the rope, which cannot 

 be accomplished by the method of forming the strands down the ground, where the 

 twist is communicated from one end to the other of an elastic body upwards of 300 

 yards in length. This registering-machine was constructed with such correctness, 

 that when some were afterwards required, no alteration could be made with advantage. 



A number of yarns cannot be put together in a cold state, without considerable 

 vacancies, into which water may gain admission ; Captain Huddart, therefore, formed 

 the yarns into a strand immediately as they came from the tar-kettle, which he was 

 enabled to do by his registering-machine, and the result was most satisfactory. This 

 combination of yarns was found by experiment to be 14 per cent, stronger than the 

 cold register ; it constituted a body of hemp and tar impervious to water, and had 

 great advantage over any other cordage, particularly for shrouds, as, after they were 

 settled on the mast-head, and properly set up, they had scarcely any tendency to 

 stretch, effectually secured the mast, and enabled the ship to carry the greatest press 

 of sail. 



