,seven one-thousandths1 three           
one-thousandths1 one                    
one-thousandth--one record after another
 was passed4              ,at last a    
wire was drawn that measured one        
four-thousandth of an inch in           
diameter--twelve            times finer 
than the hair on your head4             
,the spider1 so long counted a master   
workman1 had            been outdone4   
----------------------------------------
--------------------------------        
,illustration3 ,john ,a4 ,roebling      
,,founder ,,of ,,john ,a4 ,,roebling',s 
,,sons ,,company                        
----------------------------------------
--------------------------------        
,,outspinning ,,the ,,spider            
,,the ,,story ,,of ,,wire ,,and ,,wire  
,,rope                                  
,by                             ,john   
,kimberly ,mumford                      
,,published ,,by                        
,robert ,l4 ,stillson ,co4              
,new ,york                              

----------------------------------------
--------------------------------        
,copyright1 #aiba1 by                   
,,robert ,l4 ,,stillson ,,company       
,,new ,,york                            
----------------------------------------
--------------------------------        
,outspinning the ,spider                
,,chapter ,i                            
,,wire ,,and ,,modern ,,life      ,it is
 the wire age4    ,modern life1 in all  
its intricate bearings1 runs on wire4   
,wire  everywhere2 in the heavens above1
 the earth beneath and the waters  under
 the earth4 ,in all the legerdemain of  
science1 which has put  nature in       
bondage1 wire is the indispensable      
agent4    ,a curious1 slow1 finical     
little trade at which the smiths of     
forgotten  races toiled and pottered and
 ruined their eyesight for unnumbered   
thousands of years has become1 within   
less than a century1 under the  spur of 
modern need and modern driving power1   
the pack-bearer of the  world and the   

mainspring of every activity from the   
cradle to the grave4    ,wire still     
makes toys and gewgaws as it always did1
 but it is no longer  the plaything of  
vanity alone4 ,cancel wire and wire rope
 and their  concomitant1 flat wire1 from
 the inventory of human assets tomorrow1
  and the world would stop stock-still4 
,sidenote3 ,,wire ,,and ,,the ,,commuter
    ,this is not hyperbole4 ,picture    
yourself starting for business in the   
morning if there were no wire and see   
what the verdict would be by  quitting  
time4 ,considering the vital part that  
wire plays in the  growing and          
transportation of food for man and      
beast1 it is likely you  would go       
breakfastless after sleeping on a bed   
without springs or the  luxury of a     
woven wire mattress4 ,but that would be 
only the beginning  of sorrow4 ,the     
trolley would stand dead4 ,perhaps you  
are a commuter and  journey to town by  
steam road4 ,the ferry would hug its    
slip1 and where  is the railroader who  

in these days of congestion and short   
headway  would dare to send a train out 
without the protection of the little    
lengths of bonding wire between the     
rails1 that articulate the block  signal
 system8    ,you could telephone the    
office8 ,how and over what unless wire  
were  used8 ,wireless8 ,without the     
coils and armatures that keep the       
instruments going or the aerials that   
seize the word wave in its  flight1     
there would be no wireless4             
,illustration3 ,,without ,,wire--,,no   
,,wireless    ,suppose you managed to   
get there4 ,without wire rope no        
insurance  company would let an elevator
 get higher than the second story1 and  
you  couldn't signal the elevator       
anyway1 for the annunciator operates    
only  by an ingenious system of wires1  
and the control is even more complex4   
,you can climb the stairs1 but the door 
key is flat wire and the shank  on which
 the knob turns is square wire and half 
the lock is wire4 ,more  trouble4 ,the  

buttons on your suit are flat wire2 so  
are your garters4  ,as for the          
stenographer1 if she got there at       
all--for she is as  completely wired as 
a telegraph system1 from her hat to her 
shoes--the  index files and office books
 and letter hooks and much of the other 
equipment of the office would fall to   
pieces without wire1 and the  machine   
which is her pride and the symbol of her
 dominion is about all  wire of one kind
 or another1 except the frame4          
,distinctly1 it would not be your busy  
day4 ,you might spend it looking  out of
 the window at the ships going down the 
river1 but unhappily1 the  majestic     
liner is compact of wire1 from her      
glistening trucks to the  deepest       
shadows of the engine room2 or airplanes
 soaring and swaying  above the teeming 
town and far-stretched waterways4 ,but  
an airplane  lives by wire4 ,it could   
neither fly nor steer nor even hold     
together if  its frame were not strung  
with wire and its wings and ailerons and

  fuselage bound and braced and its     
machinery vitalized by divers forms  of 
wire and wire strand and woven wire     
cord4    ,far over the town and across  
the ,jerseys you would see columns of   
smoke  rising from busy factories--save 
that the mines of coal and the wells  of
 oil are both dependent for every atom  
of their product on wire rope1  and the 
lumber and metals which are the bases of
 industrial manufacture  are in the same
 boat4 ,and as for electric light--you  
might linger till  dark but turning the 
switch wouldn't help1 for the big       
subterranean  cables and the multitude  
of littler wires that make a pathway for
 the  current1 even the dynamos with    
their masses of wire1 they were all dead
  long ago4    ,gas8 ,made of coal and  
oil4 ,there would be nothing left to do 
but to  grope hungry through dark       
streets and1 if you could find a        
wireless  bridge1 go back to            
,lonelyhurst1 where you would learn that
 without wire  there is no domestic joy 

in this earthly tabernacle1 for from    
cellar to  roof1 from the bale and rim  
of the coal-scuttle and the binding of  
the  broom1 from the cooking pots1 the  
dishpan and all other culinary  utensils
 to the baby's toys and mother's corset 
and hairpins and  needles and safety    
pins and pins1 it is all wire one way or
 another4  ,the family would never know 
what time you got home1 for the watches 
and  clocks are largely wire2 and there 
would be no possible relief in going  to
 the club1 for nobody would have a car  
that would run--or a  cork-screw1 even  
in the dark4    ,sidenote3 ,,wire       
,,holds ,,the ,,world ,,together    ,it 
is wire that has brought the world      
together and holds it together1  and    
when the wire mills stop1 as even they  
would have to do if there  were no wire1
 modern civilization might as well be   
dead1 and it would  be4 ,even war would 
peter out4 ,populations might perish    
from hunger and  probably would1 but    
they'd have to stop killing each other  

except by  primitive methods1 for       
without wire1 which controls the        
movement of  ships and airplanes and    
submarines1 and permits by telegraph and
  telephone the manoeuvering of         
prodigious armies and binds the shining 
bodies of great guns and makes most of  
the instruments of precision for  aiming
 them1 war would no longer offer much   
chance for machine-made  glory4 ,as a   
guarantee of perpetual and worldwide    
peace no ,league of  ,nations could     
begin to compare with the elimination of
 wire from the  world's catalogue of    
weapons4    ,wire is an influential     
member of that family of material giants
 which  have come into greatness within 
a relatively short time but which none  
the less weigh heavily in the destinies 
of mankind4 ,it is old1 too1 but  until 
a new demon of material ambition began  
to stir in crowding  populations it had 
little purpose except to adorn the      
raiment of the  great or add richness to
 ancient arts4 ,people whose vision of  

man's  past is bounded by the           
encyclopedia have been told times enough
 that  ,aaron's robe had gold wire      
threads in it1 that there was wire in   
the  pyramids1 that ,nineveh was beating
 out wire eight hundred years before    
the tragedy of ,calvary1 and that metal 
heads with hair of wire were  found in  
the ruins of ,herculaneum and are now   
again entombed in the  showcases of the 
,portici ,museum4    ,sidenote3 ,,the   
,,age-,,long ,,use ,,of ,,wire    ,in a 
world chasing the present and future    
dollar ethnology moves  slowly2 the     
encyclopedias have not yet told that    
pre-,inca ,peru1 hiding  in its tombs   
the secrets of a vanished civilization1 
has now given up  garments gleaming with
 woven metal1 which show their makers to
 have  been past masters ages ago in the
 wire-beater's art1 and to have spun    
the wire on woolen filaments in the self
 same way of lamination in  which ,paris
 does it for the uniforms of haughty    
major generals today4    ,and yet1 down 

to the century when the popes were      
ruling from ,avignon1  when ,rienzi was 
raising hob in the streets of ,rome and 
titles of  nobility were being won on   
the bloody fields of ,crcy and          
,poictiers and  ,bannockburn1 none of   
the many metal workers1 through all the 
ages and  in all the lands1 ever had a  
notion he could draw metal through a die
  to make a wire4 ,they hammered and    
hammered through the ages and sliced    
the filaments off as a cobbler cuts     
leather shoestrings--or used to4  ,and  
then it was a ,german that did it1 for  
the ancient records of  ,nuremberg and  
,augsberg tell of a wire drawer and     
later on one ,rudolf  had a wire mill at
 ,nuremberg4 ,the chances are that      
,rudolf was a  capitalist and that the  
inventor sold him the invention for a   
pot of  beer1 and grumbled for the rest 
of his medieval days after the manner   
of his kind4    ,six centuries have gone
 since then1 and in a world of wire it  
is safe  to say1 on the strength of some

 inquiry1 that ninety per cent of the   
people whose lives and well being hang  
on wire from one year's end to  another 
have no more knowledge of how drawn wire
 is made than the  ,egyptian who        
hammered out his quota in the days of   
old ,rameses4    ,sidenote3 ,,the       
,,beginning ,,of ,,the ,,wire ,,age     
,england and ,france1 quick to see what 
the process meant1 even to the  slow    
commerce of those times1 fussed away for
 another three hundred  years1 trying to
 perfect methods of wire drawing to the 
point of  independence in the trade1 but
 it was a stern chase4 ,iron wire1 for  
all utility wire in the beginning was   
drawn from ,swedish iron1 was  beginning
 to take up a share of the white man's  
burden4 ,gold and silver  and platinum  
and bronze were still favored in        
ornamental use1 but for  practical      
purposes iron refused to be displaced4  
,great ,britain essayed  in #agej the   
making of wire from steel for musical   
purposes1 but to #agfi  ,broadwood was  

still sticking to ,german iron and even 
in #agij was still  buying wire from    
,pohlman in ,nuremberg4 ,so ,bavaria1   
where first the idea  of drawing metal  
had been hatched1 was still leading the 
world in its  craft4    ,little by      
little1 for the tide of industrial      
activity had barely begun  to rise1 new 
uses were found for wire4 ,in one field 
after another it  supplanted vegetable  
fibre where strength and durability were
  essential4 ,as the world began to feel
 the ,nineteenth ,century surge of      
mechanical impulse1 as life developed   
new facets and new needs1 science       
sought new means of meeting them1 and in
 the quest itself grew4  ,producing     
methods advanced with the new demands of
 invention4 ,always  the wire makers    
spun their filaments a little finer4    
,men were weighing  zephyrs and         
measuring the infinitesimal1 and needed 
tools of increasing  delicacy4 ,wire was
 the answer4    ,illustration3          
,,dredging    ,electricity1 so long     

hidden from understanding1 was led      
captive by a  wire1 not by a chain--and 
with its development wire has found a   
new and  increasingly important role4   
,the ductility of metals was at last    
being  tested to the full4 ,seven       
one-thousandths1 three one-thousandths1 
one  one-thousandth--one record after   
another was passed4 ,at last1 by way of 
curiosity1 a wire was drawn that        
measured one four-thousandth of an  inch
 in diameter--twelve times finer than   
the hair on your head4 ,the  spider1 so 
long counted a master workman1 had been 
undone4    ,the wire age was            
arriving--big wires to carry the world's
 heavy loads2  fine wire to solve its   
molecular problems4 ,the day of the     
hammer was  done4                       
,,chapter ,,ii                          
,,the ,,pioneer      ,since ,columbus   
the centuries have been gathering speed4
 ,at first it  came slowly1 for the need
 was not yet4 ,today a thought is born  
and  tomorrow it is a giant1 parting    

seas and moving mountains4 ,the waste of
  yesterday is turned into the raw      
material of new manufacture1 with its   
million wheels moving faster and faster4
 ,but back of it all1 inevitably  and   
eternally1 is a busy human brain and    
unsatisfied energy4    ,wire rope had   
lingered1 waiting for civilization's    
loads to grow4 ,the  artisans of old had
 woven cut wires together to make the   
trinkets of  their time1 little dreaming
 of the might that lay hidden in the    
fibres  of the iron1 and their world    
went on hoisting stone for its pyramids 
by  prodigious multiplication of        
garlic-fed man-power4 ,it seems strange 
to  the high-speed mind of today that   
five hundred years could have passed1   
after the drawing of wire was invented1 
before necessity put it into  the mind  
of a wire-drawer that with wire1 as with
 other things1  strength lay in union4  
,and yet the human race had been making 
rope  since the morning stars sang      
together4    ,in #ahca1 when ,france was

 picking herself up from the dirt and   
disorder  of another revolution and the 
,german princes were strangling in the  
universities the growing call for       
liberty and union1 young men of  brains 
and ambition began to leave the ,german 
states for ,america1 where  there was   
free air and elbow room4    ,sidenote3  
,,john ,a4 ,,roebling ,,comes ,,to      
,,america    ,in a company of such1     
,john ,a4 ,roebling journeyed from      
,muhlhausen in  ,saxony1 and took up a  
tract of land in western ,pennsylvania4 
,he carried  a degree of civil engineer 
from the ,royal ,university in ,berlin2 
but  there were back-to-the-landers even
 in those days1 and he set about        
farming in the thrifty ,german way1     
founding for nucleus a little town      
which at first was named ,germania1 but 
afterward came to be called  ,saxonburg4
    ,fate seems to have ordained that   
,roebling's engineering skill should    
not remain fettered to a ,pennsylvania  
plow handle4 ,the system of canals  and 

portages which afterward evolved and    
merged and built itself into  the       
,pennsylvania ,railroad was digging its 
ditches and dams and building  haulways 
through the obstinate distances of that 
hard-ribbed state1  past the hopeful    
hamlet of ,saxonburg and fatefully under
 the eyes of  the young ,german         
engineer4 ,the result was never in      
doubt4 ,he abandoned  the plow to his   
compatriots and plunged into the        
problems of  construction1 where he     
belonged4    ,sidenote3 ,,hauling       
,,canal ,,boats ,,up ,,the ,,portage    
,,railway    ,the skeptic who scoffs at 
fatalism will find it difficult to      
explain  why the particular engineering 
work that was brought to ,roebling's    
door  should involve the weary hauling  
of the ,pennsylvania ,canal's boats up  
the ,portage ,railway1 which ,bertrand1 
one of ,napoleon's generals1 had  built 
to overcome the ,pennsylvania ridges2 or
 why1 just as the bulk and  clumsiness  
and inefficiency of the huge hemp cables

 were eating into  his active mind1 a   
casual paper from ,germany should convey
 the fact  that some fellow in ,freiburg
 in ,saxony--where wire drawing had     
birth--had made a strong rope by        
twisting wires together4    ,what man   
had done man could do4 ,if there was a  
place to test the  efficacy of wire rope
 with its increased strength and        
diminishing size1  it was the ,portage  
,railway4 ,so the ,saxonburg wheatfield 
was turned into  a ropewalk4 ,ceres made
 way for ,vulcan4 ,the neighbors1 as    
soon as  material could be shipped in   
from the ,falls of the ,beaver ,river1  
where  wire drawing was done1 found     
themselves under young ,roebling's      
direction twisting wires1 with rude     
appliances for torsion1 into a  fabric  
which had never been made or seen or    
probably heard of in  ,america before1  
but which was destined1 in a            
comparatively short time1  to change the
 face of industry4    ,sidenote3 ,,wire 
,,rope ,,proves ,,its ,,pulling ,,power 

