Later on, however, much trouble was caused by the loops in the ends of some of the guy-wires slipping, owing to the giving way of the solder which had been run through the joint, the amount of slipping, while small, being sufficient to alter completely the relative stresses on the various wires, thus causing distortion of the framework itself. In order to avoid this difficulty a new method was devised of attaching the guy-wires to the turn-buckles and to the fittings by which they were carried to the frame. This method consisted in threading the ends of the guy-wires so that they could be inserted directly in the threaded ends of the turn-buckles. The wires when connected in this way to the turn-buckles showed absolutely no slip, and the entire system gained greatly in strength thereby. The only disadvantage which was found in this new method of attaching the guy-wires to their fittings, was that if the wire was bent very close to the fitting, it would break in the screw thread very easily. But since most of the guy-wires when once attached to the machine are always tight, and in fact, under more or less strain, there was in most cases no likelihood of the wires being endangered by being bent close to the fittings. Since the screw threads, which it was necessary to adopt in this new plan of connecting the guy-wires, had to be very much finer than the threads which had been used in the turn-buckles previously constructed, it was necessary to make new turn-buckles, the others being too thin to permit of their being bored out, bushed and re-threaded. The new turn-buckles were made of a much higher grade of steel, and probably represent very nearly the maximum of strength for the minimum of weight possible without the use of some of the very much higher-grade steels which have recently come on the market, but which are exceedingly expensive to work. By means of this improved plan of attaching the wires,[42] it [p173] was found possible to gain practically fifty per cent in the strength of the entire system of guy-wires used on the frame. Many small changes were from time to time made in the various small fittings by which the guy-wires were attached to the frame, nearly all of these fittings having been originally made of a very mild grade of steel owing to the fact that it was so very much easier to work. At the time these fittings were made it was constantly expected that a trial of the aerodrome would be possible very soon, and it seemed necessary to expedite the work as much as possible and avoid the delay involved in using grades of steel that would have been materially harder to work. As is always the case in work of this kind, retrospect shows many instances where what was supposed to be a short cut to results actually proved to be the longest path, but the work as a whole was remarkably free from imperfect parts which necessitated reconstruction.