Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1885-10-07
HOW ROPE is MADE.
The Wonderful improvements Of
the Past Half Century.
From the Hanks to the CabIe-One Girl
Now Doing the Work of Eight Men
Making a Monster Cable.

be. Nowadays a girl at spinning
machine can do more work than eight
men could do in the old-fashioned way,
and where one man could comb one
bale of hemp one machine can now
comb seventy-five bales. The product
of the largest ropewalk in the United
States is one hundred and fifty tons of
rope and twine week, as compared
with sixteen tons when it was built,
fifty-six- years ago. This ropewalk is
in Bushwick, and in the half century it
has made the fortunes of five men.
Bushwick was fifty years ago a small
Long Island hamlet To-day it's
boundaries are merged into the East
ern District of Brooklyn. Not many
years ago grove surrounded the rope
walk. To-day it is surrounded by
dwelling houses. Fifty-five years ago
four horses furnished the motive pow
er. To-day five hundred and fifty
| horse power engine is taxed to do the
work. The long, weather-beaten
structure, one thousand seven hundred
feet in length, has had the same ap-
pearance for forty years or more. Of
all the men who have worked in the
| rOpewalk, one man has lived to see
fathers and sons pass away and to
teach grandsons how to make rope.
He is John Stewart, the superintendent,
genial and active old gentleman,
now eighty years of age. For fifty-fve
years he has worked there. He SAYS
he is like the boy who could carry
calf, and by carrying it daily was able
in time to carry an OK He sorrow
fully shakes his head sometimes when
his mind runs back over the changes.
Twelve kinds of hemp are used in
rope making, Russian hemp being the
best. The hanks are bound into bales
that can be readily handled Separat-
ing the hanks is the first process in
rope making. Men do it. The hanks
are unbound and tossed one side where
men stand ready to pick them up and
oil them. The oiling machines are
large revolving drums of wood that
absorb and hold the oil kept in the
troughs below. They are enclosed in
wooden boxes, each with hole about
as large as half an ordinary window.
Taking a hank, an oiler spreads it out
and dashes it through hole and
against the oily surface of the drum.
1t clings and is drawn upward, but be-
fore the end is reached the man draws
it back and repeats the motion until
the fiber has been oiled. From the oil
ing machines the hemp goes to the
combing machines of different sizes
and capacities. Five combings are
necessary. The combing machines are
very ingenious, and room after room
is filed with them. Endless bands with
cross rows of long fine teeth seize the
fibers and carry them along until other
teeth on a band moving faster comb
through them and straighten and draw
them. After the combing the fibers
become roping, and endless yellow
streams of it flow from upper stories
to stories below for the spinning ma
chimes. Women and girls operate the
spinning machines.
! The day happened to be Saturday,
and every young girl in the building
had her front hair twisted in papers
for Sunday. The noisy rattle of the
machines is hardly bearable by new
conner, but the girls talk and laugh,
and, as a rule, they are healthy and
strong. The spinning machines are as
interesting as the combing machines,
and the work is much cleaner The
streams of roping come down through
the spouts, and are guided by girls into
sheet-iron barrels that can be wheeled
to the spinning machines. Each stream
flows faster than several machines can
spin it when everything is in good
working order, and piles OF roping stand
|
through the spinning machines be-
comes spun yarn. The combing,
Strengthening, and spinning used to be
done by hand. II have spun by hand
many q ton of it," said the superin-
tendent.
One room is called the waste room,
and to it goes the waste from all the
rooms. The waste is combed and
blown until the good fibers are saved
and spun into yarn for tWine. The
dust in the room is as thick as fog in
the dog-days. and how any one can
work and live there for any length of
time is mystery. The danger from
fire is srikingly apparent, but fire has
never seriously damaged any part of
the building Many machines are used
in spinning and balling harvesting tWine
which is extensively used in the West.
Hundred-ton orders for it are frequently
filed. The machines for balling har-
vest tWine are not so interesting as the
machinery for spinning and baling
small cordages although the former are
run by girls The latter machines are
squatty and noisy, and can be com
pared to as many extremely lively bull
dogs using all their legs and mouths at
the same time. One of the machines
had to be stopped in order that its
mechanism might be shown. When
quiet its ingenious arrangements can
be appreciated, but when in motion it
is the worst thing in the word to fool
with. 1t will tear off an arm or leg
as quick as wink.
In a low addition is the tar shop,
where spun yarn for tarred rope goes
through a process as old as the hills.