,it is easy to imagine the caustic      
comments of the ,pennsylvania           
countryside1 and the forebodings with   
which the pioneer installed his  cables 
on what was then a conspicuous          
engineering labor4 ,but it worked4      
,engineering audacity1 plus scientific  
skill and native faculty for  doing     
things1 solved the problem of the       
,portage1 but it did far more  than     
that4 ,the fame of it was soon broadcast
 and the orders for wire  rope came     
flooding from all that fast opening     
country4 ,roebling had  found his job4  
,destiny had him by the collar and he   
bade farming  good-bye4                 
,illustration3 ,,hoisting ,a            
,,battleship ,,tower ,,with ,,wire      
,,rope    ,it was in #ahdj that the     
first ,roebling rope was finished4      
,eight years  later1 the year when the  
revolution burst forth in the ,teutonic 
empires1 he moved his plant and its     
business to ,trenton1 and began         
forthwith to build the foremost wire    

rope factory in the world4    ,nothing  
can be more amusing or reveal more      
clearly what brains and  energy have    
been able to accomplish in the arena of 
,american  opportunity than to contrast 
the picture of the first ,roebling      
factory  in ,trenton1 which suggests the
 rudest of farmsteads1 with the         
sky-piercing chimneys and the mile or   
more of many-windowed brick  buildings  
in and around the ,jersey capital today1
 where the ,roebling  work is done4     
,the three big factory groups which have
 grown from the shabby little  buildings
 of #ahdh are the fruit of intelligence 
and ceaseless endeavor1  but they are   
reared primarily on a basis of          
manufacturing honor1 and  ruled by the  
general thesis that forever and ever    
quality comes before  price4 ,this means
 keeping faith with the structural iron 
worker1  swinging pigmy-small five      
hundred feet above the din of the city  
streets2 with the sailor1 the miner1 the
 rigger2 with the hurrying  multitude   

that packs the elevators in tall        
buildings1 and with the  aviator1 to    
whom a breaking wire may spell death4   
,that is the reason the ,roebling       
,company has outgrown the limits of     
,trenton in the last decade and a half  
and with its overflow founded a  city of
 its own2 that is the reason why        
,roebling has almost got into  the      
,thesaurus as a synonym for wire in     
every civilized language under  the sun4
    ,it is wire1 from the huge          
three-inch cable that pulls the loads of
  mountain haulways or moves the        
thousand cars of a city transit system1 
down to the gossamer that jingles the   
bell in the telephone or the            
infinitesimal hair that in the eyepiece 
of a telescope helps the  astronomer to 
mark the movement of a distant world4   
,there is hardly a  thing in the nature 
of wire1 round1 flat or irregular1 that 
the  ,roeblings do not manufacture or   
have not at some time manufactured1     
whether for the world's standard uses or

 the numberless special  purposes hidden
 in inventive minds4    ,sidenote3 ,a   
,,twelve ,,million ,,pound ,,development
 ,,from ,a ,,fifty ,,pound  ,,beginning 
,i've come to see1 said an old man at   
the ,roebling offices one day1  if you'd
 go to the trouble on a very small order
 to find out just what  composition ,i  
need in a wire for a patent ,i've got4  
,and they did4 ,it took the chemists and
 the experts some time to work  out the 
problem of resistances1 and the old man 
ordered fifty pounds4  ,the next year he
 ordered a hundred more4 ,there was no  
profit in it1 but  they made it and     
looked pleasant4 ,they were specialists 
in wire and  they were simply keeping   
faith with their job4    ,the following 
year the visitor called again4 ,i don't 
want any more of  that wire1 he grinned1
 ,i've sold my patent to ,so-and-,so1   
naming one  of the biggest manufacturing
 concerns in the world1 but ,i want to  
see  some royalties and ,i made it a    
condition of the sale that they order   

this wire from you on the formula that  
,i got4    ,in a recent #ab months      
period ,roeblings fabricated more than  
#e1jjj1jjj  pounds of that wire4        
99       99       99       99       99  
,if it's wire1 the ,roeblings make it4  
,all that was in the mind of the  man   
who seventy years ago was twisting the  
first rope in ,saxonburg4 ,he  was more 
than an engineer2 he was a sane and     
far-seeing mind in  business4 ,as soon  
as possible after establishing the      
factory in ,trenton  he added a mill for
 the manufacture of his own wire4 ,it   
gave him a  product that he knew from   
the pig iron up1 and it saved a profit1 
besides extending to a marked degree the
 scope of the business4 ,he  knew1 when 
he put the cable on the ,portage haulway
 in #ahdj1 that the  mission of wire1 in
 the world that was then making1 would  
be boundless1  and from the very start  
he was the explorer in new fields for   
wire1 a  builder1 a seeker for problems 
that wire might solve1 archapostle of   

the power of wire1 in one form or       
another1 to do the heaviest labor of    
mankind4    ,wire rope1 spreading its   
field of utility ever wider and wider1  
carried  with ease and safety loads that
 had broken the back of hemp2 it took   
the place of solid steel in numerous    
phases of construction1 and when  its   
adaptability was proven new tasks were  
devised for it4 ,wire rope  was the     
forerunner of ,safety ,first4 ,it       
cancelled large burdens of  expense2 it 
set a new record in facility of         
construction4    ,sidenote3 ,,america',s
 ,,first ,,wire ,,cableway              
,persistently militant1 from the day of 
his first achievement1 in the  promotion
 of wire rope1 ,john ,a4 ,roebling was  
the first engineer to  introduce into   
,america the novelty of a wire cableway1
 which with an  ingenious carriage he   
employed to transport across a river the
  materials he needed in the            
construction of a bridge4 ,this method  
of  haulage1 over streams and gorges1   

down from high mountains to cars or     
boats in the valley below1 up from the  
deep-sunken beds of rich                
placers--everywhere and in all sorts of 
places where ,nature seemed to  have set
 up impassable defense against those who
 would take away her  treasures--came   
forthwith into widespread use1 and is   
among the handy  tools of engineers     
throughout the world today4 ,the        
,roebling ,company  established these   
cableways in many countries4 ,it had in 
operation  around the globe no less than
 twenty different types1 including log  
rigs and gravity planes for mountain    
railways1 and the demand for wire  rope 
was increased thereby a thousand fold   
before the new century had  come in4    
,sidenote3 ,,roebling ,,turns ,,his     
,,attention ,,to ,,bridges    ,the age  
of wire was marching rapidly1 but ,john 
,a4 ,roebling had set a  distant mark4  
,in the mountains of ,peru1 ,india and  
other lands for ages  the natives have  
made use of bridges made of vines1 to   

cross appalling  chasms4 ,as time went  
on and arts progressed the principle was
 applied  through the agency of hemp    
ropes and chains1 and men of small      
imagination thought that in these the   
limit had been attained4 ,but           
,roebling's faith was as the faith of   
the ,moslem in the ,prophet4 ,he        
believed that in wire the solution of   
all the pesky problems of               
bridge-building had been found4 ,in a   
small way the thing was obvious1  but   
his ambition never stopped there4 ,he   
believed1 and had believed  ever since  
he made the first rope1 that a major    
bridge made up of wires  of scrupulously
 high quality1 constructed with rigorous
 regard for  scientific tenets1 would   
carry with ease and indefinitely any    
reasonable traffic that might be imposed
 on it4    ,famous engineers said he was
 a visionary and a hobbyist2 still with 
force and tenacity he urged his         
contention until at last the            
engineering world was compelled to give 

heed to him4 ,in the face of  such      
opposition1 and in view of the centuries
 that had dragged by  before wires were 
twisted into rope1 it is remarkable that
 so soon  after his initial experiment  
he should have worked out in practical  
entirety the plan of bridge construction
 which came to its climax in  the       
spanning of the ,east ,river4           
,between #ahdj1 when he made his first  
rope1 and #ahdd1 he had not only        
perfected his theory of wire bridges but
 in spite of furious opposition  had    
built one as an aqueduct for the old    
,pennsylvania ,canal1 the basins  of    
which were at ,pittsburg4 ,this was     
followed by four more suspension        
aqueducts for the ,delaware and ,hudson 
,canal ,co4 ,having espoused a  theory  
he let no grass grow under his feet4 ,he
 cast about vigorously  for bridges to  
build4 ,he found an opening in          
,cincinnati4    ,sidenote3 ,,the ,,ohio 
,,river ,,bridge ,,at ,,cincinnati      
,river traffic along the ,ohio1 in the  

forties1 was still a big factor in      
business but was contesting tooth and   
nail the advance of the railways1  and  
fought bitterly against the right of the
 invaders to build bridges  over the    
waterways4 ,the steamboat men said      
bridge piers would be a  peril to       
navigation1 but the cities of           
,cincinnati and ,covington1 facing  each
 other across the river1 cried for the  
bridge4 ,the rivermen were on  top in   
#ahdf when ,roebling came along1 fresh  
from the building of the  wire bridge in
 ,pennsylvania and with his head full of
 wire bridges1 and  offered to throw a  
wire span across the ,ohio with a length
 of #ajeg feet  and a floor height above
 the water of #ajc feet4                
,illustration3 ,,logging--,,handling    
,,big ,,fellows ,,with ,,wire ,,rope    
,for just ten years the steamboat       
faction staved it off4 ,it was not      
begun till #ahef1 just after the        
,niagara ,bridge was opened4 ,the panic 
of  #aheg and then the ,civil ,war kept 

the project at a standstill until       
#ahfc4 ,on ,easter ,day in #ahfg the    
bridge was opened4 ,colonel ,washington 
,a4 ,roebling1 son of the pioneer1 was  
the first to cross on its cable4  ,in   
the meantime ,john ,a4 ,roebling had    
completed not alone the ,niagara        
,bridge1 but the ,alleghany ,bridge over
 the ,alleghany ,river at ,pittsburg4   
,the last named differed from the       
,niagara1 ,ohio and later ,east ,river  
bridges in that it had several piers in 
the streamway1 after the manner  of the 
old type structures1 but in principle it
 conformed to the plan  which had been  
in his mind from the beginning4 ,his    
son1 ,washington1 was  his only         
assistant4    ,sidenote3 ,,bridging     
,,niagara ,,gorge    ,in all the world1 
perhaps1 no place could have been found 
where the  building of a simon pure     
,suspension ,bridge would have been a   
more  spectacular accomplishment than   
over ,niagara ,gorge1 with the ,falls   
thundering a little way upstream1 and   

the waters lashing and fuming           
underneath2 no place where its slender  
beauty could have had such stern  and   
impressive background4 ,the idea of     
carrying railroad trains over  that     
turmoil of waters on a web apparently so
 frail1 evoked a storm of  protest from 
well-nigh all the foremost engineers of 
the time4 ,but  ,roebling was a         
practical man as well as a stubborn one4
 ,after all1 he  was dealing with rock  
and wire and he knew what they would do4
 ,he built  the bridge1 the first of its
 kind to carry railroad traffic4 ,all   
the  world of that day knew1 but most of
 it now has forgotten1 how he flew a    
kite across the gorge to get his first  
wire over1 and from that built  up his  
cables4 ,on ,march #af1 #ahee1 the first
 train passed over it4 ,with  one       
remodeling it continued to carry        
increasingly heavy loads until  nearly  
half a century later it was replaced by 
a larger structure1  better calculated  
to bear the burden of modern equipment4 

,sidenote3 ,,the ,,suspension ,,bridge  
,,proves ,,itself    ,suspension ,bridge
 not alone proved itself in point of    
service1 but it  demonstrated the       
soundness of ,mr4 ,roebling's claims for
 the wire  structure4 ,the ,ohio        
structure1 which followed1 outdid       
,suspension  ,bridges in length of span2
 in economy of material1 in simplicity  
and  charm of outline it clearly        
foreshadowed the still greater work1 the
  designing of which was to be the      
crowning accomplishment of his life4    
,he was working with a practiced hand   
now4 ,the doubts1 if he ever had  any1  
were behind him4 ,behind him1 also1 was 
a producing plant tuned to  turn out at 
speed the materials he needed1 with     
certainty of their  quality4    ,he had 
proved that the making of big bridges   
with wire was feasible1  and that it was
 simple1 as most great things are after 
they have been  done4 ,there were only  
three basic parts to a suspension bridge
 after  all--towers1 cables and         

anchorage4 ,suspending the roadway1     
which to the  average man seems the     
vital part of the creation1 is1 from the
  engineering standpoint1 only an       
accessory work4 ,john ,a4 ,roebling had 
concentrated his life's effort1 not on  
mere methods of commercial  production1 
but rather on the proving of his        
contentions4 ,he needed the  right kind 
of wire rope to prove them1 so like a   
wise man he made it  himself4           
99       99       99       99       99  
,he came to the summit of his           
achievement with the acceptance of his  
plans for the building of the ,brooklyn 
,bridge1 and then1 his faith            
vindicated1 his theory1 which he had    
fought so hard to sustain1  endorsed by 
boards of noted engineers and acclaimed 
by the public1  starting out on the     
realization of his long dream--the      
building of the  ,eighth ,wonder of the 
,world1 a comparatively slight accident1
 the  bungled docking of a ferryboat1   
which crushed his foot and brought on   

tetanus1 put out the steady candle of   
his life4    ,it was the very whimsy of 
fate4 ,his work was done4 ,he had       
created1 out  of imagination and energy1
 the finished designs for a wonder      
fabric1  ready for the labor of an      
intenser age4 ,he did not live to see   
the  spider structures hung like wisps  
of gossamer above the restless          
waterways of ,new ,york1 but his name is
 woven into the very steel of  them4    
,,chapter ,,iii                         
,,the ,,brooklyn ,,bridge      ,early in
 the fifties1 when the ,niagara         
accomplishment was more or less  the    
talk of two continents and communication
 under seas by cable had  helped to     
emphasize the possibilities of wire1    
,john ,a4 ,roebling1  protagonist of the
 wire bridge idea1 advanced a proposal  
to connect ,new  ,york and ,long ,island
 by a suspension bridge and release the 
people of  ,brooklyn from a segregation 
which they had made a somewhat futile   
pretense of enjoying4 ,habit dies hard4 

,the crust of custom becomes  strangely 
indurated with long exposure1 and       
,brooklyn residents had  fought the     
,east ,river in profitable1 if archaic1 
ferryboats too long to  be lured lightly
 into any liaison with iconoclastic     
,manhattan by way of  a wire bridge4    
,roebling waited another decade1 but he 
hustled while he waited4 ,the           
,brooklynites continued to make their   
uncertain ways across the river in      
times of storm and tide and ice as the  
,lord gave them strength1 and the       
sacred ferryboats still paid dividends4 
,the vicious winter of #ahff-g1         
coldest1 bitterest1 longest the cities  
have ever known1 wrung forth at  last a 
cry for relief4 ,they could wrap        
themselves up against the  weather1 but 
no weight of woolens could turn the     
shafts of ridicule4 ,it  was grand      
ammunition for the advocates of the     
bridge1 when people  traveling by train 
from ,albany actually reached ,new ,york
 sooner than  did the man who did       

business in ,new ,york1 and left his    
domicilium in  ,brooklyn at the same    
hour4    ,and besides1 the ,roebling cap
 had another feather in it now1 in the  
completion of the ,ohio ,bridge4 ,he was
 building wire bridges everywhere1  and 
it began to look as though there was    
some body of truth in the  ,western     
contention that ,new ,york was the most 
provincial city in  ,america1 for all   
its self-approval4    ,at one of the    
many hearings that were held on the     
bridge question a  famous engineer who  
favored the wire type was asked what    
reason he had  for believing it would do
 the work4    ,i believe it1 he replied1
 because ,roebling says so4             
,sidenote3 ,,the ,,initial ,,charter    
,,granted    ,the demand for the bridge 
rose to a clamor4 ,in the month of ,may1
 #ahfg1  the initial charter was        
granted1 and ,mr4 ,roebling was         
appointed  engineer4 ,three months      
afterward he submitted his report and   
estimates1  which were examined and     

approved by a commission of engineers   
from the  ,united ,states ,war          
,department4 ,then he set about         
preparation for the  task4    ,sidenote3
 ,,the ,,death ,,of ,,john ,a4          
,,roebling    ,it was while fixing the  
location for the ,brooklyn tower that he
 met  with the accident that caused his 
death4 ,but his work had been well      
done1 and his son and associate1 ,col4  
,washington ,a4 ,roebling1 took up      
without delay the execution of the plan 
he had helped to create4    ,if the     
older ,roebling encountered obstacles in
 bringing his great idea  to the point  
of acceptance1 the pathway of his       
successor1 called  without warning to   
take over responsibility for the        
greatest  engineering labor of the age1 
was not strewn with roses4    ,sidenote3
 ,,the ,,work ,,of ,,construction       
,,begins    ,illustration3 ,,wire ,,rope
 ,,in ,,the ,,quarry    ,it was in the  
summer of #ahfi that ,john ,a4 ,roebling
 died4 ,the second day  of ,january1    

#ahgj1 saw the actual work of           
construction begun1 when  laborers      
started to clear away to prepare for the
 foundations of the  ,brooklyn tower4   
,from that day forward1 through a       
baker's dozen of  years1 there was no   
rest1 though there was plenty of        
interruption4  ,until the job was ended 
,washington ,a4 ,roebling simply lived  
the  ,brooklyn ,bridge4 ,it was a       
colossal job1 punctuated with changes   
and  problems and complications1 but it 
went forward4 ,the landmarks of a       
bygone age1 old houses of historic      
memory on the water fronts of both      
cities1 vanished silently and where they
 had been1 by and by there grew  piles  
of masonry to form the approaches4 ,from
 the huge caissons over  against either 
shore rose the towers1 tall and grim1   
which were to  carry the cables4 ,in due
 time they stood complete1 with their   
broad  bases welded to the rock by an   
ingenious bond of stone and concrete in 
the river's bed1 and their crests nearly

 three hundred feet above the  top of   
the tide4 ,a hundred and nineteen       
feet--and three inches1 to be           
precise--above the water opened the two 
tall arches in each tower1  stretching  
upward one hundred and seventeen feet in
 air4 ,it was through  these the bridge 
proper was to pass1 with its gangways   
for horse and  foot and railway traffic4
    ,sidenote3 ,,could ,,those ,,slender
 ,,towers ,,carry ,,the ,,great ,,load8 
,the hurrying people of ,new ,york and  
,brooklyn watched the thing grow and    
wondered fearfully whether the slender  
towers would stand the strain4  ,in     
,harper's ,magazine for ,may1 #ahhc1 now
 itself yellowed by age1 is an          
exhaustive article concerning the       
,brooklyn ,bridge1 in which one is told 
at length and with an engineer's        
exactness1 the steps by which the       
achievement was brought1 after thirteen 
laborious years1 to proud  completion4  
,even to the curious layman the details 
are no longer of insistent  interest4   

