CORDAGE. This is the general name for all manufactures of string, twine, cord, lines, rope, hawsers and cables made of twisted fibres. Fibres are first combed out or drawn into par allel position, and then a few are twisted to gether forming yarn or thread. Two or more yarns twisted together oppositely form a strand. Two or three small strands twisted form string or twine. A thick string is termed a cord, and three or more cords laid together form. a rope. There is no fixed and accepted definition of the terms cord and rope, however. Some manufacturers use the word rope for all diameters of an inch or more, and some begin at the half inch. The public speak of a half inch clothesline, and the mariner calls small ropes lines. It therefore appears that small ropes are called cords and lines indiscrimi nately. The manner of twisting the cords to form a rope determines the lay. Three ropes are laid together to form a hawser and three hawsers a cable. The common lay consists of three strands or cords, but a shroud-laid rope has a core about which three other strands are laid. Binder twine is made with a right-hand twist, but rope-yarn requires both right-hand and left-hand twists. Ropes have to be lubri cated to keep them from wearing out by their own internal friction, and also to keep out the moisture which would invite rot. Sometimes tallow or graphite with fish-oil is used, but tar is the'-cheap and common lubricant. In making tarred rope the yarn is unwound from bobbins to coppers, and in its travel dipped in hot tar, being then passed between rollers to .squeeze out the excess of tar and spread it umformly Where nine-thread and larger yarn is used the tarring is usually deferred, being applied in the completed rope. Wire ropes are not a part of the cordage industry. (See TELPHERAGE). Al though rope-making constituted one of the most important branches of business fiom the earliest days of the American colonies, like almost all the local manufacturies, it was many years before it began to develop sufficient strength to entitle it to be regarded as an in dustry. The first rope-walk in America was constructed at Boston by John Harrison in 164Z just 12 years after the town had been founded, and prior to this time, all such. prod ucts that had been required in the malung of rigging and tackle were either brought dtrect from England by the captains of the various vessels? or were imported into this country for sale. In fact, it was not until the Boston ship builders had commenced the construction of the 160-ton Trial that the several advantages to be derived from a local rope-walk were fully appreciated, and, it was at their instigation that Harrison, a Salisbury rope-maker, was invited to come to Boston, where he set up his "rope field,* 10 feet 10 inches wide, on the land ad joining his house on Purchase street, at the foot of Summer street. At this time such work w-as
done out of doors. Posts large enough to permit of the making of the largest sizes of rope then in use were firmly fixed in the ground in open fields, and upon these the cords were suspended and the ropes made.
Harrison's coming to Boston had been largely due to the fact that he was assured that he should have a monopoly of the business for a term of 21 years, and when, at the end of that time, the town officials gave permission to a John Heyman to ((set up posts,* the fact that the latter was restrained in business to the tlibertie onely to make fishing lines,* did not prevent the older rope-maker from protesting against what he considered the invasion of his nghts. Accordingly Heyman's license was re voked, and Harnson had everything his own way up to the day of his death.
With the "original* rope-maker dead, how ever, the business began to extend its influence into other parts of the town. Rope-walks mul tiplied in number most rapidly in the West and North Ends, until there were finally no less than 14 of them. In 1793, an additional impetus was given to the business by the action of the general court in granting a bounty for Ameri can-made rope. On 30 July 1794, the date of the great fire, seven rope-walks were destroyed, and the selectmen, who had been flooded with protests from citizens who objected to this busi ness being carried on in the heart of the town, refused to grant further licenses except upon the low lands west of the Common. As the result, six large rope walks were immediately constructed at that point They ranged front 20 to 24 feet in width and were each about 900 feet in length. Destroyed by fire in 1806, five of them were rebuilt, only to be burned again in 1819. During the first year of the mayoralty of the elder Quincy, the walks were removed still further out of town for the purpose of improving the neighborhood around the Com mon, but by the latter part of the 18th century !he industry had assumed such proportions that it was generally admitted that °the men em ployed in this work outnumbered any other class of mechanics in Boston.* At this time the work in the rope-walks was performed by hand, the method having been described by Longfel low in his poem, 'The Ropewalk.) The twist ing of the fibres was accomplished by a man who walked backward down the °walk,* spin ning from the hemp which was strung around. his waist. The twist was imparted to the rope by a wheel, which was at first turned by a boy, although this purpose was afterward attained by the use of horse, or even water power.