COi 
of its twist. Two such yarns may be put on 
the whirl of a spinning, wheel, and thrown, 
like flaxen yarn, so as to make sewing thread. 
It is in this way, indeed, that the sailmakers’ 
sewing thread is manufactured ; and when it 
has been kept on the reel, or on balls or bob- 
bins, for some time, it retains its twist as well 
as its uses require. But this is by no means 
the case with yarns spun for great cordage. 
The hemp is so elastic, the number of libres 
twisted together is so great, and the diameter 
of the yarn (which is a sort of lever on which 
the elasticity of the fib-re exerts itself) is so 
considerable, that no keeping will make the 
fibres retain this constrained position. The 
end of a rope-yarn being thrown loose, it 
w ill immediately untwist, and this with con- 
siderable force and speed. It would, there- 
fore, be a fruitless attempt to twist two such 
yarns together; yet the ingenuity of man has 
contrived to make use of this very tendency 
to untwist not only to counteract itself, but 
even to produce another and a permanent 
twist, which requires force to undo it, and 
which will recover itself when this force is 
removed. Every person must recollect, that 
when he had twisted a packthread very hard 
with his fingers between his two hands, if he 
slackens the thread by bringing his hands 
nearer together, the packthread will immedi- 
ately curl up, running into loops or kinks, 
and will even twist itself into a neat and firm 
cord. 
The component parts of a rope are called 
strands, and the operation of uniting them 
with a permanent twist is called laying or 
closing, the latter term being chiefly appro- 
priated to cables and other very large cord- 
age. 
Lines and cordage less than 1$ inches cir- 
cumference are laid at the spinning-wheel. 
The workman fastens the ends of each of two 
or three yarns to separate whirl-hooks. The 
remote ends are united in a knot. This is 
put on one of the hooks of a swivel called the 
loper, represented in fig. 213, and care is 
taken that the yarns are of equal length and 
twist. A piece of soft cord is put on the 
other hook of the loper; and, being put over 
a pulley several feet from the ground, a 
weight is hung on it, which stretches the 
yarn. Wheii the workman sees that they 
are equally stretched, he orders the wheel to 
be turned in the same direction as when twin- 
ing the yams. This would twine them harder ; 
but the swivel of the loper gives way to the 
strain, and the yarns immediately twist 
around each other, and form a line or cord. 
In doing this, the yarns lose their twist. This 
is restored by the wheel. But this simple 
operation would make a very bad line, which 
would be slack, and not hold its twist; for, 
by the turning of the loper, the strands twist 
immediately together, to a great distance 
from the loper. By this turning of the loper 
the yarns are untwisted. The wheel restores 
their twist only to that part of the yarns that 
remains separate from the others, but cannot 
do it in that part where they are already 
twined round each other, because their mu- 
tual pressure prevents the twist from advanc- 
ing. It is, therefore, necessary to retard this 
tendency to twine, by keeping the yarns 
apart. This is done by a little tool called the 
top, represented in fig. 214. 
It is a truncated cone, having three or more 
notches along its sides, and a handle called 
ROPE-MAKING. 
the staff. This is put between tile strands, ' 
the small end next the loper, and it is pressed 
gently into the angle formed by the yarns 
which lie in the notches. The wheel being 
now turned, the yarns are more twisted, or 
hardened up, and their pressure on tire top 
gives it a strong tendency to come out of the 
angle, and also to turn round. The w orkman 
does not allow this till he thinks the yarns 
Sufficiently hardened. Then he yields to the 
pressure, and the top comes away from the 
swivel, which immediately turns round, and 
the line begins to lay. Gradually yielding to 
this pressure, the w orkman slowly comes up 
towards the wheel, and the laying goes on, 
till the top is at last close to the wheel, and 
the work is done. In the mean time, the 
yarns are shortened, both by the twining of 
each and the laying of the cord. The weight, 
therefore, gradually rises. The use of this 
weight is evidently to oblige the yarn to take 
a proper degree of twist, and not run into 
kinks. 
A cord, or line, made in this way, has al- 
ways some tendency to twist a little more. 
However little friction there may be in the 
loper, there is some, so that the turns which 
the cord has made in the laying, are not 
enough to balance completely the elasticity 
of the yarns ; and the weight being append- 
ed, causes the strands to be more nearly in 
the direction of the axis, in the same manner 
as it would stretch and untwist a little any 
rope to which it is hung. On the whole, 
however, the twist of a laid line is permanent, 
and not like that upon thread doubled or 
thrown in a mill, which remains only in con- 
sequence of the great softness and flexibility 
of the yarn. 