,one thing is emphasized1 however1 which
 well as we know it  now can never cease
 to hold the mind in a certain          
wonder--that all the  weight and        
solidity and massiveness are in the     
towers1 the foundations  and the long   
expanses of stone work1 which stretching
 inland nearly a  thousand feet1 serve  
to guard and strengthen the anchorage   
for the  cables which are the working   
force4 ,the rest is wire1 for the most  
part2 wire1 slender by contrast and     
against the background of the sky1  but 
endowed with great strength by care and 
skill in fabrication4 ,john  ,a4        
,roebling and his son had staked their  
name and their future on the  strength  
and quality of ,roebling wire4    ,in   
that long ago story of the ,brooklyn    
,bridge1 there is written the  lesson   
that clear thinking and courage and     
perseverance can accomplish  the        
seemingly impossible4 ,what traveler    
over those high-hung roadways  ever     
stops to ask himself how those great    

round cables1 stretched in  long1       
inverted arches above the surge of the  
river traffic1 were ever  put in place8 
,they are today simply a part of the    
stage setting of a  busy life1 like the 
river itself4    ,sidenote3 ,,how ,,the 
,,great ,,cables ,,were ,,made    ,each 
of these cables consists of nineteen    
strands of about two hundred  and       
seventy-eight ,no4 #h ,b4 ,w4 ,g4 wires 
each1 and each wire is  continuous in   
its strand1 like the yarns in a skein1  
traveling  eternally to ,brooklyn and   
back1 up over the top of one tower1 down
 in a  long curve above the tideway1 up 
to the other tower and down again1 to   
be gripped and carried by links1 like a 
chain1 down to the everlasting  clutch  
of the rock and concrete-bound          
anchorage4 ,each skein is a  million    
feet long--nearly two hundred miles--and
 still men talk of  ,oriental patience4 
,there is no twist in these ponderous   
cables1 as there is in a wire  rope4    
,every reach of wire lies flat and      

separate1 and when all were in  place   
they were laboriously bound together1   
first the strands1 then  when all the   
strands were up1 the whole fabric1 into 
cylindrical form4  ,there are other     
strange things about these cables2 one  
is that they  make practically no strain
 on the towers save to sustain their    
weight4  ,another is that the long storm
 cables that radiate downward from the  
top of the towers to the bridge floor1  
for a space of four hundred feet  inside
 and outside each tower1 are themselves 
calculated to sustain1 if  need be1 the 
imposed weight for that distance4 ,so   
that the margin of  safety in this      
seeming web-like structure is far in    
excess of what  timid imaginations have 
pictured4 ,that was a cardinal feature  
in all  ,john ,a4 ,roebling's plans4 ,he
 left a safety margin many times greater
  than the load4 ,it has been an open   
secret for years that the ,brooklyn     
,bridge has been unwisely taxed1 but he 
knew it would be4    ,sidenote3         

,,stringing ,,the ,,cables ,,across     
,,the ,,east ,,river    ,before the     
cables were in place1 ,new ,york and    
,brooklyn stared up at the  river-wide  
space between the bare towers and       
wondered by what wizardry  a bridge     
could ever be swung across it4 ,the     
beginning was simple--as  simple and    
prosaic in a way as the hitching of a   
horse--in principle4  ,it began with    
wire rope4 ,a scow with a coil of       
three-quarter inch rope  was moored     
alongside the ,brooklyn tower1 and the  
end of the coil was  hoisted up the face
 of the masonwork1 passed down on the   
land side and  then carried back4       
,illustration3 ,,helping ,,to ,,relieve 
,,the ,,freight ,,car ,,shortage ,,by   
,,quick  ,,loading    ,next1 suspending 
the river traffic for the necessary     
time1 the scow was  towed across the    
river1 paying out as she went1 and the  
rope carried  over the ,new ,york tower1
 then wound on a huge drum till it hung 
high  above the river and clear of the  

tallest topgallant4 ,a second rope was  
run in the same manner and the two were 
joined around huge driving  wheels or   
pulleys at each end4 ,an endless belt or
 traveler1 revolving  by steam power1   
now stretched from city to city1 and on 
a day in  ,august1 that lives yet in the
 memory of every man who was there1 ,e4 
,f4  ,farrington1 the master mechanic of
 the project1 who was a veteran of      
,niagara and the ,ohio ,bridge1 set out 
to show the workmen1 who on this        
slender aerial were to begin the long   
labor of hanging the cable1 that  it was
 easy if you only thought so4 ,in a     
bosun's chair he shot out  from the top 
of the ,brooklyn tower1 down the long   
sag in the traveler  and up to the ,new 
,york side1 while a million people      
craned their necks  from the streets and
 docks and housetops and boats along the
 river1 and  swallowed hard at their    
hearts4    ,the bands played1 the cannon
 tore the air1 the multitudes yelled    
themselves hoarse1 the steam whistles of

 the harbor shrieked to the sky  the    
tidings that1 though nobody then        
understood it1 ,greater ,new ,york  was 
on the way4                      99     
99       99       99       99    ,this  
was six years and a half from the time  
when ,washington ,a4 ,roebling  had     
begun the work of construction4 ,seven  
other years followed1 years  full of    
troubled effort1 of planning and        
replanning and replanning1 of  battling 
with the twin devils of ,contraction and
 ,expansion4 ,the  tensions all had to  
be secured in absolutely uniform        
weather4 ,a  determination made when the
 sun was shining on one part of the     
bridge  and not on another might have   
thrown the whole calculation awry4 ,sun 
and wind played pranks with the work in 
the summer and in the winter  snow and  
ice coated the wires and running gear so
 that work was often  impossible4       
,deflection varied a third of an inch   
for every degree of  temperature4    ,in
 short1 says the writer of that time1   

the ponderous thing1 while  neither     
small nor agile1 has a trick in common  
with the minute and  lively insect which
 when you put your finger on him isn't  
there4    ,sidenote3 ,,the ,,fabric     
,,grows ,,toward ,,completion    ,but in
 due time the great cables were in      
place1 and bound4 ,then the  suspender  
bands were set1 from which suspender    
cables hung to hold the  frame of the   
roadway4 ,and so the fabric grew toward 
completion1 hung  practically in two    
sections1 which all the world nowadays  
doesn't know1  with an expansion joint  
connecting them in the middle to absorb 
the  expansion and contraction of the   
metal4 ,even the rails at this section  
are split in half lengthwise1 to permit 
them to slide back and forth  with the  
changes in temperature4    ,there were  
accidents and drawbacks and political   
complications1 as  there are always     
bound to be in public works2 there were 
believer and  unbeliever1 booster and   
knocker1 as now1 but the work went on to

 its  completion and in #ahhc the day of
 realization came4 ,wire was king4      
,doubters and malcontents murmured for a
 time1 but little by little  subsided4  
,the opening of the bridge was one of   
those memorable days of  which ,new     
,york has had so many in her brief      
history1 a day when  ,president and     
,governor and many lesser dignitaries1  
who have now passed  from the stage1    
strutted their little hour to hail the  
passing of a  milestone1 and there were 
fireworks in the evening4    ,sidenote3 
,,the ,,beginning ,,of ,a ,,new ,,era   
,a new era had now definitely begun4    
,there was a recognized agent in the    
world strong enough1 with engineering   
guidance1 to shoulder its most          
staggering burdens1 and the name of     
,roebling began to weave itself in      
letters of wire through the whole web of
 modern industry4 ,thirty-seven  years  
have come and gone since the ,brooklyn  
,bridge was finished and  thrown open to
 the swarming people4 ,even when they   

saw they wouldn't  believe it2 many of  
them mounted to its span with their     
hearts in their  mouths4 ,there had been
 a world of carping and prophecy of     
disaster4 ,a  public that clutched at   
novelty as an addict does for stimulant 
could  not assimilate the idea that     
there could be safety in wire where such
  enormous weight was laid upon it4 ,its
 frailty of appearance fooled  them4    
,for years after the ,bridge had taken  
up its load and was carrying  without   
protest or misbehavior the traffic of   
two cities1 there came  periodical      
alarms regarding the discovery of       
strange faults in  construction1 or     
disintegration of the wires caused by   
vibration4 ,it  was the one dependable  
theme for the alarmist and sensational  
writer4    ,but the proof was in the    
using4 ,the slender span has stood the  
test of  time and tide and wind and     
wear1 and stood them all so well that it
 has  fixed for a century at least the  
type of the super-bridge4    ,sidenote3 

,,two ,,more ,,bridges ,,to ,,brooklyn  
,wire bridges have become a familiar    
thing in the lives of cities4 ,two  more
 have come to give the crowding         
population of ,new ,york freeway over   
the ,east ,river1 as the city's life has
 spread northward4 ,for the             
,williamsburg the ,roebling firm        
furnished the wire and installed the    
cables4 ,in the ,manhattan ,bridge it   
had no part save the making of the      
wire1 not a trivial task1 since in the  
cables alone there are  #ab1jjj1jjj     
pounds4    ,these bridges are bigger    
than the ,brooklyn ,bridge with which   
the  troublesome river was first        
overcome1 but it will be many a day     
before  the glamour that surrounded the 
earlier creation will have worn away1   
or people the world over cease to speak 
of it with wonder and a certain  measure
 of awe4 ,anybody1 perhaps1 can build a 
wire bridge now2 perhaps1  too1 somebody
 some day can build one with more of    
simple grace and  slender beauty1 but it

 is certain nobody ever has4            
,,chapter ,,iv                          
,,where ,,wire ,,is ,,made      ,to     
measure the growth of wire1 with its    
many forms and composites1  during the  
last forty years would be to trace in   
detail not alone the  progress of       
science1 invention and mechanical       
industry1 but the myriad  conceits that 
have come ostensibly to facilitate the  
process of living4  ,in the search for  
new comforts1 for means of avoiding     
physical  exertion1 the world has been  
littered with novelties1 and most of    
them  depend on wire4 ,personal life as 
well as commerce and industry is        
interlaced with wire4 ,with the opening 
of new countries1 the increase  of      
populations1 the flocking of outland    
people to the cities and the  consequent
 lack of farm labor1 ingenuity has been 
more heavily taxed to  find the quick   
and easy way of doing the world's work  
and keeping food  in its mouths4 ,wire1 
so adaptable to the heaviest as well as 

the  lightest tasks1 has labored from   
year to year under an increasing        
demand4    ,it is not surprising        
therefore that a company which in such  
an  impressive way had fixed itself in  
recognition as the first exponent of    
wire's usefulness should have grown in  
this period from modest  commercial     
stature to a high place in its field and
 to the enjoyment of  large production4 
,sidenote3 ,,the ,,growth ,,of ,,the    
,,roebling ,,business    ,when the sons 
of ,john ,a4 ,roebling took up control  
of the business he  had established1    
about one hundred men were employed and 
the product of  their industry          
approximated #bej1jjj annually4 ,just   
before the  beginning of the war more   
than eight thousand employees were      
engaged in  the manufacture of ,roebling
 products and the value of the output   
ran  far into the millions4 ,the factory
 which was so meagre and so humble in   
#ahdh has spread its buildings not only 
over the surrounding acres1 but  across 

what were then neighboring farm lands   
until1 constrained not  alone by the    
pyramiding demand for its products but  
by the soaring  values of the city that 
had grown up around it1 and of which it 
had  been in some measure the creator1  
it went pioneering again1 sixteen  years
 ago1 down the ,delaware1 and           
established a new nucleus1 which will   
suffice for a long period to come4      
,with the erection of the cables for the
 ,williamsburg ,bridge1 the  ,roebling  
firm withdrew from the competitive field
 of engineering  contracts and          
concentrated all its energies in the    
perfection of its  product--wire4    ,in
 view of the more distinctly industrial 
character of the ,roebling  enterprise  
under the later dispensation1 it is of  
interest that the  varied activities of 
,john ,a4 ,roebling1 as a scientist1 a  
master of  materials and a peculiarly   
astute mind in affairs1 have been       
carried on  severally among his sons and
 grandsons4 ,colonel ,washington ,a4    

,roebling1  the president of the        
company1 who executed the plans for the 
,brooklyn  ,bridge1 is an engineer of   
well-known ability4 ,his intimate       
contact with  all the affairs of the    
company during such a long period of    
development1 his kindly and generous    
support to constructive  achievements1  
has been a source of pride and          
invaluable assistance to  the younger   
generation of the ,roebling fraternity4 
,his two brothers1  ,charles and        
,ferdinand1 now dead1 were both         
intensely active during  their lives4   
,charles ,g4 ,roebling's talents as a   
builder of plants and  machinery and an 
unusual gift of turning out a product of
 the highest  excellence1 were1 in a    
large measure1 the cornerstone for the  
tremendous success of the ,roebling     
,company4 ,it was during the period of  
his direction that the manufacturing    
capacity grew so rapidly4    ,the       
simultaneous expansion of the commercial
 field was the life work of  the other  

brother1 ,ferdinand ,w4 ,roebling1 who  
carried the ,roebling  products to all  
corners of the globe4 ,a clear and far  
vision1 an  uncanny ability to go       
straight to the point and a keen        
knowledge of  human nature1 were a few  
of the strong traits of his mentality4  
,under  his control of financial and    
ethical matters the ,john ,a4           
,roebling's  ,sons ,company established 
a worldwide and enviable reputation for 
stability and fair dealing4             
,ferdinand1 although an indulgent       
father1 brought up his two sons1 ,karl  
and ,ferdinand1 ,jr41 in the            
old-fashioned way4 ,they were taught    
from  early boyhood that theirs would be
 no bed of roses1 that manhood was an   
estate where responsibility must be     
accepted and assumed1 and with this     
teaching ringing in their ears the      
mantle of the presidency of the  company
 fell upon ,karl ,g4 ,roebling1 and the 
secretaryship and  treasurership upon   
the shoulders of ,ferdinand ,w4         

,roebling1 ,jr4    ,illustration3       
,,towing ,,with ,,wire ,,rope ,,hawser  
,both sons upon leaving college were    
given a rigid training in all  branches 
of the business and early in their      
careers exhibited the  executive ability
 and keen business foresight which their
 father had in  so large a measure      
developed4 ,karl's talents lay          
principally in the  gift he had of      
drawing from his associates their       
whole-hearted fidelity  and devotion to 
the cause of the ,roebling prestige4    
,his death at the  early age of         
forty-eight was a shock to the industry1
 and a great  personal loss to those    
associated with him in the conduct of   
the  business4    ,while all of the     
,roeblings have possessed1 in a great   
degree1 the  qualities of leadership1   
yet they have always recognized the     
necessity  of surrounding themselves    
with a strong organization capable of   
carrying on this great industry after   
they had ceased their earthly           

activities4    ,it was particularly     
under the regime of ,karl ,roebling that
 the strong  foundation was laid for the
 present powerful organization--each    
department highly specialized and in    
charge of experienced well-trained      
heads1 ably aided by a corps of         
competent assistants1 all functioning   
smoothly like a well-balanced machine4  
,karl left this as his heritage  to the 
business4 ,he never did things by       
halves4 ,his working day was  long and  
intense1 but to one so constituted it   
could not be otherwise4  ,during the    
world war and its aftermath the added   
responsibilities he so  cheerfully      
assumed1 contributed largely toward     
bringing to an end a  life full of early
 accomplishments4    ,ferdinand ,w4     
,roebling1 ,jr41 the remaining son1 now 
vice-president and  treasurer1 is an    
able engineer4 ,his early training with 
the company was  entirely in the        
manufacturing and engineering side of   
the business4 ,in  more recent years1   

however1 he has devoted his attention to
 its  financial affairs4 ,his close     
contact with his father and brother1 his
  thorough knowledge of the company's   
policies1 have well fitted him to       
sustain the ,roebling name and all it   
represents in the business world4       
,sidenote3 ,,the ,,trenton ,,plant      
,the main or first plant of the company 
centers around the site of the  original
 buildings4 ,its structures1 yards and  
tracks cover more than  thirty-five     
acres of ground about a mile from the   
center of the city4  ,the ,delaware and 
,raritan ,canal and the ,trenton        
,division of the  ,pennsylvania         
,railroad pass along its western        
boundary and directly  before the door  
of the offices4 ,the office building was
 erected in #aheg  by ,john ,a4         
,roebling as a residence and later1 as  
manufacture crowded in  around1 it was  
given over to business uses4 ,the spur  
tracks of the  ,pennsylvania traverse   
the company enclosure4    ,nearest to   

