CHAPTER III 



ROD-MAKING: 



SPLITTING OUT, STRAIGHTENING, 

 AND ASSEMBLING THE STRIPS 



That genius surely had an inspiration who first 

 conceived the idea of constructing an angling-rod 

 hexagonally, in longitudinal sections composed of 

 glued and silken-bound triangular strips of the 

 strongest, outer part only of the walls of bamboo- 

 cane, thus achieving straight and practically solid 

 joints, equally elastic and resistant in all directions, 

 and of a hitherto unheard-of strength in comparison 

 with their delicate caliber and astonishingly light 

 weight. Kit Clarke, noted veteran angler and au- 

 thor of Where the Wild Trout Hide, and who died 

 only recently, in his eighty-fifth year, credits the in- 

 vention to Sam Phillipi, a gunmaker of Easton, Pa., 

 about the year 1862. 



But while the standard split-bamboo, as now 

 known, is probably of American origin, the credit for 

 the first rods made of actual rent cane-strips we have 

 to admit belongs to England. 3 The Phillipi rod- 



3 For the following data concerning the history of the " split-bamboo " 

 we are indebted to articles by Messrs. William Mitchell and Lawrence D. 



49 



