Part 37

Ancient civilized peoples had their ropes and cordage, made from such materials as were available in their respective countries. The Egyptians are said to have made rope from leather thongs, and our illustration will be found interesting in this connection. This is from a sculpture taken from a tomb in Thebes of the time of the Pharaoh of the Exodus.

While this scene is said by the best authority to represent the preparation of leather cords for use in lacing sandals, it has been supposed by some to be a representation of rope making. In any event the process is undoubtedly the same as that used in making rope.

The scene is depicted with the true Egyptian faculty for showing details, making words almost unnecessary to an understanding of their pictorial records. We see the raw material in the shape of the hide, and also two well-made coils of the finished product. One of the workmen is cutting a strand from a hide by revolving it and cutting as it turns. Any one who has not tried it will be surprised to see what a good, even string can be cut from a piece of leather in this way.

Another man is arranging and paying out the thongs to a third, who is evidently walking backward in time-honored fashion, twisting as he goes.

Coming down to more recent times we find that rope-making had been going on for centuries with probably very little change, up to the time of the introduction of machinery and the establishment of the factory system.

~HOW ROPE WAS LONG MADE BY HAND~

In the early days to which we have referred, all the yarn for rope-making was spun by hand in the time-honored way. We are able to represent to our readers by the photographs shown, this now almost lost art. The material shown in the pictures is American hemp, which because the earlier machines were not adapted to working this softer fiber, continued to be spun by hand long after manila was spun chiefly on machines.

The hemp was first hackled, as is also shown by our photograph, the hackle or “hechel” being simply a board having long, sharp steel teeth set into it. This combed out the tow or short, matted fiber, leaving the clean, straight hemp. This “strike” of hemp the spinner wrapped about his waist, bringing the ends around his back and tucking them into his belt, thus keeping the material in place without knot or twist, and allowing the fibers to pay out freely.

The workman in our picture is Johnny Moores, an old-time expert hand-spinner, who can walk off backward from the wheel with his wad of hemp, spinning with each hand a thread as fine and even as can be asked for. In the photograph, in order to show the process more clearly, one large yarn is being spun.

The large wheel, usually turned by a boy, is used to convey power to the “whirls,” or small spindles carrying hooks upon which the fiber is fastened. These whirls, revolving, give the twist to the yarn as the spinner deftly pays out the fiber, regulating it with skillful fingers to preserve the uniformity and proper size of the yarn. As he goes backward down the long walk through the “squares of sunlight on the floor” he throws the trailing yarns over the “stakes” placed at intervals along the walk for the purpose.

The spinning “grounds” were usually arranged with wheels at either end, so that spinners reaching the farther end, could go back to their starting point spinning another set of yarns.

Then in the case of small ropes, the strands could be made by attaching two or more yarns to the “whirl” and twisting them together, reversing the motion to give the strands a twist opposite to that given the yarns. These strands were twisted together, again reversing the motion, making a rope. Thus it will be seen that, reduced to its lowest terms, rope-making consists simply of a series of twisting processes. The twisting of the yarns into the strand is known as “forming” or putting in the “foreturn.” The final process is “laying,” “closing” or putting in the “after turn.” Horse-power was used in old times for forming and laying rope which was too large to be made by hand.

How all this work is now done in a modern rope factory by ingeniously devised machinery we shall now see.

The opening room where the fiber is made ready for the preparation machinery is a reminder of the days when all rope-making processes were hand work. The bales are first opened up--in the case of Manila this means cutting the straw matting put on to protect the fiber in shipment. Then the hanks which are packed in various ways--sometimes doubled, sometimes twisted--are taken out and straightened and the band at the end of the hank removed.

No machinery has yet been perfected for doing the work just described but the first of the preparation processes, a short step beyond, tells quite a different story. Here the hanks of such fibers as require a special cleaning treatment are placed on fast working hackling machines which comb away most of the snarls, loose tow and dirt.

At this point hard fibers--Manila, Sisal and New Zealand--are usually oiled to soften them and to make them more workable for the operations that follow. The oil, furthermore, acts as a preservative. It is a matter of importance to the buyer, however, that the fiber should not be too heavily oiled, for that merely increases the weight and cost of the rope without improving its quality.

The wonder of modernism in rope-making is nowhere more striking than in the preparation room. To pass from one end, where the raw hemp is received just as it left the hands of the native Filipino laborer with his crude methods, down through the long rows of machines to the draw frames from which the sliver is delivered in a form that can be likened to a stream of molten metal, is to cover decades of inventive genius and mechanical development.

