ROPEMAKING. 



Rope- 

 making. 



Fibres of 

 hemp. 



Spinning 

 the yarn. 



Size of rope 

 yarns. 



ROPEMAKING is a highly Important and useful 

 art, by which a great number of delicate fibres are 

 combined together. 



The fibres most commonly used in the manufacture 

 of ropes, are those of hemp, the best kinds of which 

 come from the south of Russia, and are imported into 

 England from Riga and St. Petersburgh. 



The fibres of hemp which compose a rope, seldom 

 exceed in length three feet and a half at an average. 

 They must therefore be twined together so as to unite 

 them into one, and this union is effected by the mu- 

 tual compression of the two fibres. If this compres- 

 sion is too great, the strength of the fibres at the part 

 where they join will be diminished, so that it becomes 

 a matter of great consequence to give them only 

 that degree of twist which is essential to their union. 



The first part of the process of ropemaking, is that 

 of spinning the yarns or threads, which is done in a 

 manner analogous to that of ordinary spinning. The 

 spinner carries a bundle of dressed hemp round his 

 waist. The .two ends of the bundle unite in front. 

 Having drawn out a proper number of fibres with his 

 hand, he twists them with his fingers, and fixing this 

 twisted part to the hook of a whirl, which is driven 

 by a wheel put in motion by an assistant, he walks 

 backward down the ropewalk, the twisted part always 

 drawing out of the bundle round his waist more fibres 

 as in the common spinning wheel. The spinner takes 

 care that these fibres are properly supplied, and that 

 they always enter the twisted part with their ends, 

 and never by their middle. As soon as he has reach- 

 ed the end of the walk, another spinner takes the yarn 

 off the whirl, and gives it to another person to put up- 

 on a reel, while he himself attaches his own hemp to 

 the whirl hook, and proceeds down the walk. When 

 the person at the reel begins to turn, the first spinner 

 who has completed his yarn holds it firmly at the end, 

 and advances slowly up the walk while the reel 

 is turning, keeping it equally tight all the way, till he 

 reaches the reel, where he waits till the second spinner 

 takes his yarn off the whirl hook, and joins it to the 

 end of that of the first spinner, in order that it may 

 follow it on the reel. 



The common size of rope yarns is from one-twelfth 

 of an inch in diameter, to a little more than one-ninth 

 of an inch, about 160 fathoms of them weighing from 

 two and a half to four pounds, as in the following 

 table, the first column showing the sizes of the yarns. 



Sizes, 

 21 

 22 

 23 

 24 

 25 



Ibs. oz. drs. 

 30* 

 2 14 7 

 2 12 8 

 2 10 10 

 2 8 15 



Warping 

 the yarns. 



1 arnng 

 the yarn. 



The next part of the process is that of narping the 

 yarns, or stretching them all to one given length, pre- 

 vious to their being tarred, which is about two hun- 

 dred fathoms in full length rope grounds, and also in 

 putting a slight turn or twist into them. 



The third process in ropemaking is the tarring of the 

 yarn. Sometimes the yarns are made to wind off one 

 reel, and having passed through a vessel of hot tar, are 

 wound up on another, the superfluous tar being 

 removed by causing the yarn to pass through a hole 

 surrounded with spongy oakum ; but the general 



method is to tar it in skains or hanks, which are Rope- 

 drawn by a capstan with a uniform motion through making. 

 the tar kettle. In this process great care must be ta- S ~V""^ 

 ken that the tar is boiling neither too fast nor too 

 slow. Yarn for cables requires more tar than for 

 hawser laid ropes, and for standing and running rig- 

 ging it requires only to be well covered. Tarred 

 cordage has been found to be weaker than what is un- 

 tarred when it is new, bu* the tarred rope acquires 

 strength by keeping. 



The last part of the process of ropemaking is to lay Laying the 

 the cordage. For this purpose two or more yarns are cordage. 

 attached at one end to a hook. The hook is then 

 turned the contrary way from the twist of the indivi- 

 dual 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, and at the 

 other end to a single hook, and the process of combining 

 them together, which is effected by turning the sin- 

 gle 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 combina- 

 tion. In this way is formed what is technically called 

 a shroud laid rope. 



Such was probably the whole process of ropemaking 

 for many ages, till the progress of the maritime art re- 

 quired the use of ropes of a much larger size ; for this 

 could not be advantageously effected by increasing the 

 number of yarns in a strand. Were we to attempt to 

 compose a strand of a great number of yarns, the plies 

 would not have a sufficient number of turns round 

 their common axis to prevent them from slipping 

 when the yarn is stretched ; many of the fibres would 

 be broken on being twisted together into one spiral, 

 " because," as Mr. Chapman remarks, " the outward 

 coat of threads or yarns is exposed to more stress than 

 the internal ones, as will be very evident when it is 

 considered that when two or three hundred yarns are 

 all stretched at length to form one cylindric mass, they 

 will lie at different distances from the centre of the 

 cylinder, and that, when twisted together, the outside 

 yarns form a spiral of some given number of turns 

 found the mass of the included yarns, forming a con- 

 siderable diameter, and are therefore much shortened ; 

 whilst the inner yarns take only the same number of 

 turns round a reduced axis, and from that cause should 

 be less shortened. Therefore it follows, that the out- 

 side yarns only can be in full tension, whilst those 

 within must be more or less puckered up, according to 

 their proximity to the centre." 



From these causes, cables, or large ropes which are 

 said to be cable laid, are formed by the combination of 

 lesser ropes twisted around their common axis, in the 

 same manner as a shroud laid rope is formed by the 

 combination of strands twisted round their common 

 axis. Cables of water ropes afe formed on this princi- 

 ple, even when their size is not very great, as they are 

 thus made more hard and compact, which makes them 

 resist the easy admission of water. 



Such is a brief and general account of the state of 



