ROPE making, is an art of very great importance ; and there are few that bet ter deserve the attention of the intelli gent observer. Hardly any art can be carried on without the assistance of the rope-maker Cordage makes the very sinews and muscles of a ship ; and every improvement which can be made in its preparation, either in respect to strength or pliableness, must be of immense ser vice to the mariner, and to the commerce and the defence of nations. The aim of the rope-maker is to unite the strength of a great number of fibres, and the first part of his process is spinning of rope yarns, that is, twisting the hemp in the first instance, This is done in various ways, and with different machinery, ac cording to the nature of the intended cordage. We shall confine our descrip tion to the manufacture of the larger kinds, such as are used for the standing and running rigging of ships. An alley, or walk, is inclosed for the purpose, about two hundred fathoms long, and of a breadth suited to the extent of the manu facture. It is sometimes covered above. At the upper end of this rope-walk is set up the spinning-wheel. The band of the wheel goes over several rollers, called whirls, turning on pivots in brass holes. The pivots at one end come through the frame, and terminate in little hooks. The wheel, being turned by a winch, gives motion in one direction to all those whirls The spinner has a bundle of dressed hemp round his waist, with the two ends meeting before him. The hemp is laid in this bundle in the same way that women spread the flax on the dis taff. There is great variety in this ; but the general aim is to lay the fibres in such a manner, that as long as the bundle lasts there may be an equal number of the ends at the extremity, and that a fibre may never offer itself double, or in a bight. The spinner draws out a proper number of fibres, twist§ them with his fingers, and having got a sufficient length detached, he fixes it to the hook of a whirl. The wheel is now turned, and the skein is twisted, becoming what is called rope-yarn, and the spinner walks backwards down the rope-walk. Tke part already twisted, draws along with it more fibres out of the bundle. The spin ner aids this with his fingers, supplying hemp in due proportion as he walks away from the wheel, and taking care that the fibres come in equally from sides of his bundle, and that they enter always with their ends, and not by the middle, which would double them. He
should also endeavour to enter every fibre at the heart of the yarn. This will cause all the fibres to mix equally in making it up, and will make the work smooth, be cause one end of each fibre is by this means buried among the rest, and the other end only lies outward ; and this, in passing through the grasp of the spinner, who presses it tight with his thumb and palm, is also made to Ile smooth. A good spinner endeavours always to supply the hemp in the form of a thin flat skein, with his left hand, while his right is em ployed in grasping firmly the yarn that is twining off, and in holding it tight from the whirl, that it may not run into loops or kinks. It is evident, that both the ar rangement Of' the fibres and the degree of twisting, depend on the skill and dex terity of the spinner, and that he must be instructed, not by a book, but by a mas ter. The degree of twist depends on the rate of the wheel's motion, combined with the retrograde walk of the spinner. We may suppose him arrived at the lower end of the walk, or as far as is necessary for the intended length of his yarn. He calls out, and another spinner imme diately detaches the yarn from the hook of the whirl, gives it to another, who car ries it aside to the reel ; and this second spinner attaches his own hemp to the whirl-hook. In the mean time, the first spinner keeps fast hold of the end of his yarn ; for the hemp, being dry, is very elastic, and if he were to let it go out of his hand, it would instantly untwist, and become little better than loose hemp. He waits, therefore, till he sees the reeler begin to turn the reel, and he goes slow ly up the walk, keeping the yarn of an equal tightness all the way, till he arrives at the wheel, where he waits with his yarn in his hand till another spinner has finished his yarn. The first spinner takes it off the whirl-hook, joins it to his own, that it may follow it on the reel, and be gins a new yarn. The second part of the process is the conversion of the yarns into what may, with propriety, be called a rope, cord, or line. That we may have a clear conception of the principle which regulates this part of the process, we shall begin with the' simplest possible case, the union of two yarns into one line.