CORDAGE AND ROPES

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 24, 21 October 1937, Page 10

CORDAGE AND ROPES

This is taken from Gilcraft's " Pioneering, " and since not too many Scouts or people have ever read these books, I put in sections from them every now and again. "We had no rope with us in West Africa, so we used the strong creeping plants, and also used thin withes or long whippy sticks, which we made still more pliant or bendable by holding one^end under foot and twisting the other round and rttund with our hands/' Gilcraft heads his chapter on Ropes with the above pieco out of our Chiefs book "Scouting for Boys." For pioneering pmvposes of all kinds tho use of cords and ropes is essential, and the proper selection of these and the proper construction of a knot or lashing, a wrong Itnot, or a rope that will not earry the strain demanded of it may involve considerable rislc of accident. Working with Scouts especially it is ohvious that we must take every care jtnd precaution to see that the materlalswe use are sound and that any rislc is niiuimised as much as possible. At the same time we should certainlv 11 oi: | avoid pioneering practices because there ma/ bo a cortaiu amouct of risk

involved in them. To do so would be to'defeat the Scout object of training boys to be self-reliant and to be prepared to deal with emergencies. What we have to do is to see the dangers, guard against them in all possible ways, teach our boys where such dangers He, and train them to overcome them. So it that we should have some general knowledge of the materials we use. Cordage and rope, such as We use normaUy, are made from sisal qr manilia hemp, the former coming from Mexieo and the latter from the Philippine Islands. Cotton, coir, or other vegetable yarns are also usid, while rope is also made of wire. We almost always confine our attention to hemp ropes, though. These are built tip in this way: Yarn is made up by twisting fibres together; thread by twisting together 1 two or more small yarns; string is made in the same way as thread only using -slightly thicker yarns; cord by twisting together several threads. Two or more large yarns twisted together form a strand; several strands twisted together form a rope. 9 More abput this another week. Tilt then, cheerlo. "BIG SMOKE."