Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/12/10/traditional-industrial-scale-r.html
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None of this equipment would have looked out of place in the Portsmouth Chandlery and Royal Navy yards ca. 1793.
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The label on one of the machines might have raised eyebrows in 1793; but no argument aside from that one bit.
(edit: Actually, it wouldn’t have. I forgot the super important rule of visiting an 18th century British naval facility: don’t be impressed…)
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I wonder if this is the rope walk at Mystic Seaport? Looks just like it – but I suppose they would probably all look pretty much alike.
EDIT: Ah! Looks like the one in Mystic is just a segment of a full walk: https://www.mysticseaport.org/locations/ropewalk/
Coolest part is that the building has to be over 1,000 feet long. That’s a long building! Where is it on Google Maps?
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I assume they cut off the part where they do something to the ends to make sure they don’t unravel. Whatever that is.
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The Charlestown Ropewalk is the last in the US.
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Whipping.
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Joe Timilty is renovating the old ‘ropes factory’ at the Charlestown Navy Yard, turning it into high end housing.
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From what it said on the machine, above, I assumed this was the Chatham Ropery:
https://www.google.com/maps/@51.3931051,0.5249754,595m/data=!3m1!1e3
The ends are the worst part of a rope. I just cut them off and throw them away.
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We learned to make rope using the same method in scouts when I was a kid. It’s like magic when the rope comes together from twine.
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A lot of ropewalks were open air, perhaps in fields or along quaysides. Liverpool’s were in fields initially, then the rented/purchased strips of land were turned into streets and ‘RopeWalks’ is now a district of the city. Likewise, Hamburg’s became the Reeperbahn, where ropes may be used differently nowadays.
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Pretty cool, though I’d say this video is even more interesting; the traditional way of making bark rope or Lime Bast Rope. It includes soaking it in water for 4 months.
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