FISHING-RODS. 201 



ORIGIN OF THE SPLIT BAMBOO ROD. 



The split bamboo rod being an American institution, 

 and there being no reliable record of its early manufacture, 

 I may be pardoned for giving a brief space to its consid- 

 eration. I consider it the greatest invention ever made per- 

 taining to the art of angling, equaling the invention of 

 the breech-loading rifle and shot-gun for field sports. 



The history of the " split bamboo," " section bamboo," 

 or, as it is sometimes called, the " rent and glued bamboo " 

 rod, although of recent origin dating back only some 

 thirty years is somewhat obscure. Several persons have 

 laid claim to the invention, though with what justice, it 

 has, heretofore, never been clearly determined. 



There is no important mechanical invention that has, in 

 its inception and principle, sprung entirely and spontane- 

 ously from the brain of any single individual, and this 

 will apply to the split bamboo rod as well; for though 

 purely an American invention, as now constructed, the 

 idea, or principle, is really of English origin. Rods formed 

 of several pieces of wood, that is, from two to four longi- 

 tudinal sections mitred and glued together, were made in 

 England many years ago; and Aldred, of London, made 

 rod tips, or, as they are called in England, " tops," of split 

 bamboo, long before the split bamboo rod, proper, was 

 made in this country. Aldred's tops, however, were nec- 

 essarily a failure, from the faulty method of their construc- 

 tion. He made them o/ many short pieces, sawn from be- 

 tween the knots, or leaf-ridges, of the male cane, and 

 spliced, to form continuous lengths. So much for the 

 original idea. 



It is not my province, nor desire, to detract one iota 