The mechanism performs its work so accurately that at first glance the man feeding the fiber into the machine and all the other men, busy about their various duties, would appear to be playing very minor parts in modern rope making. In reality, expert workmanship and watchfulness are very important factors. Good rope depends no more upon scientific machine processes than upon ceaseless attention to the little details, and this is especially true in the preparation room.

Before taking up the distinctly modern machines so largely used now in the final processes of rope-making--the forming of strands, laying of common ropes and closing of cable-laid goods--we will describe the rope-walk where much of this work is still best carried on.

For making tarred goods in all but the smaller sizes the walk has certain advantages not afforded by newer methods. It also provides efficient equipment for turning out the largest ropes, which would otherwise require special machinery.

The long alleys or grounds where the work takes place are usually laid out in pairs, one for forming, the other for laying and closing. Each ground has a track to accommodate the machines used and an endless band-rope which conveys the power.

~HOW ROPE IS FORMED AND TWISTED~

At the head of the forming ground stand frames holding the bobbins of yarn. The yarns for each strand first pass through a plate perforated in concentric circles. This arrangement gives each yarn the correct angle of delivery into a tube where the whole mass gets a certain amount of compression.

As the top truck is forced ahead by the twisting process, the ropemaker by means of greater or less leverage on the “tails”--the loose ropes shown in our picture--preserves a correct lay in the rope. The stakes on which the strands rest are removed one by one to allow the top truck to pass, and then replaced to support the rope until the laying is finished and the reeling in of the rope begun.

The closing process on cable-laid goods is like the laying except that the twist is reversed. The work now being with three complete ropes--frequently very large--a heavier top truck is necessary, and this must often be ballasted, as shown in our illustration, to keep down the vibration which would otherwise tend to lift the truck off the track.

Modern rope-making ingenuity reaches its high-water mark in the compound laying-machine where the two operations of forming the strands and laying them into a rope are combined. Up to a certain point this method is more economical than that in which the forming and laying are unconnected. Fewer machines are required for a given output--hence, less floor space and fewer workmen. The time-saving element also enters in.

The compound laying machine must, however, be stopped each time that the supply of yarn on any bobbin is so low as to call for a fresh one. This would occur so frequently in the case of the larger ropes as to offset the advantages just mentioned, hence the machine is used on a limited range of sizes only.

As can be seen in the picture, the machine contains a vertical shaft with upper and lower projecting arms which support the bobbin-flyers--four in number in this particular case. The bobbins within each flyer turn on separate spindles, allowing the yarns to pass up through small guide plates and thence into a tube.

Each flyer is geared to revolve on its own axis, thus twisting its set of yarns into a compact strand. At the same time all the flyers revolve with the main shaft in an opposite direction and form a rope out of the strands as the latter come together in a central tube still higher up.

The rope is drawn through this tube by a series of pulleys which exert a steady pull and so keep the proper twist in the rope. From these pulleys the finished product is delivered onto a separately-driven coiling reel, an automatic device registering meanwhile on a dial the number of fathoms run.

The small reel, seen near the head of the main shaft, holds the small heart rope which is fed into the center of certain four-strand ropes to act as a bed for the strands.

Pure Manila rope is the very best and the most satisfactory for all around use. The character of good Manila fiber is such as to impart to a properly made rope such necessary factors as strength, pliability, and wearing qualities.

Regular 3-strand Manila rope is universally used for all general purposes.

For certain special uses, however, and particularly where the rope is to be used for any kind of sheave work, a 4-strand type of construction will be found the most suitable, as such a rope presents a much firmer, rounder, and greater wearing surface than the ordinary 3-strand. There are many different types of 4-strand rope.

The picture shown on this page represents a coil of 4-strand Manila called “Best Fall.” This rope is made of carefully selected fiber; is 4-strand with heart, and is harder twisted than ordinary goods. Best Fall is adapted for heavy hoisting work, as on coal and grain elevators, cargo and quarry hoists and for pile-driver hammer lines.

~AN AVERAGE COIL OF ROPE--1200 FEET~

The standard length coil of rope is 1,200 feet, although extra long lengths are every day made for such purposes as oil-well drilling, the transmission of power, etc., etc.

Why Do We Go to Sleep?

