Only four ropes passed
successfully through this trial; these were all made by Messrs.
Buckingham and Sons, of 33, Broad-street, Bloomsbury, and can be procured
only of them. We confined our further experiments to these ropes, one of
which failed under severer tests, while the remaining three, made
respectively of Manilla hemp, Italian hemp, and flax, proved so nearly
equal in strength that it may fairly be doubted which is on the whole to
be preferred. Each of these three ropes will bear twelve stone falling
ten feet, and fourteen stone falling eight feet; and it may be useful to
say that the strain upon a rope loaded with a weight of fourteen stone,
and suddenly checked after a fall of eight feet, is nearly equal to that
which is caused by a dead weight of two tons. None of these ropes,
however, will bear a weight of fourteen stone falling ten feet; and the
result of our experiments is, that no rope can be made, whether of hemp,
flax, or silk, which is strong enough to bear that strain, and yet light
enough to be portable. We believe that these ropes, which weigh about
three-quarters of an ounce to the foot, are the heaviest which can be
conveniently carried about in the Alps. We append a statement of the
respective merits of the three kinds, all of which are now made by
Messrs. Buckingham, expressly for the Club, and marked by a red worsted
thread twisted in the strands:--
No.
Pages:
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82