MACHINES FOR ROPE-MAKING. 227 



ADVANTAGES OF THE PATENTED SYSTEM 



IN THE 

 PREPARATION OF HEMP FOR STRONG ROPE AND CORDAGE, 



As demonstrated at the Instance of the Lords of the Admiralty 9 on 



the Wth of January 9 1860, the particulars of which were to 



be sent to their Lordships by 



CAPT. GOLDSMITH, C.B., 



SUPERINTENDENT IN HER MAJESTY'S DOCKYARD 

 AT CHATHAM. 



The experiments were entirely under the direction of the 

 dockyard authorities, and took place in the presence of 

 Captain Goldsmith, C.B., superintendent*; Mr. Lavves, store- 

 keeper ; Mr. Pope, master rope-maker ; Mr. Taylor, assistant 

 rope-maker ; and the patentee, Mr. Dickson. The hemp was 

 worked on rope yarns, spun on two machines in the spinning 

 department of the dockyard, both machines being prepared 

 for spinning No. 25 for rope ; and the result, as recorded by 

 the dockyard authorities, was as follows : 



" Rope manufactured from Italian hemp, green as it was 



* Captain Goldsmith and Mr. Lawes both promised that the result of the 

 above trial should be placed before the Lords of the Admiralty, and Mr. Lawes 

 gave me the particulars above stated, and up to last summer, 1862, I found by 

 a letter I wrote to Lord Palmerston on the subject, that no report had been sent 

 to the Admiralty. It thus appears to me, that if a reward be offered by the 

 Admiralty for an improved method of preparing material for rope yarn, "No 

 Irish need apply" at Chatham. However, I shall shortly ask Lord Clarence 

 Paget if he (as Secretary to that branch of the service), considers the ingenuity 

 of Irishmen at such a discount, that they should not havs a chance of intro- 

 ducing improvements in the art of rope-making into Her Majesty's dockyards, 

 and if I have as littlo satisfaction from his lordship on the subject as I had from 

 Lord Palmerston, I must put patriotism on one side, and try my luck at head- 

 quarters in France, by soliciting His Majesty the Emperor of the French to 

 allow me the honour of having my prepared hemp tried in His Majesty's 

 dockyards. 



