ROPE-MAKING. The name Rope is gene rally confined to the larger descriptions of cordage, such as exceed an inch in circum ference, though the principles of formation are much the same for cordage of every size ; the smaller sizes are known by various names.
In rope-making, whether for large or small ropes, the first process consists in twisting the hemp into thick threads, called This process, which resembles ordinary spin ning, is performed with various kinds of ma chinery. The common mode of spinning rope yarns by hand is performed in the rope-ground or rope-walk, an inclosed slip of level ground, sometimes 600 feet or more in length. At one end of this ground a spinning-wheel is setup, which gives motion by a band to several small rollers or whirls. Each whirl had a small hook formed on the end of its axis next the walk. Each of the spinners is provided with a bundle of dressed hemp, laid round his waist, with the bight or double in front, and the ends passing each other at his back, from which he draws out a sufficient number of fibres to form a rope-yarn of the required size; and, after slightly twisting them together' with his fingers, he attaches them to the hook of a whirl. The whirl being now set in motion by turning the wheel, the skein is twisted into a rope-yarn, the spinner walking backwards down the rope-walk, supporting the yarn with one hand, which is protected by a wetted piece of coarse cloth or flannel, while with the other he regulates the quantity of fibres drawn from the bundle of hemp by the revolution of the yarn. The degree of twist depends on the velocity with which the wheel is turned, com bined with the retrograde pace of the spinner. When the spinner has traversed the whole length of the rope-walk (or sooner, if the yarns are not required to be so long), he calls out, and another spinner detaches the yarn from the whirl, and gives it to a person who carries it aside to a reel, while the second spinner attaches his own hemp to the whirl-hook. The hemp, being dry and elastic, would in stantly untwist if the yarn were now set at liberty. The first spinner, therefore, keeps fast hold of it all the while that the reeler winds it up, walking slowly up the walk, so as to keep the yarn equally tight all the way. When it is all wound up, the spinner holds it till another is ready to follow it on the reel. Sometimes, instead of being wound on a reel as they are made, the yarns are laid together in large hooks attached to posts at the side of the walk, until about four hundred are col lected together, when they are coiled up in a haul, or skein, in which state they are ready for tarring. In some roperies machines have
been introduced, especially one invented by Mr. Lang of Greenock, for spinning yarns.
The yarns being thus spun, they are warped or stretched to a given length, in order that they may, when formed into a strand, bear the strain equally. When the rope is to be tarred, that operation is usually performed upon the yarns immediately after their being warped, as the-application of. tar to the yarns previous to their combination is necessary to the complete penetration of the whole substance of the rope. ' The most common method of tarring the yarns is to draw them in hauls or skeins through the tar-kettle by a capstan; but some times the yarns are passed singly through the tar, being wound off' one reel on to another, and the superfluous tar being taken off by passing the yarn through a hole surrounded with spongy oakum.
In making large cordage, from fifteen to twenty yarns are formed into a strand, and three or more such strands are afterwards combined into a rope. The twist of the strand is in an opposite direction to that of the yarns. In closing or laying the rope, three strands are stretched at length along the walk, and at tached at one end to separate but contiguous hooks, and at the other to a single hook ; and they are twisted together by turning the single hook in a direction contrary to. that of the other three; a piece of wood called a top, in the form of a truncated cone, being placed between the strands, and kept during the operation gently forced into the angle formed by the strands, where they are united by the closing or twisting of the rope. As the rope shortens in closing, one end only of the appa • ratus is fixed, the other being on a moveable sledge, whose motion up the rope-walk is capable of regulation by suitable tackle at tached to it, or by loading it with weights. The top also is mounted on a sledge, for closing large cordage, and its rate of motion may be retarded, in order to give greater firmness to the twist of the rope. Ropes formed in this manner are said to be shroud-laid, or hawser. laid.