ON the MANUFACTURE of HEMP and WIRE ROPE. Ropes Are Mainly Constructed Either of the Fibres of the Hemp Plant
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170 ON THE MANUFACTURE OF HEMP AND WIRE ROPE. BY MR. CHARLES P. B. SHELLEY, OF LONDON. Ropes are mainly constructed either of the fibres of the Hemp plant (cannabis sativa) or of Iron Wire. Other vegetable substances and other metal wires are also used ; but in the present paper only the two important manufactures of hemp rope and iron wire rope are referred to : and as the treatment of the hemp fibres and manufacture of them into rope is quite different from the formation of iron wire rope, the subject naturally divides itself into two branches. Hemp Rope.-Of the other substances besides hemp which have been found useful and profitable for rope making, the most important are- “ manilla ”, the fibres of which are obtained from the bark of a wild species of banana grown in the Philippine islands, manufactured into a rope commonly known as I‘ white rope”; jute, grown in Bengal, the fibres of which are used for adulterating hemp ; cocoa-nut fibre for inferior ropes ; Indian hemp or “ sunn ”, the high price of which however keeps it out of the market ; and Spanish grass or esparto”. Of these ‘‘ manilla ” is the most common slibstitute for hemp. The machinery employed for manufacturing any one of these several fibres into rope is similar with slight modifications to that employed for hemp. The intestines, hide, and hair of animals are sometimes used for rope for special purposes ; and the Romans are said to have formed ropes by binding together rushes (junci), whence the name (‘junk ’’ for cable is believed to be derived. A variety of specimens of hemp and of other fibres, together with ropes of different makes, are exhibited, which have been kindly furnished to the writer by Messrs. Wright of Millwall. The manufacture of hemp ropes is still carried on by hand, the ingenious machinery invented for the purpose by the late Capt. Joseph Huddart, and for some time employed at Deptford dockyard, having been abandoned and the old plan of hand making again reverted to. Downloaded from pme.sagepub.com at PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIV on June 4, 2016 ROPE MANUFACTURE. 171 The hemp plant from which the fibre is derived consists of a woody cylindrical stem, surrounded by a fibrous peel held together by a glutinous substance, the whole being protected by a fine epidermis or skin. The fibrous part, which is the portion used in the manufacture of ropes, is strong, flexible, and tenacious ; but the woody core and the external skin are useless, and it is necessary that they shall be separated from the fibres. This is effected by ‘‘ retting ”, that is by soaking the hemp stalks in water and allowing fermentation to take place, thus rotting the woody and glutinous parts and leaving the fibres free. The hemp is pulled up by the roots, and the flowers and leaves stripped off, and it is then immersed in a pond or running stream where it is allowed to remain until fermentation takes place, the time of immersion being dependent upon the degree of humidity and temperature of the atmosphere and also upon the quality and growth of the stalks. There are many objections however to this system of retting’; the principal is that the stalks not all being of the same strength of growth, and also occupying different positions in the immersed heap, some are liable to suffer from decomposition and be weakened while others may not be sufficiently steeped, rendering it difficult in the processes which follow to separate the woody matter from the fibres, and thus rendering the hemp harsh and inelastic. Another serious objection is that the vapour arising from the putre- faction of the stalks renders the neighbourliood of the stream or pond where the retting is carried on unhealthy. Moreover this mode of retting unavoidably deteriorates and wastes the fibre ; for a single stem of hemp is said to be composed of 70 to 50 per cent. of wood and 20 to 30 per cent. of fibre, whereas the fibre obtained by the present method does not exceed 16 per cent. and falls as low as 12 per cent., the remainder being wasted in the retting. Several other modes of preparing the stalks have been tried, such as steaming them, treating them with lime water or alkaline solution, and also adding materials to the mass of soaking stalks with a view of inducing speedy fermentation ; but generally these plans have failed and there is still room for improvement in this respect. After the stalks have been dried they are broken at a hand break or by rollers, aud the woody psrt is separated by scutching”, somewhat in the same 2 Downloaded from pme.sagepub.com at PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIV on June 4, 2016 172 ROPE MANUFACTOR$. way as in the case of flax. The hemp thus prepared is packed in huge bales, each bale