C 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. It had been carried on as a domestic industry, or a trade handed down from father to son, and naturally was of most importance in the principal seaport towns where vessels were built or fitted out.

This was the state of the business at the time of the settlement of America, and it was not long before the rope-maker began to be needed as a citizen of the new Colonies. This need was felt in Boston with the first efforts at shipbuilding there, and was also suggested by the great demand for fishing lines, the cod-fisheries being of great importance upon the Massachusetts coast.

It is recorded that rope was made in Boston as early as 1641 or 1642. John Harrison, a rope-maker of Salisbury, England, came to this country at the request of a number of citizens of Boston, and set up his business in that village. He seems to have had a monopoly of the local trade for a good many years, under the paternal protection of the town authorities, for John Heyman, to whom permission to make rope in Boston was given in 1662, was the next year ordered to give up the work and depart from the town, it being found that this competition interfered with Harrison’s business to such an extent as to make it difficult for him to properly support his family of eleven persons.

However, upon the death of Harrison this monopoly came to an end, and ropewalks began to multiply in Boston as well as in other parts of the country. In 1794 there were fourteen large ropewalks in Boston, the business having steadily increased with the development of the new country. The importance of this industry is shown by the report that in the federal procession in Boston in 1788, the rope-makers outnumbered any other class of mechanics.

In 1810 there were 173 ropewalks in the United States, scattered over the country from Maine to Kentucky.

In 1824 the infant Plymouth Cordage Company entered upon the scene and gradually but surely became an important factor in the trade, until today it stands at the head.

In the first half of the last century Manila hemp began to take its place as a cordage fiber. According to official records, 27,820 bales were imported to the United States in 1843. This figure looks small when compared with a recent high figure of approximately 830,000 bales in a single year. The first record of the importation of Sisal is in 1860, when the United States received 1,393 bales. This has increased to 1,000,000 bales.

The large consumption of Sisal during recent years has been caused by the production of binder twine, which has now become an important part of the cordage business. This company first made binder twine in 1882. In 1899 it completed its No. 2 Mill, devoted entirely to this product, and by the completion of the Welland (Ontario) factory in 1906 was enabled to supply its large Canadian trade from that point. The Sheaf of Wheat trademark and the name “Plymouth” on binder twine are now known the world over and, as in the case of the Ship brand on rope, are always recognized as standing for quality.

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 could walk off backward from the wheel with his wad of hemp, spinning with each hand a thread as fine and even as could 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 “afterturn.” Horse power was used in old times for forming and laying rope which was too large to be made by hand.