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rope, (namely 7 tons) although the weight of the first was 
only 4i lbs. per fathom, while that of the last was 8^ lbs. 
The relative prices are 3s. and Ss. 6d. per fathom. Here 
the size of the wire rope is about 40 per cent, less ; its 
weight per fathom is 50 per cent, less, and its prime cost per 
fathom is 14 per cent, less, as compared with hempen rope of 
the same strength. 
So much, then, for the statements of the wire rope makers ; 
who, of course, are anxious to set off their own wares to the 
best advantage. Let us now turn to the experience of the 
consumers, and see whether the presumed superiority of wire 
ropes over hempen ones has or has not been verified by prac' 
tical trials, 
I shall first give you the experiments made with Smith's ropes 
by Colliery Proprietors, Railway Companies, and others : — 
At Newton colliery, near Castleford, a round wire rope, 
four inches circumference, was introduced into the engine 
pit by Messrs. Stansfeld & Briggs, for the purpose of raising 
the pumps and other heavy weights. This rope was calcu- 
lated to lift twenty tons ; but in two months after its intro- 
duction, it broke with a weight of only five tons. This was 
the greatest strain to which the rope was ever put, and the 
fracture was occasioned not by a sudden jerk, but by a 
gradual and steady pull. The pulley over which it had to 
pass was two feet diameter, and the drum five feet diameter. 
This rope was nearly 200 yards in length, and cost 90s. per 
cwt. The breakage occurred upon the pulley, and probably 
the smallness of the pulley was in some measure the cause of 
the fracture ; for experience has proved that small pullies 
and small drums are prejudicial to the action of wire ropes, 
by bending them too sharply. The rope was for the most 
part kept coiled upon the capstan, and was therefore pre- 
served from the corrosive influence of the saline ingredients 
with which the water at Newton is impregnated. 
