Chapter I: Introductory

Records of civilization are incapable of furnishing the era when the equivalent of strands or cords were first used, singly or collectively, for the purpose of holding two or more articles securely in position. But, although it is impossible to fix a period, one might safely say that the original material which served the purpose was some kind of light twig or lanceolate leaf, and that its appearance when in use as a binder strip differed little if at all from its appearance in the natural process of growth. Even at the present day some of these runners are still used, notably with others the rattan canes for binding bales of manila fibre and other purposes.

The wants of prehistoric man would be very few indeed, but, although he was accustomed in many climates to make use of very scanty clothing or covering, and, in many cases, was practically without any covering, it is obvious that it would be necessary to provide himself with food--the first essential condition to life. In his efforts to secure the necessary food-stuffs, animate or inanimate, it is safe to conclude that some type of ribbon-shaped vegetable material would be necessary or desirable at an early stage, and probably at the same time or a little later period sinews of different kinds would be brought into use.

As years rolled on, further uses would undoubtedly be found for various kinds of fibrous material, and more improved methods would be applied in adapting the vegetable matter and the like to the purposes intended, as well as more care exercised in the selection of the materials. Some of the characteristics which are essential in practically all binders or tying strips are length, strength, pliability and a tendency to resist atmospheric influences and other natural agents.

The gradual development of civilization, and the gradually increasing demand for suitable substances to be used as binders and for various other purposes would naturally lead to improvements in the utilization of fibrous and other suitable plants, and ultimately to more or less scientific methods of treating these plants with the object of removing the objectionable constituents which are useless for cordage purposes, and of retaining those parts which are considered to be most suitable for the purpose in view.

A complete description of the evolution of modern cord and cordage is practically impossible, for the simple reason that there is no full record of the efforts of many of the earlier pioneers in the various stages, and it is quite possible that many early and praiseworthy improvements have been forgotten or overshadowed, or perhaps absorbed, by the more modern and more elaborate methods which are now indispensable for the successful prosecution of this important branch of the textile industry.

The separation of fibrous material from various kinds of plants is by no means of modern origin, for the great antiquity of yarns which have been spun from vegetable and animal fibres is universally acknowledged. Reference to the process of preparing flax for the purpose of spinning appears in Exodus ix, verse 31, while the first Biblical reference to thread--one of the technical names for a continuous length of prepared fibrous material--is in Genesis xiv, verse 23: “That I will not take from a thread even to a shoe-latchet.” Again, another early reference in Chapter xxxviii refers to a scarlet thread, an indication or suggestion that the art of dyeing was also known at this early period in the early Biblical history.

Herodotus records garments made from hemp by the Thracians, and to the present day hemp is largely cultivated in the vicinity of the lands occupied by the descendants of this ancient race.

Moschion, whose writings appeared before the Christian era, states that the “great ships of Syracuse which were built by command of Hiero II were supplied with hemp and ropes from the Rhone districts. Hemp was brought from Colchis to the ports of the Aegean Sea by the merchants who were connected commercially with the north and east coasts of the Euxine through their Milesian colonies.”

Pliny also records the use of hemp for ships, and states that it was in common use among the Romans in the first century for ropes and sails, as well as for other purposes.

The more or less uncertain knowledge of practically all the earlier attempts at the solution of fibre extraction renders it impossible for us to bridge the gap between the time when crude primitive methods were practised and that which ushered in the more perfect methods described by Pliny in the first century--methods which, in certain cases, have varied little since this early period, and which are practised with a high degree of success. We may, therefore, leave this interesting period to the researches of students in history, and enter upon the description and illustration of the various plants from which fibre is extracted, and the actual processes which such fibre has to undergo before it is ready for the market in one or other of the well-known types of cordage.