of Italian hemp, jute, or manilla, weighing about 24 cwts. In order to form the strongest rope out of a given quantity of material, whether hemp fibres or metallic wire, the fibres should be laid parallel alongside one another and secured at the ends, so that they may take any tensile strain put upon them in the direction of their length ; the strength of such a rope will be equal to the strength of each fibre multiplied by the number of fibres in the section. Hemp fibres rarely exceed 4 feet in length, so that the above method of making a rope exceeding 4 feet in length will not apply to that material. In order therefore that the fibres may be securely and continuously connected together, they must be placed parallel to one another with the end of one fibre overlapping the end of its neighbour; and to prevent the fibres slipping from one another, friction is produced amongst them by twisting; but as the strength of the fibres is diminished when they are twisted out of the direction of the tensile strain which they are to sustain, no more twist should be given than is necessary to impart sufficient friction to prevent them from slipping and parting endways. It must be remembered that fibres of hemp, like metallic wires, have not the property of “ felting ”, or uniting into one length by a kind of entanglement or matting together, in the manner common to the fibres of wool and other materials used in spinning. If B bundle of parallel fibres be twisted, those on the outer surface will be stretched and strained considerably more than those near the centre ; and the further they are from the centre the more will they be strained. Hence in constructing cordage it is necessary to form or build it up gradually from small bundles. Thus the primary object of the rope maker is to get the longest, finest, and strongest fibres which can be economically obtained; and next to lay them in bundles parallel to one another and in continuous juxtaposition, giving them ultimately such ft degree of twist that the friction amongst the fibres of the bundle is equal to their tensile resistance. When the fibres are laid parallel and in continuous juxtaposition, they are said to form a ‘‘ sliver ” ; and the sliver when twiRted is said Downloaded from pme.sagepub.com at PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIV on June 4, 2016 ROPE MANUFACTURE. 173 to be converted into a " thread" or '' yarn" ; and a number of yarns laid parallel and in juxtaposition, bound round by an external " serving " of yarn to hold them together, form " selvagee " which is the simplest construction of rope. If each of the yarns in the selvagee bore its fair share of strain, this would be the strongest kind of rope ; but the objection to its more frequent use is that the outside '' serving " of yarn frets away and allows water to enter and rot the yarns inside. In order to overcome the objections to Behagee, ropes are made of " strands 'I, each strand consisting of a number of yarns twisted together, the strands being again twisted into the rope ; the class of rope depends upon the number of strands and their arrangement, The yarn is twisted in the process of manufacture by a motion to the left from the right, or contrary to the motion of the hands of a watch, producing what is termed in rope making a left-handed twist, being a spiral corresponding to the thread of a right-handed screw. The twist of each strand is in the opposite direction to that of the yarna composing it ; and the twist of the rope itself is again in the opposite direction to that of the strands, or in the same direction as that of the yarns. Ropes are commonly divided into three classes known as '6 hawser- laid", '(shroud-laid ", and " cable-laid " ropes. '' Hawser-laid " ropes are composed of three strands twisted together; the number of yarns for each strand in different sizes of hawser-laid ropes is dependent on the diametey or number of thread of the yarn. " Shroud-laid 'I ropes are composed of four strasds. '' Cable-laid" ropes are composed of three hawser-laid ropes twisted together. " Cablets " are small cable-laid ropes measuring from 1 to 10 inches in girth ; larger sizes $re termed cables. Shroud and hawser-laid ropes seldom exceed 10 inches in girth. A core or " heart " is used in shroud-laid ropes; it is made of rope and is placed in the centre of the strands, running from end to end of the rope with the strands laid round it. In old worn out ropes the core is always found to be broken in consequence of the stretching of the strands ; for the strands being twisted spirally and the core straight, the strands will give more under a load than the core, which cannot therefore be relied upon for adding strength to the rope; but it assists materially in keeping the strands in position Downloaded from pme.sagepub.com at PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIV on June 4, 2016 174 ROPE MANUFAOTURE.