the office building are some of the     
structures that ,mr4  ,roebling built in
 the first periods of business          
expansion1 among them  the old rope     
shop1 where by methods of his own       
devising he strove to  meet the growing 
demands for rope4 ,some of the machinery
 he built is  still in service in       
production of standard lines1 showing   
how swiftly  and how far1 from crude    
beginnings1 his active mind advanced    
along the  road to better production1   
and how efficient management can prolong
 the  life of a mechanism that is       
honestly built in the beginning4        
,sidenote3 ,,the ,,buckthorn ,,and      
,,kinkora ,,plants    ,the second or    
,buckthorn plant lies half a mile       
farther to the south1  also facing the  
railroad and the canal4    ,the third1  
which was christened ,kinkora1 after a  
neighboring village on  the railroad1   
but is now ,roebling1 with a station of 
its own1 is ten  miles farther down the 
,delaware4 ,all told1 there are probably

 a hundred  buildings in the three      
plants1 many of them of immense size and
  manufacturing capacity4    ,from the  
wide diversity of its products1 the men 
in the ,roebling  establishment have    
come to refer to it as a department     
store4 ,the  problem therefore of       
distributing its operations and keeping 
track of  its large volume of moving    
stock and its equipment is a substantial
  one4 ,while in some lines there is    
activity partitioned among all three    
plants1 in the main the various         
divisions of labor are well             
concentrated4 ,for the most part the    
,upper ,works1 though a considerable    
quantity of wire is made there1 is      
devoted to what is termed finished      
product4 ,in the same manner the        
,buckthorn plant1 while turning out     
some rope in small sizes1 specializes in
 all forms of insulation and  the       
manufacture of lead-cased cables4       
,sidenote3 ,,the ,,kinkora ,,plant ,,at 
,,roebling    ,the ,kinkora or ,roebling

 establishment1 carrying the production 
of the  subsidiary ,new ,jersey ,wire   
,cloth ,company1 making wire netting1   
window  screens and other forms of wire 
cloth1 is given over most largely to    
the making of steel wire and the        
fundamental work of wire and steel      
production4 ,with the company's large   
acreage at this location1 its  townsite 
and the facility of river transportation
 as well as rail1 with  unlimited water1
 of which this plant uses more than is  
pumped by the  city of ,trenton itself1 
the situation offers large opportunity  
for  expansion and profitable           
centralization of operation4 ,at the    
present  time1 while shipments of wire  
are made direct from ,roebling to       
manufacturers who use it in production  
of their own commodities1 by far  the   
greater part of the output goes to the  
other plants to be finished  into rope  
and specialties4    ,illustration3      
,,making ,a ,,crossing ,,by ,,cableway  
,inside the tall palings that enclose   

the great mill buildings at  ,roebling1 
there is an open space1 broad and long  
as a drill ground1  threaded by spur    
tracks and heaped endlessly with stacks 
of pig iron  and steel-making materials4
 ,it seems as though some giant had     
dumped  there the salvage of a hundred  
battlefields4 ,it lies there sadly      
rusting under the weather1 waiting the  
moment when the mills shall  stretch    
forth hands and hurry it in1 rush it    
like a neophyte through  the fierce     
initiation of heat and chemistry1 and   
having changed the  very fibre of it by 
strange processes1 send it singing      
forth1 shining  in great coils1 twisted 
into cords and cables small and great1  
bare or  insulated1 bronzed or coppered1
 galvanized or enameled1 huge and bulky 
or spun to hair-like tenuousness1 to do 
its work in a busy world4    ,sidenote3 
,,making ,,wire ,,steel    ,of course1  
the making of steel is no new story1 but
 this is wire  steel--the high carbon1  
the tough1 the sinewy1 the resilient1   

that must  carry in itself as it moves  
along through these interminable        
buildings  the analytically measured    
proportions of this or that1 which fit  
it to  bear up the traffic of a giant   
bridge or convey a whisper of telephonic
  sound or register split seconds in an 
,elgin timepiece4 ,it is pig1 and  ore  
and scrap1 but just what kind and just  
how much of scrap and  ore and pig1     
these are subtle questions4 ,it costs a 
lot of time and  money sometimes to     
answer them4    ,when the thirty-five   
hundred and odd degrees of heat in the  
long rows  of open hearth furnaces have 
brought this stubborn mixture to        
bubbling  and seething like a busy      
kettle of soup--a workman adding a      
little  manganese or other ingredient to
 the broth now and then1 grimy men with 
long handled steel dippers take out a   
few thimblefuls from time to time  and  
hurry the sample away to the chemist1   
who1 like a chef1 tests the  quality and
 prescribes the seasoning4 ,by and by it

 is run off1 from an  opening in the    
bottom of the furnace into a huge       
caldron they call a  ladle4 ,a fifty-ton
 crane conveys it down the long1 shadowy
 building1  to halt above a group of    
tall moulds4 ,a wizard up in the gloom  
under  the roof moves it from mould to  
mould1 a few inches at a time1 while    
the liquid steel is drawn from the      
bottom into one after another4 ,the     
moulds are left to cool4    ,sidenote3  
,,blooms    ,its history is now begun4  
,it is an ingot--many ingots--and when  
removed  from the mould is loaded on    
steel cars and borne away on its        
journey4  ,when in due course the ingot 
comes to the blooming mill it is        
fourteen inches thick each way and five 
feet long4 ,heated again1 it is  marched
 up on a steel rollway1 also controlled 
by a man higher up1  and into the hungry
 jaws of a machine that1 after a series 
of  swallowings1 disgorges it at last1  
shrunken in sheer humility to a         
diameter of four inches and with a very 

long face--some forty-eight  feet to be 
exact4 ,and no wonder4 ,in the process  
it has been kneaded  into a dozen       
different phases of flatness and        
squareness1 and put in a  way to profit 
by the everlasting squeezing and        
stretching it is to  undergo4 ,now it is
 a bloom4    ,sidenote3 ,,billets       
,again it is passed on1 and from some   
subterranean blackness you see it       
rushed out and up to a sort of          
guillotine that first cuts off the flawy
  ends1 where the impurities accumulated
 in its ingot state1 and sends  them to 
the scrap heap1 then lops the bloom as a
 man saws firewood1  but a great deal   
faster1 into billets varying from one to
 four hundred  pounds in weight4 ,they  
are billets now1 and at last are counted
 the  raw material of wire1 even after  
such an inferno of cooking4    ,a steel 
loader gathers them up1 carries them    
away in bunches and1 by a  trick of wire
 pulling1 deposits them on other cars in
 rows as regular  as the pickets on an  

old fashioned fence4    ,sidenote3      
,,through ,,the ,,rolling ,,mill        
,along with the copper billets they are 
stacked in thousands and  thousands of  
tons in the stockyard outside the doors 
of the rolling  mill1 each in its group 
according to physical and chemical      
character1  waiting the next purgatory  
of change4 ,one pile is marked for one  
mission1 one for another1 ranging       
through all the uses wire can be put    
to4 ,these piles are forever vanishing1 
forever being replaced1 as the  wide    
world calls for wire4 ,they disappear   
into the darkness of the mill  and they 
are never billets again4    ,marshaled  
on cars and jammed by hydraulic force   
into big reheating  furnaces like a     
,brobdignagian bakery1 fired with fuel  
gas1 they come  out glowing again and   
start on the next stage of reduction4   
,the passage  through the rolling mill  
is a short life and a merry one4 ,if    
they were  kneaded in the blooming mill 
it was a mild experience4 ,here they are

  mauled and manhandled and masticated  
by swift1 continuous and looping  mills 
that are born with a huge appetite for  
the largest billets1 and  make rods of  
great length4 ,down they go1 under the  
gripping of  relentless fingers that    
squeeze them first square1 then oval1   
then  square again1 and pass them on1   
always smaller1 toward the journey's    
end4 ,sometimes it's half an inch1      
sometimes more1 according to the  needs 
of trade4    ,sidenote3 ,,the ,,mile ,a 
,,minute ,,journey ,,into ,,wire        
,wire goes the whole distance1 whisking 
along through the murky1 half  dark     
mill1 up and down at a mile a minute1   
like flaming serpents  flirting fiery   
tails1 as the men1 armed with tongs1    
seize and whip them  from one pair of   
rolls to another4 ,in they go1 around   
the grooved  repeater and out again to  
be grabbed with a motion swift as the   
dash of  a pickerel1 and thrust once    
more into the next set of rolls4 ,always
 the  lightning speed and always the    

long tail1 red hot and smaller than     
before1 and longer1 playing snap the    
whip down the steel grooves to  the     
bottom of the pit1 then straight away up
 the incline1 a flash of  fire in the   
darkness1 and on from roll to roll4 ,the
 men who handle  these rods hold their  
ticklish posts only twenty or thirty    
minutes at a  time4 ,a straight eight   
hour day1 if a man came through it      
alive1 would  send him to an asylum with
 a conviction that he was great grandson
 to  ,medusa4 ,at the finishing pass    
where the man stands1 a stream of four  
rods is going by him continually at     
lightning speed1 about a mile a  minute2
 hundreds of tons in twenty-four hours  
looping the loops through  the rolls and
 finishing in red coils of quarter inch1
 lying innocent  and rosy and round on  
the metal floor4    ,to the novice they 
look like wire2 to the cognoscenti they 
are only  rods1 and in order to be wire 
some day are hustled off to the cleaning
  house and in bunches plunged into a   

bath of acid4 ,this takes off the  scale
 the rolling left on them4 ,but acid in 
wire steel is like heresy  in the       
church4 ,it has to be purged away4 ,this
 is done by immersion and  then by a    
coating of lime to neutralize by        
chemical action whatever  taint may     
remain4 ,the steel is then baked from   
twenty-four to  forty-eight hours to    
remove the hydrogen4    ,wire making has
 just begun4 ,from this time on it is a 
wonder-work to  the novice1 a mechanical
 sleight of hand performance by which   
hundreds  of shadowy men and other      
hundreds of whirling wheels spin the rod
 down  ever smaller and smaller till    
what was once a stodgy four foot billet 
is perhaps a thousandth of an inch      
thick1 fifteen odd thousand miles  long1
 weighs less than a quarter of an ounce 
to the mile1 and has to be  looked for  
with your best reading glasses4 ,it is  
just three times as  fine as the hair on
 your head4    ,sidenote3 ,,the ,,work  
,,of ,,the ,,wire ,,doctors    ,never   

think that the tall chimney of a        
manufacturing plant tells the  story of 
all that goes on in its shadow4 ,it     
isn't all coarse work4 ,if  you could   
see the things that are done to a block 
of steel1 and the  brains that are mixed
 with it1 in the ,roebling plant1 before
 it comes  out and goes on its way1 they
 would make you take off your hat to a  
piece of wire for the rest of your      
natural life4 ,but it isn't all1 what   
happens to the outside4 ,there are wire 
doctors who follow the changing         
symptoms of the metal through its many  
processes1 with diagnostic eye  as keen 
as any medico's for traces of typhoid or
 mumps4 ,through all the  process there 
are reheatings and coolings1 at         
carefully specified  temperatures1 to   
give temper and then to take it away1 to
 keep the  ductility without sacrificing
 endurance4 ,it is one business where   
you  simply have to eat the cake and    
keep it1 too4    ,there is wet drawn    
wire and dry drawn wire1 and chemical   

reasons for  drawing wire wet1 and      
divers ways of drying wet wire to attain
 certain  conditions2 there is          
lubrication by means of dry materials as
 well as  oil1 and soap suds1 funny     
things that also act on the material    
itself  in mysterious ways4 ,but this is
 no text book4    ,illustration3        
,,tramway ,,running ,,on ,,wire ,,rope  
,,cable ,,dumping ,,coal ,,at ,,mine    
,no thinkable effort is omitted that    
will help to make the wire material     
perfect in quality and service          
condition1 but the proof of the pudding 
in the making of wire is in the ,olsen  
machines--miraculous things that  will  
smash a big wire rope or snap a hair of 
wire and register to a  decimal the     
breaking strength of each4 ,there are   
tests for tensile  strength1 for torsion
 to show how many twists a piece of wire
 will  stand1 and for bending4 ,there   
are microscopic tests for molecular     
condition and men who will almost tell  
you from a microscopic section  the     

maximum service of which the rope made  
from a given wire is  capable4 ,any     
bundle of wire that doesn't pass the    
test for the job on  hand is discarded  
and used for something else1 and a      
record of it all  is kept with          
scrupulous care4 ,any foot of wire that 
passes through the  shipping room on the
 way to market has a clean bill of      
health1 ample  for the use to which it  
is destined1 and the amount of material 
that is  scrapped for faults1 where work
 is on stringent specifications1 would  
be sudden death to a business that      
hadn't a wide range of uses for  product
 of whatever quality4 ,fortunately for  
the users of high-grade  wire the market
 for the lower grades is always hungry  
and crying for  more4    ,sidenote3     
,,the ,,wonder ,,of ,,ductility         
,there are complexities without end in  
the making and finishing of wire1  but  
the real wonder of it lies after all in 
the initial principle which  the ,german
 inventor in ,bavaria gave to the world 

six hundred years  ago--the simple but  
even now almost incredible fact that a  
rod of cold  steel of the hardest       
quality--plow steel is the convincing   
name for  it--can be seized by its      
sharpened end with a clamp they call a  
dog and  drawn through a smaller hole1  
in a still harder piece of steel1 three 
or four feet until it can be fastened to
 a drum1 and then be wound off  in miles
 almost without interruption4 ,it is a  
wonder that grows as you  watch it and  
yet it seems so simple4 ,to see that    
steel1 of tremendous  strength and      
hardness1 drawn through a tiny hole as  
if it were molasses  candy--and yet it  
may have a tensile strength of two or   
three hundred  thousand pounds to the   
square inch4    ,there is nothing       
spectacular about the wire mill where   
this is done4 ,on  long benches the     
die-holding appliances are set up and   
the dies set  into them4 ,the wire--or  
at first the rod--is run from a portable
 bobbin  they call a swift1 that stands 

on the floor1 and the wire1 after it has
  been given the hole1 passes to a      
bobbin they call a block4 ,then it is   
taken on to a still smaller die and the 
same process repeated1 with  occasional 
reheatings1 until it has the diameter of
 a thread4    ,sidenote3 ,,cutting ,,the
 ,,dies    ,but by and by the time comes
 when the wire is so fine it cuts the   
steel  of the die and loses its         
rotundity4 ,then a harder material is   
needed  and the wire drawer goes the    
whole figure and uses a diamond4        
,cutting  the steel dies is a cunning   
craft enough1 but the expert1 who1 with 
a  hair-like drill and a dab of diamond 
dust can penetrate a diamond with  an   
opening that will be regular and measure
 to a thousandth of an inch1  is a man  
who would think it no trick at all to   
pass a well fed camel  through the      
needle's eye4                      99   
99       99       99       99    ,it    
would take a larger book than this to   
tell all the things that are  done in   

the making of wire for various uses4 ,in
 the main1 the entire  volume produced  
either goes to market as wire of one    
sort and another1  to be applied to its 
various objects or for sale1 or else it 
is twisted  into rope1 of which the     
,roebling ,company manufactures four    
hundred  kinds1 sizes and many          
qualities4 ,the common fence wires are  
not among  the ,roebling specialties1   
but wire nettings are manufactured from 
a  soft variety of basic steel which    
lends itself to the weaving process     
with almost the ease of animal and      
vegetable fibres4    ,sidenote3 ,,the   
,,endless ,,manufactures ,,from ,,flat  
,,wire    ,the flat wire1 which has now 
attained immense volume of production1  
is1 for the most part1 rolled down from 
the round1 in many qualities1  and      
shipped as material to the makers of    
many things4 ,there are wide1  thin1    
beautiful ribbons which find their way  
to the shoestring  factories and are cut
 and clinched to the laces as tips4 ,the

 list of  novelties and parts that are  
made from various forms and widths of   
flat  wire is as long as the list of    
,smiths in a ,new ,york directory4 ,in  
the  novelty shop1 which does a million 
things1 wires are cut and  mechanically 
bent in hundreds of thousands of shapes1
 for clothes  hangers1 pail ear staples1
 daubers for bottles1 meat skewers1 hog 
rings1 thread guards for textile        
machinery1 basket fasteners1 shackles   
for car seals1 saddlery parts1 ,welsbach
 mantles1 clips and links for           
bedsprings1 wiring for toys of all      
descriptions--and so on and on and  on4 
,and all this novelty business is a side
 line1 like the square and  triangular  
wires that are used by oil well drillers
 to keep the sand  from getting into the
 oil4    ,the special shapes of high    
quality wire that are made to order1 to 
provide hard-wearing parts for          
typewriters and many other machines1 are
  almost without number4    ,sidenote3  
,,salvaging ,,mill ,,ends    ,with the  

increasing cost of labor and materials  
effort has been made to  salvage and    
make use of mill ends of wire1 running  
sometimes to large  quantity1 which     
formerly were accounted waste4 ,these   
are now passed  through a straightening 
machine1 which lays them out in uniform 
bundles  of some ten feet in length1    
which again may be cut to shorter       
lengths  for special purposes4 ,in the  
buildings where this is done1 at the    
,upper  ,plant1 are piles of neat       
bundles of all shapes and sizes and     
grades1  which once went to the scrap   
for reworking but now are utilized      
without  additional cost4    ,sidenote3 
,,copper ,,wire ,,and ,,copper ,,rope   
,copper wire is manufactured by the     
,roebling mills in very large           
quantities and in many sizes and forms1 
principally for electrical use  and for 
service where water corrosion shortens  
the life of steel4 ,the  little bond    
wires that link the rails of railways to
 perfect the  carriage of current in the

 block signal system are mostly steel1  
but  copper is used at stations and on  
sidings where the leakage from  standing
 cars is apt to contain acids4 ,copper  
wire of all sizes down to  the very fine
 is spooled and sold for use in arts and
 manufactures4 ,for  marine uses a deal 
of copper rope is made1 and copper      
strand is twisted  for lightning rods1  
the fixtures and supports of which1 in  
turn1 are  manufactured from round and  
flat steel wire4 ,the piles of this     
equipment1 waiting shipment in the      
,roebling storerooms1 give proof that   
the satire of the cartoonist and the    
mockery of the funny writer cannot      
destroy an ancient faith4    ,the       
telephone and telegraph companies use   
uncountable miles of copper  wire in    
line service and other miles in fine    
sizes for instrument coils  and divers  
other functions4 ,electricity as an     
agent would be a halting  cripple       
without wire4 ,the dynamo would have    
little more utility than a  washtub4    