First, of course, we sleep to rest our body and brain. During our waking hours many, if not all, parts of our bodies are active all the time, and with every movement we exhaust or spend some of our strength. Take the case of your arm, for instance. You may be able to move it up and down fifty or a hundred or more times without getting tired, according to how strong you are, but sooner or later you will not be able to move it any more--it is tired--the life has all gone out of it and it needs rest, in order that it may become strong again. Every time you move your arm you destroy certain parts of its tissues, which can only be replaced during rest. Every activity of your body has the same experience, and the constant work of the brain in directing the various movements and activities of the body, tires it out too. As soon as this condition occurs, the brain tells the other parts of the body that it is time to rest, and even if we try to keep awake and go on with our work or play, or whatever it is we are doing, we find sooner or later that it is impossible. If we persist we fall asleep wherever we happen to be. It is not necessary for all parts of the body to be tired before we sleep. One part alone may be so affected by what it has been doing that it alone causes us to fall asleep. Sometimes the eyes become so tired, while we are looking at the pictures in a book or reading, for instance, that we fall off to sleep quickly. It is perhaps easier to bring on sleep by making the eyes tired than in any other way. That is why so many people read themselves to sleep. It is such a gradual passing into unconsciousness that you can hardly ever tell where you left off reading. It is said that when we are awake our bodies are continually planning for the time when we shall need sleep and are continually making some little germ which is carried to the brain as soon as made, and when there are a sufficient number of these little germs piled up in the brain, we go to sleep. The process of sleeping then destroys these germs, and when they are destroyed we again wake up.

Why Do We Wake Up in the Morning?

To answer this we must go back to the answer to the question, “What makes us go to sleep?” We go to sleep in order to secure the rest which our body and brain need to build up the parts which have been destroyed during our active work or play.

We wake up naturally when we have had sufficient rest. We wake up naturally, however, only when the destroyed parts of the body have been replaced. Other things may waken us--a noise of any kind, loud or slight, a startling dream or a moving thing that disturbs our sleep--according to how fully we are asleep. It is said that sometimes only parts of the body are asleep; that we are not always all asleep when we appear to sleep, and that we dream because some part of the body is awake or active. This is probably true. Now then, when all of anyone of us is sleepy, we go into what is called a deep sleep and at such times only something out of the ordinary would awaken us. Gradually, however, various parts of the body become rested and they are said to wake up, and finally when all of us is rested, we naturally wake up all over. If you are healthy and sleep naturally, in a place where you cannot be disturbed by noises or movements of others, you should be “wide awake” when your eyes open and be ready to get up at once. If you feel like turning over for another snooze, when it is time to get up, you did not go to bed as early as you should have done, or else some part of you did not get the required amount of sleep it should have had.

Where Are We When Asleep?

We are just where we lie. It seems to us, of course, because of our dreams when we are asleep that we are away off some place else. Often when we wake up we wonder for a minute or two where we are, as everything seems so strange to us, and it takes a minute or so for us to remember that we are in our own bed, if that is where we went to sleep. This is because of the dreams we have while asleep. In past times the uncivilized savages in various parts of the earth believed that when any of them went to sleep that the real person so asleep actually went away, leaving the body behind; in other words, that the soul went traveling. They thought this because it was the only explanation they could think of for the dreams they had, since almost invariably the dream was about some other place.

Why Does It Seem When We Have Slept All Night That We Have Been Asleep Only a Minute?

This is because all our ideas of passage of time are based on our conscious periods. When we are asleep we are unconscious. It is the same as if time did not pass, and when we wake up the tendency is to start in where we left off. We have learned by experience that when we go to sleep at night and wake up in the morning that much time has passed and this unconscious knowledge keeps us from thinking always that we have been asleep but a minute. But if you drop asleep in the day time, no matter how long you sleep, you wake up thinking that you have been asleep only a minute, and sometimes it is difficult to convince yourself that you have been asleep at all. Sometimes after being asleep for hours, your first waking thought is a continuation of what your mind was on when you went to sleep. The reason for this, as stated above, is that we cannot keep track of passing time when we are asleep, because we are perfectly unconscious.

Why Should We Not Sleep With the Moon Shining On Us?

There is no harm in letting the moon shine on us while we are asleep. This is one of the queer superstitions that has developed in the world. A great many people think that something terrible will happen if the moon is allowed to shine into the room where they are asleep. Not so many believe this as used to do so, thanks to the more enlightened condition of things in the world.

To prove to yourself that no harm can come to you through the moon shining into your bedroom or upon you as you are asleep, you have only to remember that a great many men and very many more animals sleep out under the sky every night and that the moon must shine on them while they are asleep. As a matter of fact, people who sleep out under the open sky are generally in possession of more rugged health than people who sleep in beds in closed rooms. So it is rather better to let the moon shine on you while asleep than not.

This belief probably started with some one who had trouble in going to sleep with the moon shining on him, because the light of the moon might have a tendency to keep him awake. It is easier to go to sleep in a dark room than in one that is lighted, because when there is no light there is less about you to keep you awake.

What Makes Us Dream?