The process for laying or closing large 
cordage is considerably different from this. 
The strands of which the rope is composed 
consist of many yarns, and require a consi- 
derable degree of hardening. This cannot 
be done by a whirl driven by a wheel-band ; 
it requires the power of a crank turned by 
the hand. The strands, when properly hard- 
ened, become very stiff, ana when bent 
round the top, are not able to transmit force 
enough for laying the heavy and unpliant rope 
which forms beyond it. The elastic twist of 
the hardened strands must, therefore, be as- 
sisted by an external force. All this requires 
a different machinery and a different pro- 
cess. 
At the upper end of the walk is fixed up 
the tackle-board, fig. 215. This consists of a 
strong oaken plank called a breast-board, 
having three or more holes in it, such as A, 
B, C, fitted with brass or iron plates. Into 
these are put iron cranks, called heavers, 
which have hooks or forelocks, and keys, on 
the ends of their spindles. They are placed 
at such a distance from each other, that the 
workmen do not interfere with each other 
while turning them round. This breast-board 
is fixed to the top of strong posts well secur- 
ed by struts or braces facing the lower end of 
the walk. At the lower end is another breast- 
board fixed to the upright posts of a sledge, 
which may be loaded with stones or other 
weights. Similar cranks are placed in the 
holes of this breast-board. The whole goes 
by the name of the sledge; (see fig. 216). 
The top necessary for closing large cordage 
is too heavy to be held in the hand: it there- 
fore has a long staff, which has a truck on the 
end. Tins rests oft the ground; but even 
this is not enough in laying great cables. 
The top must be siipported oft a carriage, as 
shown in fig. 21 7, Where it must lie very 
steady, and it needs attendance, because the' 
master workman has sufficient employment 
in attending to the manner in which the 
strands close behind the top, and in helping 
them by various methods. The top is, there- 
fore, fixed to the carriage by lashing its staff 
to the two upright posts. A piece of soft 
rope, or strap, is attached to the handle of 
the top by the middle, and its two ends are 
brought back and wrapped several times tight 
round the rope, in the direction of its twist, 
and bound dovtu. T his is show n at W, and 
it greatly assists the laying of the rope by its 
friction. This both keeps the top from flying 
too far from the point of union of the strands, 
and brings the strands mote regularly into 
their places. 
The first operation is Warping the yarns. 
At each end of the walk are franies called 
warping frames, which carry a great number 
of reels or winches filled with rope-yariq The 
foreman of the walk takes off a yarn end from 
each, till he has made ftp the number neces- 
sary for his rope or strand, and bringing the 
ends together, he passes the whole through 
an iron ring fixed to the top of a stake driven 
into the ground, and draws them through : 
then a knot is tied on the end of the bundle, 
and a workman pulls it through this ring till 
the intended length is drawn off the reels. 
The end is made fast at the bottom of the 
walk, or at the sledge, and the foreman comes 
back along the skain of yarns, to see that none 
are hanging slacker than the rest. He takes 
up in his hand such as are slack, and draw r s 
them tight, keeping them so till he reaches 
the upper end, where he cuts the yarns to a 
length, again adjusts their tightness, and join# 
them all together in a knot, to which he fixes 
the hook of a tackle, the other- block of which 
is fixed to a firm post, called the warping- 
post. The skain is well stretched by this 
tackle, and then separated into its different 
strands. Each of these is knotted apart at 
both ends. The knots at their upper ends 
are made fast to the hooks of the cranks in 
the tackle-board ; and those at the lower ends 
are fastened to the cranks in the sledge. The 
sledge itself is kept in its place by a tackle, 
by which the strands are again stretched in 
their places, and every thing adjusted, so 
that the sledge stands square on the w-alk, 
and then a proper weight is laid on it. The 
tackle is now cast off, and the cranks are 
turned at both ends, in the contrary direction 
to the twist of the yarns. (In some kinds of 
cordage the cranks are turned the same way 
with the spinning twist). By this the strands 
are twisted and hardened up ; and as they 
contract by this operation, the sledge is drag- 
ged up the walk. When the foreman thinks 
the strands sufficiently hardened, which he 
estimates by the motion of the sledge, he or- 
ders the heavers at the cranks to stop. The 
middle strand at the sledge is taken off from 
the crank. This crank is taken out, and a 
stronger one put in its place at D, fig. 216. 
The other strands are taken off from their 
cranks, and are all joined on the hook which 
is now in the middle hole. The top is then 
placed betw een the strands, and being pressed 
home to the point of their union, the carriage 
is placed under it, and it is firmly fixed 