,armatures1 frames for which are formed 
from flat steel wire1  are wound in the 
,roebling plant in impressive number4   
,one of the largest fields for copper is
 trolley wires1 which are of  great size
 and of many eccentric shapes4    ,this 
is merely a glimpse at the utilities    
that go to make up the field  for       
,roebling wire4 ,it is doubtful if today
 the company owns a complete  list of   
the wire it has made for special and    
even eccentric purposes1  or knows      
within many thousands the things that   
are manufactured from  its wire product 
after it leaves the shipping room4      
,sidenote3 ,,coating ,,and ,,finishing  
,use determines much in the finishing of
 wire1 and of wire rope as well1  as not
 alone concerning the chemistry of the  
inside1 but the covering  of the        
outside4 ,material that is made for     
service out of doors1 under  water or   
under ground1 to ensure long life needs 
an exposed surface  more resistant to   
moisture than the naked steel4 ,copper  

is proof1 but  the pure wire is         
expensive for most uses and where severe
 strains are  incurred it lacks in      
strength4 ,modern science has been too  
busy to  recover the art of hardening   
copper which the ancient ,egyptians     
lost4    ,zinc1 in its best application1
 makes steel wire weatherproof for many 
years and the apparently simple process 
of galvanizing1 the fixing of a  coating
 of zinc on the steel has multiplied    
many fold the utility of  steel wire in 
places where it could ill be spared4    
,but there is  galvanizing and          
galvanizing4 ,the first is worth the    
money it costs4    ,there are other     
coated wires1 too4 ,the aeroplane       
strands and cords are  tinned4 ,there is
 a bronze enamel1 and a copper coating  
which looks as  if it were applied for  
protection but is really the incidental 
result  of a dip in sulphate of copper1 
for other purposes in the course of     
fabrication4 ,the coating of wires is   
chiefly done in the wire works of  the  

,kinkora ,mills1 though a galvanizing   
house is maintained also at the  ,upper 
,works4 ,for wire that is to be made    
into galvanized ropes and  cords1 the   
galvanic treatment is given before it   
goes to be made up4    ,sidenote3       
,,journeying ,,through ,,the ,,roebling 
,,plants    ,for exercise1 a journey    
through any one of the ,roebling plants1
 and  especially the great ,upper       
,works1 is as good as thirty-six holes  
of  golf4 ,it is upstairs and           
downstairs1 over an interminable number 
of  thousands of square feet1 through   
the mazes of a picture that is always   
changing its detail and its rate of     
speed1 but which is all centered on  one
 idea1 to keep the stream of wire and   
wire rope1 of all sizes1 kinds  and     
colors1 moving toward the shipping room4
 ,it all seems so easy in  its progress1
 so free from friction or any trace of  
confusion1 that the  layman does not    
stop to consider how many problems have 
bobbed up along  the way of production1 

even of the most modest wires and rope4 
,wire is  a trade involving intimate    
knowledge of many lines of business and 
manufacture1 since the character of wire
 required differs in nearly all4        
,illustration3 ,,hoisting ,,fully       
,,completed ,,locomotive ,,with ,,wire  
,,rope ,,sling    ,to the novice1 wire  
is wire4 ,here he learns that what is   
wire for one  thing is valueless for    
another and wire that looks to the      
unpracticed  eye as if it were ready for
 market always has to undergo a few more
  processes before it is up to demands4 
,wherever1 however far1 you travel  in  
this succession of high-roofed1 airy    
buildings1 you come always upon  some   
new regiment of machines1 some new      
container of chemical or metal1  with a 
long line of reels unwinding wire to    
undergo some additional  treatment4 ,and
 always moving among the buildings are  
cars1 big and  little1 packing wire or  
material from one place to another1 to  
feed the  wheels and furnaces4 ,the     

tonnage from plant to plant and from    
house to  house in the ,roebling works  
would make a first-class annual business
  for many a modest railroad1 even if it
 carried nothing else4    ,sidenote3    
,,insulation    ,but when wire is       
finished it isn't always finished4      
,since electricity  spread itself over  
the earth in a million services1        
insulation in  various forms has come to
 be almost as important as the wire     
itself4  ,insulation in its more        
advanced forms is a complex affair1     
gauged to  accord with specific         
conditions and multiplying processes to 
secure the  maximum of protection1 both 
from electric current to life and       
property  and from dampness and abrasion
 to the wire itself4 ,in the making of  
wire screens the wire men have taken a  
leaf from the cloth-mill book1  but in  
weaving a casing of cotton or other     
fibre around the wire for  insulation   
the process is strongly reminiscent of  
some of the ,new  ,england textile      

mills4 ,long rows of machines1 black and
 silent and  swift1 reaching upward     
toward the ceiling1 revolving rapidly on
 an  upright shaft2 long arms trailing  
downward1 with wheels and bobbins  like 
fingers plying dizzily but swiftly in   
and out around the wire  which unwinds  
from its spool and keeps forever        
climbing4 ,it is all like  a ,maypole1  
and the bobbins go in and out like      
children carrying each  its ribbon4 ,as 
the wire climbs1 the whirling fingers   
braid around it a  coating1 tight       
fitting and impervious4 ,sometimes1     
where double  insulation is required1   
there are two sets of arms1 one above   
the  other1 the upper one putting on a  
second covering outside the first1 of   
cotton of one color or another1 or hemp 
or whatever else the  experimentalists  
have found best for the purpose4 ,you   
wonder how the  bellcord in the railroad
 train can ever stand the pulling and   
jerking  and wear and tear it gets4 ,it 
is simple4 ,it is just a perfectly made 

and highly tinned wire rope1 with a     
double coat of braided cotton over  it4 
,the jacket may wear off in time1 but   
the ,roebling rope inside will  never   
fail in a lifetime to get the message to
 the engineer4    ,when these snug      
coverings are finished the wire for     
certain uses is  taken to another part  
of the works where it is unwound once   
more to  pass through a bath of asphalt 
compound4 ,after this process1 which    
leaves a dull1 dirty-looking surface1   
the spools of treated wire are  put     
aside for drying1 and then a final      
surfacing applied4 ,the next  journey is
 to the packing room4    ,sidenote3     
,,telephone ,,cables    ,insulation is a
 wide range business4 ,it cases wire in 
asbestos to  prevent fire from stopping 
its work2 but perhaps the highest phase 
is  reached in the great cables of      
copper wires used in telephone service4 
,for these the individual wires are     
covered with paper of various  colors1  
which serves not only for protection but

 enables men at the  opposite ends of a 
long cable to pick out unerringly the   
wires with  which connection is to be   
made4 ,colors are few but possible      
combinations are many4 ,the machining of
 this is more than ever like the        
,maypole1 with pink and blue and yellow 
strips of paper flashing in the         
shadows4 ,when the wires1 paper covered1
 are brought together in the  cable1    
sometimes three or four hundred of them 
altogether1 the whole  goes through the 
taping machines1 which apply one or two 
suits of what  may be called underwear1 
for after it has been covered with two  
or  three different materials there     
remains a suit of lead to be fitted1    
and this is a big work done deftly4     
,who has not seen men in the streets    
dragging huge pipes of lead through  the
 open manholes from big wooden spools8  
,these are the cables you talk  over4   
,they have been papered and clothed--and
 tarred and feathered1  maybe--and then 
encased in lead by a process that is so 

easy as to be  laughable1 and yet as    
ingenious as any one thing the wire     
miller does4  ,unrolling slowly from its
 spool1 the heavy cable moves up to a   
machine  built strong and four-legged   
from the floor4 ,in the mid height of   
this1  a few feet above the floor1 is a 
square chamber containing molten lead4  
,the cable passes in at the rear and    
upward4 ,it requires some credulity  to 
believe that it is the movement of the  
molten lead that carries the  cable     
along1 but in any case when it emerges  
from the box1 through an  aperture that 
trims the soft metal down to uniformity1
 it has a solid  lead covering as even  
as lead pipe1 and at the point of egress
 cold  water playing from just above    
cools it4 ,then it passes on through a  
long tank of water for final hardening  
and is wound slowly1 clean and  shining1
 on the great spools that are to carry  
it to market4    ,many astonishing      
things are done in wire works1 but done 
so swiftly1  and smoothly and in such   

volume that they look easy4 ,the man in 
the  street1 hurrying about his own     
business1 never even takes time to      
wonder to himself how they are          
accomplished4                           
,,chapter ,v                            
,,wire ,,rope--,,the ,,giant      ,pig  
and ore and melting materials1 with a   
condiment of carbon1 are  the body and  
bones of steel wire4 ,their virtues1    
combined and  intensified by tireless   
processes1 and tested unsparingly at    
every  stage1 are united in wire rope2  
and wire rope1 when all is said and     
done1 is the mighty backbone of the wire
 industry4    ,wire rope to the         
multitude is simply wire rope4 ,but one 
rope is no more  like another than      
,jones is like ,brown or ,smith like    
,robinson4 ,wire rope  is a combination 
of twisted wires1 just as men are       
bipeds4 ,that is  where the similarity  
ends4 ,in outward appearance as well as 
inward  character1 habit1 tendencies and
 behavior in emergencies1 wire ropes    

differ as widely as do people1 and each 
has a meaning of its own4    ,each also 
is the fruit of long study and repeated 
test of the work it  is to do not alone 
on machines and in the laboratory1 but  
under actual  conditions of operation4  
,the wire rope engineer will tell you   
every  rope has temperament4 ,he spends 
his life knowing other people's         
business--rope business--and working out
 their rope problems4 ,the  answers to  
these problems are the four hundred     
different sizes and  kinds of rope that 
the ,roebling ,company manufactures on  
its regular  schedules4 ,the rest are   
specials4 ,go where you will in the     
world  nowadays1 you will find wire rope
 doing the work4    ,sidenote3 ,,wire   
,,rope ,,problems ,,and ,,the           
,,engineering ,,department    ,with the 
completion of the ,williamsburg ,bridge1
 the ,roebling ,company  withdrew from  
competitive fields of contract          
engineering1 but it  maintains a large  
engineering department and is           

ceaselessly busy with  construction and 
installation problems from all over the 
world4 ,in its  files there is          
exhaustive record of every contract of  
magnitude1 for  construction1 haulage1  
mine work1 ship work--for any sort of   
work where  rope is used and where the  
problems are difficult4 ,roebling       
engineers  are always on the go1        
studying conditions where rope is to be 
used1 to  prescribe the fabric that will
 meet the need4    ,illustration3 ,,the 
,,aeroplane--,a ,,wire ,,rope ,,creation
    ,there is1 to begin with1 a         
questionnaire of ninety-three questions1
 to  be filled out by the master        
mechanic or engineer on any special work
  for which rope is to be recommended   
and manufactured4 ,when these are       
answered the engineer is ready to begin 
work1 which starts with the  selection  
of materials and does not end till the  
man who is to use it  has had specific  
instruction as to its peculiarities and 
care and  protection4    ,for this      

service the ,roebling ,company maintains
 a large corps of  specialized engineers
 busily engaged solving the problems of 
wire rope  usage1 and making suggestions
 to effect economies in wire rope       
operation4    ,in fact1 it doesn't end  
there4 ,it is a saying in the ,roebling 
establishment that a rope is never sold 
until it's worn out4    ,sidenote3 ,,the
 ,,lay ,,of ,,the ,,rope    ,the cut    
ends of a diversified lot of wire ropes 
resemble1 more than  anything else1 the 
eccentric forms of snow flakes1 in their
 regularity  and the grouping of their  
parts around a center4 ,but there is    
nothing  haphazard about the formations4
 ,even the core is figured in the number
  of days it will add to the rope's life
 under varying conditions4 ,the  wide   
difference in ropes consists not only in
 the materials employed1  which have    
much to do with their resistance to     
divers strains and the  manner of their 
use1 but in skillful selection of sizes 
in the wire and  arrangement in the     

strands of which they are composed2     
again in the  distribution in the       
strands1 the twists of the strands      
themselves and  the lay or manner in    
which these are twisted to make the     
rope4 ,it is  all the result of careful 
calculation4    ,sidenote3 ,,the ,,core 
,a paramount factor too is the core1 in 
securing the maximum of wear4  ,its     
mission1 in most ropes1 is not to add   
strength1 but pliability1 and  to serve 
as a cushion to absorb the impact which 
the strands make under  the tension of  
service4 ,the fibre cores1 for this     
reason1 are usually  treated with some  
lubricant4 ,in the majority of ropes    
hemp is used for  a core but in those   
intended for stationary service the core
 may be of  steel4 ,this will add from  
seven to ten per cent to strength and   
very  largely to rigidity4    ,when we  
speak of wire rope most of us have a    
mental picture of a round  fabric1 but  
there are flat ropes as well1 for use in
 mines or quarries  where the haul is   

from great depths and twisting is to be 
avoided4  ,these are made in all widths 
and thicknesses1 and are constructed by 
placing several strands together1 side  
by side1 and sewing them  together with 
soft iron wire4 ,but it is the round    
rope that supplies  the great demand4   
,sidenote3 ,,the ,,strand    ,in        
considering rope1 one may start with the
 strand4 ,strands1 as may be  seen from 
the pictures of transverse sections of  
ropes1 vary infinitely  in character1   
but always with a purpose4 ,they are    
made up in ordinary  practice1 of four1 
seven1 twelve1 nineteen or thirty-seven 
wires1  according to the work the rope  
is meant to do4 ,in the rope mills you  
come upon long1 low stranding machines1 
reaching down a long room and  carrying 
in horizontal arrangement1 wide apart   
but in circular  formation1 the wires   
that are to form the strand4 ,at a point
 carefully  determined with reference to
 the strain on each wire1 in order to   
preserve uniformity1 all these wires    

come together and pass through one      
opening in a twisting machine which     
whirls them into a unit4 ,the  finished 
strand is wound on bobbins4    ,the     
direction of the twist1 whether to right
 or left1 is of moment in  determining  
the character of the finished product4  
,sidenote3 ,,standard ,,or ,,general    
,,purpose ,,rope    ,standard rope1 so  
called1 the general purpose rope1 is    
composed of  six wire strands and a hemp
 core1 all being practically of the same
  size2 but to secure particular results
 the number of strands may be  four1    
five1 eight1 twelve or whatever may be  
desired4 ,already it will  be apparent  
that there is wide latitude in rope     
making for the exercise  of skill and   
the utilization of experimental record4 
,this freedom in  selection and         
adjustment extends through almost every 
process4 ,for  example1 in the twists3  
when wires in the strands and strands in
 the  rope are twisted in the same      
direction1 which ordinarily they are    

not1  the rope has what is known as a   
,lang lay1 after a rope man who  devised
 the system4 ,the twist1 whether in     
strand or rope1 has distinct  effect in 
service4 ,it may be long or short4 ,if  
it is long the rope will  be stronger   
and more rigid1 if short1 it will gain  
in flexibility4 ,when  it comes to the  
short twist rope1 one sees the          
particular value of the  twisting tests 
which were applied and recorded away    
back in the wire  stage4    ,sidenote3  
,,testing ,,the ,,rope    ,it is        
singular1 but it is true1 that the      
aggregate strength of all the  wires    
that go to make up a rope cannot be     
retained in the rope1 at  least in the  
laboratory on the testing machines4     
,when the rope is  tested for breaking  
strength it is found that no sample will
 show more  than ninety per cent of the 
total1 and the average is about         
eighty-two4  ,part of this failure is   
due to the angle of wires in the strand1
 with a  resultant stress on wires in   

excess of applied load2 therefore1 the  
greater the number of wires in the rope1
 the lower the efficiency4 ,the  other  
reason is that the contiguous strands in
 the rope nick each other  under high   
tension1 and so are weakened4 ,this1    
however1 may not be  important in       
ordinary working loads under service    
conditions4 ,these  casual truths show  
with what multiplicity of tendencies the
 rope maker  has to deal in devising a  
product to give service and safety in   
the  often ticklish jobs it has to do1  
with great weights in hand1 and human   
lives at stake4    ,illustration3 ,,the 
,,steam ,,shovel ,,shovels ,,by ,,means 
,,of ,a ,,wire ,,rope    ,from molecular
 condition1 as revealed by the          
microscope1 down to the  last petty     
detail in the plan of construction1     
there is never an end to  the problems1 
and gravity has to be figured into the  
lifetime of a rope  as surely as the    
elusive trace of sulphuric and muriatic 
acid producing  hydrogen occlusion4     

