XIV, 6 
King: Philippine Bast- fiber Ropes 
599 
The strips of Sterculia stipularis bast are lacelike and present 
a sievelike appearance. They are uniformly ochraceous buff. 
Some are 12 millimeters wide, though most of them vai*y between 
4 and 5 millimeters. They are thin, fluctuate between 0.15 milli- 
meter and 0.43 millimeter in thickness, and have a mean length 
of 980 millimeters. The strands of the rope are eight strips 
thick. 
When dry, the rope is very low in tensile strength and in 
breaking length. Wetting raises the tensile strength about 37 
per cent. Notwithstanding its low tenacity, the Filipinos fre- 
quently use this bast for making rope. They state that it is 
durable in the wet season. The rope finds special application 
for making hog traps. 
All of the five wet specimens broke in eye-splices, whereas only 
two of the dry test pieces failed in this manner. The maximum 
variations from the mean tensile strength in the dry and the 
wet series were 29 and 22 per cent, respectively. 
A summary of the tests of this species made in the Bureau of 
Science is given in Table XVII. 
Table XVII . — Physical tests of rope made from the bast of Sterculia 
stipularis. 
[Rope made at Dolores, Abra Province.] 
Mean diameter: 
Millimeters 
Inches 
7.0 
0.28 
Mean perimeter, or girth : 
Millimeters 
Inches 
22 
0.87 
True mean sectional area: 
Square millimeters 
Square inches 
29.5 
0.046 
Ultimate tensile strength (dry) : 
Mean in kilograms 
Maximum in kilograms 
Minimum in kilograms 
Mean in pounds 
Maximum in pounds 
Minimum in pounds 
79.4 
102 
59.4 
175 
225 
131 
Ultimate tensile strength (wet) : 
Mean in kilograms 
Maximum in kilograms 
Minimum in kilograms 
Mean in pounds 
Maximum in pounds 
Minimum in pounds 
108 
136 
84.8 
239 
299 
187 
