THE ROPE-MAKER.

The Rope-maker, is a person who twists several kinds of materials, and particularly hemp, into yarn, and afterwards several strings
of such yarn, assisted by a wheel, into a larger and more compact cord. When the article is of a small description it is called a cord, when larger, a rope; the largest is called a cable.

Ropes are made of many vegetable substances that are sufficiently fibrous, flexible, and tenacious, but chiefly of the bark of plants. The Chinese and other orientals even make them of the woody parts of several plants, such as certain bamboos, and reeds, the stems of the aloes, the fibrous covering of the cocoa-nut, the filaments of the cotton pod, and the leaves of some grasses, such as sparte. The aloe and the sparte excel others in strength. But the barks of plants are the most productive of fibrous matter proper for this manufacture. Those of the willow, the linden-tree, the bramble, and the nettle, are frequently used but hemp and flax are the best and of these hemp is preferred and employed in all cordage exceeding the size of a line, and even in many of this denomination.

The trade of a Rope-maker is unquestionably very ancient. As early as the fourteenth century, in France, the Rope-makers were
formed into a company, and bad statutes appointed for their regulation. In this country, where the navy has obtained so much attention, a Rope-maker has, for a long period, been a trade of considerable importance.

Ropes of all kinds are generally made of hemp, twisted or spun, something after tbe same manner as the spinning of wool; and the places in which ropes are made, are called rope-walks. These are sometimes a quarter of a mile or more in length, in the open air,
and have a row or rows of trees planted beside them for shade, or are covered with a slight shed to keep the workmen from the inclemencies and changes of the weather. At the upper-end of the rope-walk is a spinning-wheel, which is turned round by a person, who sits on a stool or bench for the purpose; the man who forms the rope or string has a bundle of dressed hemp, such as
that which lies on the truck in the plate, round his waist. From this he draws out two or more ends, and fixes them to a hook; the
wheel is now turned, by which the threads are twisted, and as the spinner walks backward, the rope, or more properly the rope-yarn, is lengthened. The part already twisted draws along with it more fibres out of the bundle, and the spinner gives assistance to it 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 both sides of his bundle, and that they enter always with their ends, and not by the middle, which would double them. The arrangement of the fibres, and the degree of twisting, depend on the skill and dexterity of the spinner. The degree of twist depends on the rate of the wheel's motion, combined with the retrograde motion of the spinner.

As soon as he has arrived at the lower end of the walk he calls out, and another spinier immediately detaches the yarn from the hook of the wheel, gives it to a third person, who takes it to the reel, and the second spinner attaches his own hemp to the wheel-hook. In the mean time, the first spinner keeps fast bold of the end of his yarn, to prevent its untwisting, and, as soon as the reeler begins to turn his reel, he goes slowly 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 has finished his yarn. The first spinner takes it off the wheel-hook, joins it to his own, that it may follow it on the reel, and begins a new yarn himself.

The fibres of hemp are thus twisted into yarns, and make a line of any length : down the rope-walk are a number of upright posts,
with long pegs fixed in them at right angles ; on these pegs the spinner throws the rope-yarn as he proceeds, to prevent its swagging.

As many fibres are made into one yarn, so many yarns are afterwards made into one rope, according to the use and strength required. By this process, which is called laying, it acquires a solidity and hardness which render it less penetrable by water that would rot it in a short time.

Sometimes the union of several yarns is called a strand, and a larger rope is formed of two or more of these strands ; in this manner cables and other ground tackle are c ommonly made.

Cables and cords are frequently tarred, whieh is usually done in the state of yarn, this being the only method by which hemp can be uniformly penetrated. The yarn is made to wind off from one reel, and having passed through a vessel containing hot tar, it is wound upon another, and the superfluous tar is taken off by passing through a hole surrounded with spongy oakum ; or it is sometimes tarred in skeins or hauls, which are drawn by a capstern through the tar-kettle, and through a hole formed of two plates of metal.

It is a fact, however, that tarred cordage is much weaker than white; it is also less pliable and less durable; but the use of tar is nevertheless necessary to defend the cordage from the action of the water.

Net:s are made with small cords ; larger cords are used for tying up packages; and ropes of all sizes and dimensions are used for shipping, A ship's cable is sometimes several hundred yards in length, and is worth a considerable sum of money.

Mr. Chapman has lately obtained a patent for making ropes and cordage, the machinery of which consists only of a spindle, divided into two parts, the upper containing apparatus to draw forward the hemp from the spinner, with twist sufficient to combine the fibres, which enables him to employ women, children, and invalids, and also to appropriate the rope-ground solely to the purpose of laying ropes. The remaining part of his invention consists chiefly in the giving from a stationary power the internal motion to a locomotive machine, as to a roper's sledge, on which the strands and the rope itself are twisted, by which contrivance a water-wheel, or a steam engine, is applied to the whole process of making ropes of all kinds whatever.

Other patents have been also obtained for improving this art ; but we have not room to enumerate them.

The master Rope-maker requires a considerable capital to carry on business upon a large scale. A journeyman may earn with ease from a guinea to a guinea and a half a week, or even more if he be sober and industrious.

Yarn for sail-cloth is made of dressed-hemp, and spun in the same manner as rope-yarn is spun. The spinners of this make a good
living; women are chiefly employed in it. The person who shapes and sews together the sail-cloth, is called a sail-maker ; and is sometimes denominated a ship's-tailor.