,wire rope is a business of exactitude  
and eternal  vigilance4 ,you have to    
deal with breaking strengths of from    
#dj1jjj to  #cdj1jjj pounds to the      
square inch of transverse section1 but  
the wire  that will lift weights at the 
rate of more than a hundred tons has    
entirely different characteristics than 
the lower strength material4  ,and the  
why of that must be traced back to the  
treatment of the steel  when it was     
passing through the wire stage4 ,rope   
makers dealt with  molecules once and   
thought they were taking pains4 ,they   
found they had  to go back to atoms to  
handle their problems4 ,today the secret
 seems to  lurk in the electron4        
,sidenote3 ,,fitting ,,the ,,rope ,,to  
,,its ,,work    ,of the tricks in making
 ropes1 there is no end4 ,they are      
fitted for  their work like a soldier or
 a gymnast1 and built for it4 ,a tiller 
rope  must be flexible to the last      
degree1 but it must be strong enough so 
it  will stand up under the swift       

tensions of a storm or in the lightning 
manoeuvers of a race4 ,therefore1 like a
 few ropes built for other  purposes1   
the composite parts are not mere strands
 of wire1 but little  ropes in          
themselves1 complete in all parts4 ,and 
again1 while ropes  exposed to weather  
and stationary1 like ships' standing    
riggings1 are  galvanized1 those that   
are subjected to constant bending are   
not4 ,for  every variation1 there's a   
reason4    ,to the average man or woman1
 the elevators in tall buildings suggest
  danger4 ,the rope engineer counts them
 highly safe because each elevator  is  
equipped with a multiplicity of ropes   
and safety devices4 ,what taxes  his    
conscience and spurs him to the last    
possible effort1 is the rope  that goes 
to the deep shaft service1 where the    
lives of men going up  and down in five 
thousand feet or more of subterranean   
darkness1 hang  on the accuracy of his  
calculation4    ,only now1 the ,roebling
 engineers will tell you1 is wire rope  

being  perfected4 ,much of it is in what
 seem to be small details of            
construction1 which nevertheless go down
 into the basic principles that  make   
for efficiency4 ,rope making has been   
treated as an exact science1  because it
 dealt with materials that were more or 
less standardized4  ,they are learning  
now that rope has a large unknown       
quantity that  defies formula past a    
certain point4 ,for the lack of a better
 term1  they call it personality4 ,the  
labor of today1 and many years to come1 
is to identify these intangible factors 
and bring them where they can  be       
computed to the end of securing greater 
endurance and safety4    ,in the        
,roebling shops there are men working   
who got their jobs almost  by heredity4 
,their fathers and grandfathers worked  
for ,john ,a4 ,roebling4    ,you ask    
them1 said the ,chief ,engineer1 why    
they do a thing a certain  way4 ,they   
tell you simply that 'that's the way to 
do it4' ,in the old  days ,john ,a4     

,roebling figured out the way1 and gave 
it to his workmen  in the shape of      
orders--today somewhat different methods
 are utilized4  ,to the cumulative      
experience of over eighty years of      
wire-rope making1  the ,roeblings have  
always availed themselves of the latest 
engineering  skill4 ,with up-to-date    
research1 chemical and metallurgical    
laboratories1 every progress in the art 
has been incorporated in their  product4
    ,sidenote3 ,,following ,,the ,,rope 
,,and ,,its ,,uses    ,the ,roebling    
people say that wire rope is their baby4
 ,they give it  the utmost of skill and 
care and caution in the making1 and then
 to see  that these are not wasted1 they
 follow it into the field1 where it is  
to serve1 with personal attention to its
 installation and with the most         
detailed instruction for its protection 
and use1 figuring out with  nicety the  
speeds to be maintained1 the size of the
 sheaves or drums  around which it      
should travel to minimize the strain1   

prescribing its  lubrication1 providing 
printed warnings against all forms of   
misuse or  neglect1 with pictures to    
show the reason why1 and other          
instructions  and pictures to aid in    
detection of the first signs of trouble 
or  exhaustion1 and the reasons         
therefor4 ,study of the ,roebling       
method1  from the ore yard to the field 
of operation1 makes clear the reason why
  ,roebling rope1 from the very         
beginning of the manufacture1 has been  
accounted standard for quality4    ,a   
,roebling catalogue is never complete4  
,it cannot list and illustrate1  without
 competing in size with the unabridged1 
more than a small part  of the uses for 
which rope--and much of it special      
rope--is made1 or  the infinite number  
of attachments and accessories provided 
for  installation and use on the job4   
,sidenote3 ,,wire ,,rope ,,and ,,its    
,,work    ,there is the transmission of 
power by means of a round1 endless rope1
  running at high velocity over a series

 of sheaves or pulleys1 carrying  power 
to a distance of three miles2 there is  
underground haulage1 for  which five    
distinct types of rope are used1        
enabling the engineer to  make light of 
grades1 even with staggering loads2     
logging1 in which1 in  the primeval     
forests of the ,northwest1 the horse or 
ox is a pigmy1 and  where the giant     
trunks1 seven1 eight or nine feet in    
diameter1 are  whisked up at the sides  
of mountains1 hoisted into the air and  
deposited on cars1 to be run down to the
 rivers on steep inclines1  again       
operated by rope of great size and      
strength4 ,there is quarrying1  where   
rope is used in quantity for guying1 and
 for hoisting the blocks  of stone out  
of their beds1 and then on aerial cable 
ways1 to carry  them on high over long  
distances to be loaded2 there are the   
oil  fields1 in which just now1 in the  
mad search for petroleum to supply  the 
world's shortage1 interminable miles of 
wire rope are being used1  some of it an

 inch thick or over1 to carry the       
drills1 or for casing  and sand lines4  
,there is shipping--the battleship and  
the merchantman  and the liner2 the     
yacht1 the riverman and the tug--all    
strung with  wire rope from stem to     
stern1 and some of them from truck to   
keel as  well--not to mention mooring   
lines which have their own plan and     
formula2 there is towing1 to which wire 
rope brought new possibilities  and     
freedom from old troubles and old       
perils--witness the towing of the  dry  
dock ,dewey from ,chesapeake ,bay to the
 ,philippines1 thirteen  thousand miles1
 on a pair of #abjj foot ,roebling      
hawsers1 which stuck to  their jobs     
without interruption1 through all sorts 
of weather1 and  lugged their burden    
into the harbor of ,olongapo without a  
sign of  weakness or exhaustion2 there  
is dredging1 for which wire rope has    
largely supplanted the old and cumbrous 
chain which was never any  stronger than
 its weakest link4 ,there is hardly an  

important harbor in  the world today    
where these stout ropes are not busy    
clearing pathway  and anchorage for     
marine commerce4    ,sidenote3 ,,more   
,,uses ,,of ,,wire ,,rope    ,the list  
does not end4 ,there are incline        
railways1 in the mountains of  ,east and
 ,west alike1 as well as in foreign     
countries1 which have made  mountain    
climbing a primitive form of sport1 and 
enabled one-legged men  with perfect    
ease to get the view from towering peaks
 which otherwise  would have been       
accessible only to the hardy mountain   
climber2 there  are cable railways with 
which engineers have been able to run   
cars out  on an aerial roadbed of wire1 
over impassable gorges and morasses1 to 
make fills for railway or other         
construction2 cableways1 the forms and  
uses of which1 in transferring          
materials1 are without number2 tramways 
and traction systems1 which have now1   
save in particular instances1  given way
 to trolley1 and the copper wire for    

this1 again1 comes in  large and        
continuous tonnage from the ,roebling   
mills2 there is the  perfect litter of  
hoisting slings1 all over creation1 for 
wherever men  are doing work or business
 of any kind1 there is a load to lift1  
and  the wire rope1 with its special    
appliances for quick hitch and release1 
is fast relegating the old time chain to
 the category of antiquities4  ,in #ahfb
 the first of elevator ropes was made4  
,today millions are in use4             
99       99       99       99       99  
,it is a long story1 and one variety of 
rope is never just like another1  save  
for the general purpose product before  
referred to1 which figures  in the      
schedules as ,standard4 ,but in the     
making of all the many  hundred kinds1  
the process1 to outward appearance1 is  
the same1 and  impressive in the        
simplicity to which it has been reduced4
 ,from the  tiny specimen1 made for some
 finical scientific experiment1 to the  
three-inch monster that contains single 

wires nearly a quarter of an  inch in   
diameter1 and drags half a million      
pounds of ore1 with the aid  of powerful
 machinery1 at the ,spanish ,american   
,iron ,company's mines in  ,cuba1 the   
general principle of manufacture and the
 mechanism used in  the making are all  
alike4    ,sidenote3 ,,rope-,,making    
,,machines    ,in the several rope mills
 of the ,roebling works are a large     
number of  machines1 some of which1     
built by ,john ,a4 ,roebling in the     
early days of  his rope making1 are     
still turning out rope1 and good rope4  
,his first  product was made by hand in 
the old rope walk way4 ,today the ground
  where he did it is covered with       
buildings full of speeding machinery    
that has little rest--devices that stand
 in long rows1 eating up the  strand    
that unwinds from the whirling bobbins  
to feed it1 and turning  off steadily   
the completed rope1 which passes to     
spools1 large or  small1 in proportion  
to its weight and size4    ,simply      

described1 the rope machine pictures    
itself as a hollow column  cylinder1    
strongly framed and braced steel from   
the base of which arms  extend1 like the
 lower branches of a spruce tree4 ,at   
the ends of these  the bobbins are      
rigged1 carrying the strands which are  
to be twisted  into rope4 ,these are led
 from the bobbins in toward the center1 
and  pass into the column1 which carries
 also the core and which in its  turning
 twists the strands together4 ,the      
complete rope passes out over  a pulley 
on to the spools4 ,machines for the     
smaller sizes of rope are  strung out in
 a long file4 ,the larger ones require  
elbow room2 each of  those for the      
making of the largest rope has a room to
 itself and is  installed on a          
foundation of steel and concrete4       
,illustration3 ,,hoisting ,a ,,huge     
,,naval ,,gun ,,with ,,wire ,,rope      
,,sling    ,when the mechanism is at    
work it suggests somehow the solar      
rotations4  ,the bobbins have a triple  

motion4 ,on the ends of the arms to     
which they  are attached they travel    
around the column1 at a rate of speed   
which of  course is determined by the   
lay required1 but they are unwinding as 
the strand pays out and also turn       
completely end for end1 at              
predetermined intervals4 ,in the more   
modern machines there are two sets  of  
arms or branches above the first1 for   
the purpose of carrying a  greater      
number of strands4 ,in this type the    
arms carrying the bobbins  are somewhat 
shorter1 allowing for a great rate of   
speed4 ,there is  something mysterious  
in the sight of these flying reels of   
steel1 or  copper maybe1 for many ropes 
of substantial size are made of copper  
for  marine use1 whizzing round and     
round like indefatigable moths around a 
big steel candle1 or a dervish round his
 own spinal column on a spot of  ground 
the size of a dinner plate1 and the     
rope1 hard1 shining1 round1  packed     
around its core of hemp or steel1       

noiselessly gathering all this  strength
 and energy into itself for use in the  
days of need4 ,when you  see it on the  
spool at the side1 shining with its     
coating of lubricant1  ready for work   
and able to do it1 it is a little hard  
to associate so  respectable and        
dignified a fabric with the rusty heap  
of iron that lay  in the ,kinkora yard4 
,sidenote3 ,,special ,,construction     
,there are records in the ,roebling     
offices that tell interesting tales  of 
special constructions1 and pictures of  
enormous spools of rope1  thousands of  
feet1 in big diameters1 running from    
spool to spool and  since one spool is  
an ample carload1 from one flat car to  
another1 when  loaded for shipment4     
,such were the huge street railway      
cables1 made for  ,australia1 for       
,kansas ,city1 for ,chicago and ,new    
,york4 ,there is an  amusing story of   
the ,new ,york street railway engineer  
who insisted that  the cable be made in 
one section1 #cc1jjj feet in length1 but

 who  changed his mind about the beauty 
of it when he got the goods and saw  the
 elephantine spools of packed metal     
caving in the manholes in the  city     
streets on their way to the point of    
installation4 ,a gigantic rope  machine 
was built in the ,roebling plant to     
twist this mammoth4    ,the cars that   
carry these heavy cables were made      
specially for the  purpose4 ,an ordinary
 car would crumble under the load1 but  
the machine  and the cars are still in  
use1 and busy4    ,when cables for      
street railways were discarded in favor 
of trolley1  wire rope men thought the  
day of doom had come1 but the field for 
wire  rope for other uses has widened so
 fast and so far1 in a rapidly  widening
 world1 that the cable orders1 big as   
they were1 have never  been missed4 ,it 
furnishes a significant index of the    
growth in all  industrial activity1 for 
there is no new phase of development or 
manufacture or work of any kind in which
 wire rope1 or wire in some  form or    

other1 does not play an indispensable   
part4    ,sidenote3 ,,power ,,in ,,the  
,,roebling ,,plants    ,in the three    
,roebling plants there are four electric
 power stations1  aggregating over      
#af1jjj horse-power1 and more than #aej 
boilers with  #be1jjj horse-power4 ,the 
coal consumption on the three plants is 
approximately #ajjj tons a day1 and the 
fuel oil consumption about  #bj1jjj1jjj 
gallons per year4 ,in the ,kinkora plant
 at ,roebling there are  thirteen miles 
of standard gauge railroad track4       
,,chapter ,,vi                          
,,working ,,for ,,uncle ,,sam      ,of  
the load that war laid on productive    
industry1 it is beyond question  that   
wire1 the country over1 carried its     
share4 ,in the retrospect1  every man   
and every organization tries consciously
 or unconsciously to  figure out what   
part individual effort contributed to   
the big result4  ,fortunately1 perhaps1 
the question of relative accomplishment 
and of  everybody's share in the outcome

 is one of the things that can never be 
settled1 but in the picture war has left
 on the memory of those who  lived it1  
wire and wire rope can never be very far
 away4    ,as wire pervades every       
industry of peace and every department  
of  living1 so in the headlong rush of  
war1 whether by land or sea or in  the  
air1 it was the handy and dependable    
agent that made a thousand  other things
 possible4 ,wire did its work not only  
up in the smoke and  the agony of the   
western front1 not only where the fleets
 battled  against the lurking death1 but
 along every line of plain toil by which
  the unhalting supply of materials1    
both for battle and sustenance1 was     
kept flowing to the point of need4      
,when the big order for multiplication  
of output came1 wire rope  manufacturers
 were not told to make one thing and a  
lot of it1 as so  many industries were4 
,the demands of war1 on the contrary1   
added  diversity to what was already one
 of the most diversified of products4   

,everything was special4 ,every day's   
new load was a brand new problem in     
manufacture and in construction as      
well--something that had not been       
produced before1 or at very best a new  
adaptation which required  special      
manufacture and new organization2 this  
in a skilled industry1  at a time when  
skilled labor of any kind was scarce4   
,sidenote3 ,a ,,story ,,that ,,will     
,,never ,,be ,,told    ,the story of    
this period will never be told in its   
entirety4 ,the ,army  cannot tell it1   
nor the ,navy4 ,they never knew it4 ,all
 they did was to  call for the stuff and
 get it4 ,the wire makers will never    
tell it  because they are too busy      
supplying the demands of peace--the     
rebuilding of a wrecked world and the   
development of a new one4 ,already  the 
picture1 big and thrilling as it was1 is
 growing dim1 its detail  disappearing  
in the hurry of industrial production1  
the solving of new  problems1 the       
supplying of demand4 ,they look back    

over the old  requisitions and          
specifications of the feverish days of  
#aiag and #aiah  and are surprised to   
see that dust has gathered on them      
already2 they  count the figures of     
overwhelming volume which are their war 
history  and wonder how in the world    
they ever did it4    ,sidenote3 ,,the   
,,double ,,burden ,,upon ,,wire',s      
,,back    ,what doubled the burden on   
wire's back was that every existing     
industry  for which it had been making  
rope was essential4 ,the wire men looked
  around to find what they could cut    
out4 ,there was nothing4 ,to maintain   
the supply of oil1 of coal1 of ores1 of 
food1 to keep all kinds of              
transportation in full swing1 to see    
that elevators kept running so  that    
activity should not cease--these and a  
thousand other things were  all         
essential to unity of effort and        
increase of production4 ,altogether  the
 saving was trivial4 ,they all had to be
 supplied1 most of them  double1 and the

