‘Everything you ever wanted to know but were afraid to ask’ about the primary tool of our trade, I strongly recommend this article which delves back into its origins, showing amongst other things 3,500 year old rope!
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In his “History of Rope” Bill Fronzaglia provides some fascinating facts. Well, fascinating to us rope geeks anyway but probably as interesting as watching paint dry to many. There are certainly a few”Not a lot of people know that” moments, to use what has become Michael Caine’s catchphrase.
For example, “…it was known that Hemp retains more strength when the yarn is twisted to the right. This resulted in a left hand strand, and a right hand rope. It wasn’t until modern times that microscopic examination of the plant illustrated that the structure of the plant has a natural twist that causes this effect.” This explains why Left Hand Strands twisted together as Right Hand lay (“Z” twist) make stronger hemp rope. Unfortunately, Fronzaglia provides no link to this interesting piece of research.
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