22 AN ANGLER'S YEAR 



greatest advance made in the art of sea-angling is 

 the invention of the wire line. As has been said, the 

 problem of the past few years has been to reduce the 

 resistance of the line in heavy tides, and thus lessen the 

 weight of lead necessary to keep the tackle on or near 

 the bottom. Mr. A. W. Parker, whose boom has been 

 already referred to, hunting about for such a line, 

 bethought him of wire, and, after a few trials, decided 

 that tinned iron wire such as is used for aerated water 

 bottles would do ; he used this substance for some 

 time, finding a marked gain in the small amount of lead 

 necessary in heavy tides. Two objections were found, 

 however. The first was that the line did not run freely, 

 being too stiff to run easily over the pulley end-ring, 

 even when a large-sized one (with a sheave as big as a 

 shilling) was used. The second objection was fatal, 

 namely, that if the greatest care was not used the wire 

 kinked and, on any subsequent strain, broke at the kink. 

 Accordingly he tried phosphor-bronze wire and, after 

 consultation with a firm of expert wire braiders, got an 

 excellent braided phosphor-bronze wire line, which the 

 writer can vouch from personal experience was very 

 nearly perfect for the work. This, however, did not 

 wear satisfactorily, so has been to a great extent super- 

 seded by a similarly braided 16-strand line of slightly 

 annealed (or rather, softened) German silver. This line 

 is still upon its trial, but seems, with pulley wheel blocks 

 and a large pulley end-ring, to work admirably in the 

 hands of expert anglers as regards power and sensitive- 

 ness, while sea water has apparently but little effect 

 upon it. There is, however, a tendency for the line to 

 carry away unexpectedly where it is joined to the 

 bottom tackle. It should, therefore, be spliced to a foot 

 of silk or hemp. 



Another wire is spoken well of by several experts who 

 have used it ; the composition is supposed to be secret, 

 but the material is known in the tackle trade as the 

 Hercules Rust-proof Twisted Wire. Of this second 

 class of wire the writer has had no personal experience, 

 save for traces and paternosters, when it at once 