 ,allies had been piling in orders4 ,on 
top of this burly  task came our own    
,government's great and variegated and  
undeniable  demands for war supplies4   
,in the carrying of such a load the wire
 industry was hampered by the  fewness  
of its plants and their distribution    
over the ,states1 some of  them far from
 points of ocean shipment4 ,it was plain
 when ,america  entered the war that    
only the most thorough co-ordination and
  centralized control of operation could
 make success possible2 only the  most  
economical arrangement of forces and    
distribution of materials4    ,the ,iron
 and ,steel ,institute1 at the request  
of the ,government1 formed  a committee 
to manage the production and            
distribution of wire rope1 and  from the
 fifteenth of ,may1 #aiag1 this         
committee had on its shoulders  the     
making of wire necessary to keep the    
country's work going at full  speed and 
to supply the needs for war1 of whose   
extent or character  nobody had any     

clear idea4 ,karl ,g4 ,roebling1 of     
,john ,a4 ,roebling's ,sons  ,co41 was  
made chairman of the committee4         
,sidenote3 ,,the ,,war--,,one ,,long    
,,committee ,,meeting    ,throughout the
 war1 the ,roebling offices in ,trenton 
were headquarters  for the entire       
business of wire rope supply4 ,it was   
one long committee  meeting1 with       
production going on at utmost intensity 
all the time4  ,here came all the orders
 for wire rope from the several         
,government  departments and the bureaus
 in those departments1 each with its    
long  array of specifications1 all      
requiring shipment to divers points4    
,much  of the work required also a great
 labor of cutting and attaching1 and    
fittings by the hundreds of thousands1  
and all1 without an exception  that     
stands out in anybody's memory1 wanted  
in the minimum of time4    ,it is the   
proud record of that committee that when
 the fighting ended  in ,november of    
#aiah every order had been filled and   

delivery made on  time4 ,industry has no
 story of accomplishment to tell that   
can be more  creditable than this4 ,the 
,roebling plants1 near to the seaboard  
and  equipped for specialization1 were  
devoted almost wholly to the            
manufacture of war stuff1 domestic      
industrial orders being transferred  to 
inland factories4    ,sidenote3 ,,the   
,,record ,,of ,,production ,,for ,,war  
,,purposes    ,the record of production1
 for war purposes alone1 shows that the 
,roebling ,company manufactured a very  
large percentage of the whole1  which   
ran to unconscionable millions of feet4 
,during the war the  productive capacity
 of the plant was increased as much as  
seventy-five  per cent1 and the list of 
the employed at times ran close to ten  
thousand men4 ,the numerical increase in
 men did not equal the growth in        
output4 ,here as well as in almost every
 line of industry the war  furnished a  
revelation of the capacity of men for   
work4 ,new lines of  production1        

requiring skill1 developed in common    
laborers1 the only  kind that at times  
could be obtained1 a facility in        
production that  before the pressure of 
war came to discover it would have been 
thought  impossible4    ,in looking back
 over the war work it is plain that the 
service rendered  by the company in     
manufacturing material for the ,allies1 
prior to  ,america's entrance into      
hostilities1 was of large value in      
familiarizing it with forms of          
production afterward required for our   
own ,army and ,navy4 ,another thing     
which aided in meeting a vast demand    
was the unremitting attention which the 
company had given to the  perfection of 
aircraft material1 from the first       
successful flight of  the ,wright       
brothers at ,kitty ,hawk in #aijc4 ,at  
that time study and  experiment had been
 started in the ,roebling factories     
looking to the  production of aircraft  
wire and strand and cord for all the    
different  parts involved1 which should 

combine the utmost strength with the    
minimum of weight1 with special         
reference to the stresses peculiar to   
aviation work4    ,when the hour of need
 came1 ,roebling aircraft products had  
reached a  stage of perfection which    
saved a world of hurried experimentation
 and  development4 ,it was a            
demonstration in preparedness1 although 
up to  #aiad the work had been done     
solely to keep industrial pace with a   
new  and important development of       
mechanical science4    ,sidenote3 ,,the 
,,government ,,establishments ,,that    
,,called ,,for ,,wire ,,and ,,rope      
,it is a fairly long list of ,government
 establishments that is shown on  the   
,roebling records as calling for war    
supply of wire rope4 ,it  includes1 in  
the ,navy ,department1 the ,bureau of   
,steam ,engineering1  ,bureau of        
,construction and ,repair1 ,bureau of   
,ordnance1 the ,bureau of  ,yards and   
,docks and the ,naval ,aircraft         
,factory4    ,in the ,war ,department   

were the following3 ,office of the      
,chief of  ,ordnance1 ,depot            
,quartermaster1 ,chief ,signal ,officer1
 ,chief of  ,engineers1 the ,army       
,transport ,service1 the ,quartermaster 
,general's  ,office1 the ,signal ,corps1
 the ,aircraft ,production ,bureau1     
,united ,states  ,engineer's ,office1   
,general ,engineer ,depot1 ,bureau of   
,insular ,affairs1  ,procurement        
,division1 the ,balloon ,department of  
the ,aircraft ,production  ,board1 and  
the ,director ,general of ,military     
,railways4    ,always there were the    
,united ,states ,shipping ,board1 the   
,emergency ,fleet  ,corporation1 and the
 demands for these alone were a         
business4 ,in  addition to all this the 
,committee made allocation of orders for
 the  ,argentine ,naval ,commission1 the
 ,british ,war ,commission1 the         
,imperial  ,munitions ,board1 the       
,italian ,commission and the ,belgian   
,government4    ,it doesn't seem such a 
large roster1 but it took a world of    

wire to go  around it4 ,a few figures   
out of the total allocations will       
suggest what  the total demand was and  
the task that it involved4    ,sidenote3
 ,,some ,,of ,,the ,,big ,,demands      
,the first big call on the wire rope    
producers was for submarine nets to     
protect the fleet bases and harbors4    
,there were supplied to the ,navy1  for 
this purpose1 #b1hbj1ebj feet of rope1  
and it was regular rope that  was       
required in this service1 for the       
,german submarines had developed a  way 
of slashing through the earlier and     
lighter nets4 ,for the new type  the    
rope ranged from an inch and a half to  
three-quarters of an inch2  but it      
wasn't merely a matter of shipping reels
 of rope4 ,almost all of  it had to be  
cut into lengths and attachments made1  
for these barriers  were designed in    
sections4 ,this necessitated1 for the   
,navy order1  #aec1jjj fittings4 ,the   
,army ,ordnance ,bureau used nearly a   
million feet  of rope for nettings1     

which was shipped to various coast      
forts4 ,the  whole volume of wire rope  
for nettings was furnished within four  
months4    ,illustration3 ,,cup         
,,challengers1 ,,defenders ,,and        
,,sailing ,,vessels ,,of ,,all  ,,types 
,,secure ,,their ,,rigging ,,with ,,wire
 ,,rope    ,another interesting order   
was from the ,quartermaster's           
,department1  which called for          
#f1heb1ejj feet of rope and the         
manufacture of #cjj1jjj  pairs of       
traces1 requiring #c1jjj1jjj splices4   
,these are what are called  thimble     
splices1 and1 while fitting one of them 
is ordinarily half an  hour's work1 the 
,roebling plant1 with a force chiefly of
 men who were  utterly unskilled1 was   
turning off ten thousand pairs of traces
 a day  at the peak of production on    
this order4 ,this harness1 for artillery
  purposes1 was on ,english designs1    
adopted after considerable delay1 but   
by means of which a horse1 when shot    
down1 could be eliminated from the  gun 

team in half a minute4    ,the ,spruce  
,production ,bureau took over #h1jjj1jjj
 feet of rope1 the  ,emergency ,fleet   
more than #ab1jjj1jjj and the ,fuel     
,administration drew  on at the rate of 
#b1ejj tons a month4 ,and all the time  
the mines and  mills and ordnance       
plants1 locomotives1 cranes and all     
other  manufactures kept getting largely
 increased supplies of rope to carry  on
 their own war-driven work4 ,altogether 
the orders come to a figure  that is    
hard to visualize4    ,sidenote3        
#hd1jjj1jjj ,,feet ,,of ,,rope ,,and ,a 
,,half ,,million ,,fittings    ,but the 
climax1 the call that taxed the wire    
rope makers most heavily  and kept the  
arc lights burning in the mills was for 
the #hd1jjj1jjj and  odd feet of rope   
and half million fittings which were    
required by the  ,naval ,establishment  
for the ,north ,sea ,mine ,barrage1     
which put a prompt  and distinguished   
shackle on the ,german submarines4 ,the 
fitting of this  rope was a task of     

moment1 calling as it did for delivery  
of the rope  in lengths and made up     
ready for attachment on the ingenious   
plan which  the mine involved4 ,it was  
all done with time to spare4    ,the    
,adriatic ,barrage1 an even more        
ambitious project since it dealt  with a
 depth of #c1jjj instead of #ijj feet1  
was all ready to be laid  when the      
,armistice was signed4 ,this took over  
#ab1jjj1jjj feet of rope4    ,when the  
fighting stopped1 there was a perfectly 
good mine barrage in  the ,north ,sea   
that had to be taken up and put out of  
commission4 ,this  called for #faf1jjj  
feet more of rope1 with fittings to make
 it of use4  ,every mine was cancelled  
without a mishap1 and there are now more
 than  eighty million feet of ,a ,no4 #a
 wire rope reposing at the bottom of    
the ,north ,sea4 ,but it did its work1  
capturing no less than seventeen        
,german submarines in the first week4   
,sidenote3 ,,and ,,more ,,than ,,wire   
,,rope ,,was ,,asked ,,for    ,the      

,roebling plant1 for the time1 was given
 over to the manufacture of  war        
necessities1 hence its problems of      
material were made easy by the          
,director of ,steel ,supply4 ,but the   
,roebling output for war purposes did   
not end with wire rope4 ,in ,may1 #aiah1
 the company was employing close  to ten
 thousand men1 and in addition to rope  
making they were busy with  the         
manufacture of immense quantities of    
steel strand1 strand for  outpost       
cables1 copper strand1 telephone wire1  
copper wire and  miscellaneous wires of 
all descriptions1 which were needed in  
the  service at home and abroad4    ,a  
material part of the war work was the   
manufacture of wire especially  for the 
field telegraph and telephone systems of
 the ,signal ,corps in  ,europe1 where  
the ,american ,army communications were 
the admiration of  ,europeans4 ,this    
material possessed certain peculiar     
characteristics1  and while speed in its
 production was an essential yet it was 

necessary  that every strand be perfect1
 for the fate of armies rested upon it4 
,the manufacture of this wire involved a
 great deal of detail and  intimate     
knowledge of all sorts of materials1 for
 while copper is used  for electrical   
transmission there is an exterior       
protection of other  metals and         
materials1 each of which has its        
peculiar manufacturing  difficulties4   
,sidenote3 ,,the ,,composite ,,steel    
,,and ,,copper ,,strand    ,for example1
 the ,composite ,steel and ,copper      
,strand wire used by the  ,army was made
 up as follows3 ,there was a center wire
 of tinned copper  with ten outside     
wires of tinned steel4 ,this wire had a 
maximum weight  of #ge pounds a mile    
with a maximum breaking weight of #cjj  
pounds4 ,other  types of wire were silk 
wrapped1 covered with a rubber compound 
or with  a covering of cotton braid     
treated with a waterproofing compound4  
,sidenote3 ,,to ,,meet ,,the ,,signal   
,,corps' ,,requirements    ,take one    

type of the thousands manufactured by   
the ,roebling ,company and  see what    
must be done to make the finished       
product for the ,signal  ,corps4 ,this  
process1 which includes both the        
manufacture of steel wire  for the outer
 protection and copper wire for         
transmission1 may be  divided into the  
following parts3    ,all steel materials
 are analyzed and inspected4 ,acid open 
hearth steel  is made in ingot form in  
special furnaces4 ,the steel is         
classified1 and  the ingots are reheated
 and rolled into billets1 which are     
cropped to  eliminate all segregation4  
,the steel billets are reheated and     
rolled  into rods of about #c_/af inch  
diameter4 ,the rods are then tempered   
for  wire drawing4 ,then comes an       
inspection and testing for physical     
characteristics of the metal1 and the   
rods are cleaned in acid1 washed1  lime 
coated and left to dry4    ,these rods  
are then drawn cold through dies to     
intermediate sizes  requiring a         

repetition of the tempering1 inspecting 
and cleaning  operations4 ,there is     
another series of drawing and then the  
final one  through the hardest and      
toughest dies obtainable to a diameter  
of  #ab_/ajj inch4 ,at this diameter one
 foot of the original rod has been      
extended to about #cej feet4    ,then   
comes another inspection and test of the
 mechanical properties4  ,the wire is   
next cleaned in alkaline and acid       
solutions to remove all  trace of the   
lubricants used in the wire drawing1 and
 the wire is  subjected to a bath in    
pure hot tin4 ,finally there is a       
,government  inspection and test4    ,so
 much for the manufacture of steel wire4
 ,the copper first appears in  bars1    
which are inspected and tested for their
 metallic purity4 ,the  bars are heated 
and rolled into rods of about #c_/h inch
 diameter4 ,these  rods are cleaned in  
acid baths to remove all scale1 and the 
wire drawn  with the necessary annealing
 and cleaning until wire that is only   

4#jbhe  of an inch in diameter is the   
result4    ,the final drawing of this   
wire requires the use of diamond dies   
with  the necessary equipment and great 
skill of the wire drawers in piercing   
these minute openings4 ,the copper wire 
then is annealed free from all  scale   
and discoloration1 and the tin coat     
applied by means of a liquid  tin bath4 
,then the ,government inspectors test   
the copper wire4    ,ten strands of the 
steel wire are twisted about the one    
copper wire1  and the ,government       
inspectors again make tests to see if   
the inner  copper wire is intact and    
properly protected by steel wire4 ,all  
grease  is removed from the strand1 and 
tussah silk wrapped over the whole4 ,to 
this is applied a compound with #cj per 
cent rubber1 which is later  vulcanized4
 ,then come inspections for mechanical  
injuries and  electrical                
characteristics4 ,the single conductors 
are braided1 the  braid waterproofed1   
polished1 twined1 inspected1 reeled for 

shipment1  inspected by the ,government 
agents1 packed1 inspected again by the  
,government agents and finally shipped4 
,all this is done with a great deal of  
rapidity but with no less care1  the    
skill obtained by the workmen only by   
years of experience and by  the         
technical men only by years of study4   
,it required a thorough  knowledge of   
steel and of the materials entering into
 the manufacture  of steel1 such as ore1
 pig iron and fuel1 as well as of the   
properties  and tests and manufacture of
 copper1 tin1 rubber1 cotton1 and       
various  lubricants4 ,and in the more   
general use of wire and wire rope1 a    
thoroughly comprehensive knowledge of   
many other materials1 all  mechanical   
and electrical phenomena in fact1 are   
essential4                              
,,chapter ,,vii                         
,a ,,city ,,built ,,out ,,of ,,hand     
,all up and down the ,delaware1 between 
,trenton and ,philadelphia1 the  quality
 folks in olden times used to build     

stately homes1 with broad  acres at     
their backs and looking lordly1 with    
their ,grecian porticos1  out from the  
high banks that command the stream4 ,you
 may see some of  them yet1 faded and   
old and full of family history1 most of 
which was  not so important as it seemed
 to the builders4 ,in the little towns  
that  you pass on the trolley and the   
,camden and ,amboy road1 there is a     
certain ,eighteenth ,century somnolence1
 and a dingy pride of priority4  ,they  
sleep on1 as if it were creditable not  
to be busy4 ,bordentown1 a  few minutes'
 ride from ,trenton1 sits complacent    
amid its memories of  the ,bonapartes4  
,it is there you change for ,roebling4  
,sidenote3 ,,roebling1 ,,the ,,town1 ,a 
,,story ,,in ,,itself    ,roebling--the 
town1 not the plant--to which some      
attention has been  given1 is a story in
 itself4 ,it is an industrial           
disturbance in the  quietude of a sleepy
 and beauteous country4 ,it is a rattler
 of the dry  bones of tradition1 and    

