What does it make?

 Here is another object from the Benton County Historical Society's collection that is not something found in most households today. Take a guess what it is before reading on.  

Hint:  this is a machine for
making something.

Did you guess that is a machine for making rope?  This one, patented in 1901, is designed to fit over a fence rail.  Yarn is tied to a separate object a distance away, stretched to and around one of the hooks (see the second photograph), back to where it was tied, back to the second hook and so on.  As the user turns the crank, the big gear rotates, which turns the smaller ones several times. This action twists the strands together.

Rope makers used a paddle like object (which is not in the collection) with notches for each strand, to keep twists tight at the tied end.  They move the paddle along as the cord lengthens.  When the cord  is complete, the ends are taken off the hooks and tied together.  Then the process is repeated, using three of these twisted cords to make the rope.  In this final stage, the cords are twisted in the opposite direction. This process of alternative twists make the rope less likely to come apart or deform.

Rope-making is an ancient craft.  Archaeologists have found a small piece of three-ply cord in a 50,000 year old site. In addition, an 40,000 year old object found in a cave in Germany is now thought to be a tool for making rope; it has four holes with spiral cuts on the interior. Plant fibers would have been fed through the holes, the spirals would hold them in place while the tool was twisted to make the rope.

Although most rope is made from plant fibers or nylon, the men of the Lewis and  Clark expedition used a three-strand rope-making machine operating on the same principle as the one pictured above to make ropes from the hides of bison and elk.

By Martha Fraundorf, Volunteer for Benton County Historical Society, Philomath, Oregon