407 
the hempen rope usually worked in that situation is 6 lbs. 
per fathom. The wire rope was at work four and a half 
months, breaking several times, and doing much damage. 
The average cost of a hempen rope in that situation is 14s. 
per month : the cost of the wire rope was 83s. per month. 
The rope c was wound round a drum 4 feet in diameter ; 
its weight was 4 lbs. per fathom : the weight of the hempen 
rope usually worked in that situation is 6 lbs. per fathom. 
The wire rope was at work two and a half months, breaking 
in that time very often, and doing a vast amount of damage. 
The average cost of a hempen rope in that situation is 17s. 
per month : the cost of the wire rope was 160s. per month. 
So far the experiments made were decidedly against the wire 
rope, but he still thought that they would be made to answer. 
The failure in Smith's ropes appeared to arise from imper- 
fection in their manufacture, and principally from the wires 
being each of a very small diameter. He found that after 
the ropes had been at work a short time, they had quite a 
bristly appearance, arising from the great number of broken 
wires. Having seen a specimen of Heimann & Kuper's wire 
rope^ he observed that the wires were of much larger diameter 
than those in Smith's ; the rope also appeared to be manu- 
factured in a superior manner. He, in consequence, ordered 
one, and put it to work in the same situation as the rope of 
Smith's (a) ; its weight laas also the same as that rope : it 
had now been at work four months, and did not show the 
slightest symptoms of wear, none of the wires being broken, 
all maintaining their position, and there being every appearance 
of that rope answering his expectation. It had been coated 
every three or four weeks with a preparation of tar and 
tallow. The advantage of wire ropes would, he thought, 
be mainly on Incline planes ; and, if they could be made to 
endure the wear and tear of hempen ropes, which he now did 
not doubt, they would on long Inclines have a very decided 