pretty nearly the last word in          
corporation  communities4 ,roebling     
maintains no staff of highbrow          
sociologists to  discuss the things     
capital should do in order to make      
labor's pathway  broad and bright4      
,there's a town superintendent to look  
after things  and he earns his pay4     
,sidenote3 ,,built ,,to ,,make ,,wire   
,,and ,,rope    ,the town of ,roebling  
was built to help along the making of   
wire and the  wire rope4 ,making good   
rope1 it is a good town1 without any    
fanciful  notions about welfare work4   
,the ,delaware1 flowing by in its       
beauty1  accounts for part of this4 ,but
 to the ,roeblings the ,delaware means  
plentiful water supply and river        
transportation4 ,to the workmen in the  
big mills which lie just at the back of 
the town1 and to their  families1 which 
grow phenomenally1 it means bathing1    
boating1 a cool  breeze on stifling     
midsummer nights1 and a panorama that   
never ceases  to be lovely4    ,in both 

the city plants1 as business grew1      
building followed building4  ,a compact 
and populous section had grown up at    
,trenton4 ,more buildings  could not be 
crowded into the original ground space4 
,more land was  needed1 and as usual in 
such cases1 men with land to sell all   
along to  the south of the ,upper       
,works1 saw the company's need and had a
 brain  storm about what the footage was
 worth4    ,the ,roeblings tried a      
little farther down stream4 ,but down   
stream  didn't mean down price4 ,so they
 made a clean job of it4 ,ten miles down
  the river was a little old station    
called ,kinkora1 where the real  estate 
infection had not appeared4 ,there was  
land well up above high  water1 and     
plenty of it4 ,the ,delaware was very   
cheap down there1 as  compared with     
,trenton city water rates1 to a concern 
that used as much  water as all the rest
 of the city put together4    ,sidenote3
 ,a ,,likely ,,place ,,for ,a ,,wire    
,,mill    ,it was a likely place for a  

wire mill1 but if a dozen strangers had 
struck ,kinkora on the same evening the 
town would have had trouble to  find    
beds for them all4 ,it meant twenty     
miles rail travel a day for the  workmen
 to live in ,trenton4 ,so the ,roeblings
 decided to build4 ,charles  ,g4        
,roebling was then alive4 ,the new site 
and the planning and building  of the   
town were his charge4 ,but1 again1 they 
didn't go looking for any  welfare      
engineers4 ,the whole job of planning   
plant and town alike was  done in the   
long engineering room of the ,roebling  
offices4 ,at first  they called the     
plant the ,kinkora4 ,they do yet1 off   
and on1 but the  mills were a little    
below the station1 and when the new     
venture was  well under way1 and the    
machinery had begun to squeeze out wire1
 and  perhaps a hundred brick houses of 
various types had been erected1 the     
place had to have a station of its own4 
,the ,pennsylvania ,railroad said  it   
was ,roebling1 and stamped the tickets  

that way4 ,kinkora is wearing  off4 ,it 
is still a sleepy little station just up
 the line4 ,between it  and ,roebling   
there are a mile or so of distance and a
 whole century of  time4    ,the name   
,kinkora harks back to the year #ajjj1  
when ,king ,brian ,boru  of ,ireland    
lost his life at the battle of          
,clontarf4 ,his palace was  named       
,kinkora4 ,in #ahcf an ambitious        
,irishman named ,rockefeller 7not  ,john
 ,d47 conceived the idea of an air line 
railroad from this spot  where ,roebling
 now stands to ,atlantic ,city4 ,in fond
 remembrance of  ,erin's ,isle he named 
the terminus on the ,delaware ,kinkora4 
,the enterprise itself died an early    
death4    ,the ,roebling ,company has   
more than #bjj acres of land in the new 
settlement1 enough1 in all conscience1  
to accommodate as big a business  as    
almost anyone would want to do1 and     
houses to shelter all its  workmen4 ,if 
the company should ever find it good    
business to shake the  dust of ,trenton 

from its shoes altogether it certainly  
has a place to  go4    ,sidenote3 ,,no  
,,time ,,to ,,let ,,the ,,grass ,,grow  
,from the day when the thing was decided
 on1 no grass grew under  anybody's     
feet4 ,there was sand along that bucolic
 and undeveloped river  bank1 sand that 
ran well back1 getting more and more    
like loam as you  left the river4 ,it   
was broken and uneven4 ,the freshets of 
centuries had  left hollows here and    
hummocks there4 ,they were levelled4    
,the  knolls--dunes they would call them
 along ,lake ,michigan--were scraped    
down and dumped into the swales1 and the
 excess was thrown into a sedgy  morass 
along the river front1 to make it into  
solid ground and give a  clean1 healthy 
shore1 which is now one of the chief    
charms of the  place4 ,for the sections 
where grass was meant to grow--for      
dooryards  and the like--tons upon tons 
of top soil were brought in to give a   
fertile surface4    ,the mill buildings 
went up first1 on a broad space of one  

hundred acres  levelled off for them1   
and then the town began to grow4 ,that  
was  sixteen years ago1 and it has kept 
on growing4 ,every year sees a lot of   
new houses1 of various values1 and one  
and all well built and comely4  ,and in 
all grades they are better houses than a
 workman1 or a mill boss  either1 can   
get anywhere else in ,america for the   
same money4    ,sidenote3 ,,to ,,make ,a
 ,,profit ,,but ,,to ,,show ,a ,,saving 
,that has been the doctrine from the    
beginning4 ,charles ,g4 ,roebling said  
at the time something to the effect that
 every workingman was a free  moral     
agent1 and didn't want to be tied to    
anybody's apron-strings1  that he wanted
 a square deal and a chance to live his 
own life out of  business hours1 and to 
get the worth of his money when he spent
 it4 ,we  purpose1 he said1 to make a   
fair profit on our investment1 but we   
can  do that and still show a man a     
saving4 ,and we stop there4    ,it      
doesn't take long to realize that the   

,roeblings are living up to the         
original schedule4 ,the rents1 the      
figures on all sorts of commodities  at 
the village store1 which sells          
everything from a pork chop to a  piano1
 and the drug store1 which is just as   
,riker-,hegeman as any live  town could 
wish1 are all below the current price   
scale in the rest of  the country1 by a 
margin sufficient to mean something to a
 family when  they tote up at the year's
 end4    ,electric light1 coal and the  
other things a man has to pay for in any
  town are charged for here1 but it     
doesn't take a legislative fight or a   
big row in the newspapers to keep the   
price down where a man can afford  to   
pay it4 ,water is supplied free4 ,the   
idea is that the man owes the  company  
nothing but good work in return for his 
pay4 ,after quitting  time he's his own 
boss4 ,the company tries to make life in
 the town  pleasant enough so that he'll
 be glad to live there1 and think he has
 a  good job4 ,and it recognizes that   

life has many sides4    ,sidenote3 ,,and
 ,,the ,,town ,,had ,a ,,bar    ,it was 
in pursuance of the general thesis that 
when the town opened it  had a hotel    
with a bar4 ,there's no use1 they said1 
in trying to make  a mollycoddle out of 
a mill man4 ,when he wants a drink he's 
going to  get it1 especially the foreign
 born4 ,we don't propose to pick his    
drinks for him4 ,if he wants whiskey    
it's a good sight better for us  that he
 should be able to get it here like a   
human being than to trail  into ,trenton
 and take a chance with the stuff that  
goes over the bars  where a workingman  
drinks4 ,the whiskey here isn't         
gilt-edged1 but it's  decent1 and it's  
worth what it costs4    ,prohibition    
settled the drink question1 but while   
the cafe lasted in  ,roebling it kept   
the men from going to town to battle    
with the  embalming fluid1 and not      
showing up for the customary three days4
  ,that too was good business4          
,sidenote3 ,,fire1 ,,police1 ,,banks1   

,,streets    ,after the dirt and noise  
and disorder of a city street1 it is    
like a  sedative to slip from the train 
into the peace and the wide spaces of   
,roebling4 ,the tidy station is at one  
side1 at the other1 beyond the  switch  
tracks1 the little gate-house which     
gives ingress to the mill  enclosure--if
 you have the proper kind of pass4 ,from
 here a trim  concrete walk leads on    
past the ground of the plant and its    
fence of  tall pickets1 toward the      
river1 and the town4 ,as you go1 you    
meet with  courtesy4 ,it is not drawing 
the long bow to say everybody in        
,roebling--outwardly at least--is civil 
and good natured4 ,just beyond  the mill
 grounds you come upon the police       
office1 with trig coppers who  seem to  
have very little to do4 ,like the       
shining fire engines1 which  stand in   
the adjoining building ready for service
 either in town or  plant1 they seem to 
be maintained chiefly for insurance and 
ornament4  ,but they are practical      

organizations at that4 ,the ,roebling   
,company  learned what fire was during  
the war1 when two of the biggest        
buildings  in the ,upper ,works were    
destroyed4    ,from this point the      
streets lead away1 broad1 clean streets 
with the  best of sidewalks1 and        
drainage4 ,the town has spread out now  
so that it  looks no more like a toy    
city4 ,the streets are #hj feet wide1   
with the  exception of ,main ,street and
 ,fifth ,avenue1 which are #ajj feet    
wide4  ,trees have been planted which   
already make it attractive4 ,in front of
  every house is a dooryard1 a patch of 
green grass to remind a man that  ,god  
made the world4    ,sidenote3 ,,houses  
,adjoining fire and police houses1 there
 was formerly a trim little bank  whose 
business has expanded to such an extent 
that it has been enabled  to move to the
 centre of the business section of the  
town in an  attractive and up-to-date   
building of its own4    ,the houses1    
while of widely different types1 are for

 the most part made  of brick4 ,in order
 to avoid fire danger1 the minimum of   
wood is used in  all the buildings of   
the town4 ,the houses are all           
constructed on the  most improved plan  
of sanitation and hygiene4 ,through the 
block1 giving  access to the back-doors1
 run clean alleys1 wide enough to allow 
wagons  to pass for the delivery of     
coal1 foodstuffs and other commodities1 
and  for the collection of waste4 ,the  
company is now halting between the      
erection of an incinerator plant to     
consume the garbage for its #gjj and    
odd homes1 or a hog farm as part of its 
three or four hundred acres1  which     
without difficulty could turn out #a1jjj
 to #b1jjj head of swine a  year1 and   
further reduce the cost of living4 ,it  
is possible1 too1 that  it may some day 
produce its own milk4    ,there is a    
marked difference between some of the   
houses first erected  and those of more 
recent construction4 ,at present the    
bungalow type  is in great favor1 since 

it facilitates the labor of             
housekeeping4 ,more  pretentious        
dwellings1 for the men holding important
 positions in the  plant1 are sufficient
 to make a rent-ridden1 janitor-jaded1  
bell-boy  bossed ,new ,yorker wonder    
what he is being punished for4 ,one     
handsome  colonial home just built for a
 superintendent in one of the wire mills
  would be a credit to any commuter     
town4    ,sidenote3 ,,baseball1         
,,recreation ,,building1 ,,theatre1     
,,ballroom    ,always as you pass       
through airy ,roebling you encounter    
some new  institution built to make it  
seem like a regular place4 ,there is a  
baseball ground which would be a credit 
to any city1 with its tidy  green       
grandstand and its carefully manicured  
diamond4 ,the ,wire ,works  team is now 
prominent in one of the ,state ,leagues4
 ,there is a  recreation building1 with 
billiard and pool tables and the best   
bowling  alleys that can be built4      
,there is a spacious assembly hall1 with

  theatre stage and a scrumptious       
curtain bearing a picture of the        
,roebling ,brooklyn ,bridge4 ,the       
gallery is commodious4 ,the seats are   
removable1 leaving a ballroom of        
impressive size1 and adjoining rooms    
are equipped with ranges1 refrigerators 
and dishes for the preparation  and     
service of suppers or of dinners great  
and small4    ,take notice of the hotel1
 the boarding houses where single men   
live  well and cheaply1 of the public   
school1 the hospital1 the doctors1 the  
nurses1 the dispensary4 ,and these last 
are busy functionaries4    ,sidenote3   
,,very ,,little ,,sickness1 ,,very      
,,many ,,babies    ,there is very little
 sickness in ,roebling4 ,the sanitation 
is studiously  good1 but when you are   
sick there they look after you1 which is
 also  good business1 and babies are a  
favorite form of diversion4 ,this is    
impressively true4 ,you sense it        
wherever you go4 ,there are children    
everywhere--good looking wholesome kids4

 ,and something makes them  glad to live
 here1 too4    ,sidenote3 ,,being ,a    
,,boy ,,scout ,,at ,,roebling    ,to be 
a boy scout in ,roebling is about as    
good fun as a boy could have4  ,for a   
long time the company gave the boys too 
much4 ,then it woke up to  the fact that
 half the sport of being a boy scout was
 to do things4 ,so  the ,scouts were    
told if they wanted to keep the         
perfectly corking club  house on the    
river bank1 with its big meeting room1  
its open mouthed  fireplace1 its mounted
 deer heads1 and banners1 and books and 
guns and  spears and swords and all the 
other junk the boy soul loves1 they'd   
have to work for it4 ,goodness knows    
they do4 ,the grounds around that  shack
 in spring are turned up like a golf    
links4 ,what they have done in  the way 
of white birch rustic railings along the
 winding walks that  lead to the grounds
 would make a ,chippewa ,indian sick    
with envy4 ,this  year they are to help 
build a long float from the club house  

to the  water1 to launch their canoes   
on4    ,to the medical equipment is     
added a hospital for contagious         
diseases1  standing away out in the     
fields4 ,and in the outskirts also is   
land set  apart for gardens1 where the  
millworkers have allotted plots of      
ground  for the raising of their own    
vegetables4 ,the manure from the        
stables1  where sixty horses are kept1  
helps to make gardening worth while4    
,even  to be a mule in ,roebling is     
comfortable4 ,there are old mules       
there--you  see them just wandering     
around the paddocks1 eating and growing 
older--that will never see thirty-five  
or forty again4 ,nobody ever will  send 
them down the long trail4 ,they have    
worked hard for the ,roebling  ,company4
 ,it will feed them till they simply lie
 down and die of their  own accord4     
,feeding--whether mules or people--is   
habitual4 ,when ,john ,a4 ,roebling     
first made rope1 he had three or four   
men working with him4 ,they had a  table

 in the shop4 ,as the business has      
grown1 this custom has  continued4      
,today the entire office force at the   
headquarters in  ,trenton--some #bcj    
persons of all ranks--gets a dinner     
every day that  for sheer quality cannot
 be equalled in any of the city hotels4 
,it may  be a fad to feed that whole    
crowd fresh yellow cream brought in     
every  morning from the ,roebling farms1
 but--it's good business4    ,sidenote3 
,,the ,,park    ,the high land on the   
bluff overlooking the river at ,roebling
 is a park1  with trees and benches1 and
 a place where the band can play while  
the  folks sit taking the air on a hot  
summer night4 ,in a neat enclosure of   
,roebling wire1 convenient to all parts 
of the town1 are tennis courts1  for    
general use4 ,there is a sanitary barber
 shop1 where five shining  chairs are   
always full4 ,roebling has the best     
barbered lot of  foreign-born workmen in
 ,america4    ,sidenote3 ,,how ,,the    
,,foreigner ,,lives ,,in ,,roebling     

,in a town like this are lessons for    
those who like to try to translate  the 
foreigner for the good of ,american     
industry4 ,there are those who  cherish 
a superstition that the foreign workman 
in the ,united ,states  lives poorly4   
,in ,roebling it is remarked that it is 
the foreigner who  is the best customer 
in groceries and butcher's meat4 ,he    
buys chickens  instead of beef brisket1 
and not one chicken1 but two and three4 
,it is  he also who buys the ,hood      
,river apples and the best grape fruit4 
,and as for bread--you should see the   
bakery4 ,sunny ,jim would sing to  see  
it--clean and shining1 and turning out  
all kinds of bakestuffs  besides the big
 round red-blond loaves of ,european    
bread1 which they  say has the strength 
in it4 ,the baker's wagon1 loaded to the
 very top  of the canvas cover1 goes    
through the town and the workers' little
  children run homeward from it with    
two1 three1 four loaves altogether  as  
big as themselves4 ,crescent rolls1     

which cost a nickel at a ,french  bakery
 in ,new ,york1 are sold here for two   
cents apiece4    ,so it goes in         
,roebling4 ,over on the one side are the
 negro quarters4  ,they have everything 
anybody else has including a recreation 
house--and  when they recreate1 they    
just recreate4                      99  
99       99       99       99    ,if    
,roebling was an experiment1 it is not  
so any longer4 ,it is full of           
comfortable people1 and in seventy years
 the ,roebling theory as to what  a     
workman wants and how he should be      
treated has never proved itself  more   
conclusively than here4 ,it is a        
suggestive fact that in all that  time1 
save for some insignificant incidents1  
the ,roeblings have been  free from the 
nightmare of labor troubles4 ,it may be 
because its  workmen have nothing worth 
while to complain of4 ,every effort is  
made  to make them comfortable without  
making them feel like dependents4    ,it
 is the outworking of a great business  

theory4 ,in these times it is  of       
impressive significance4