"You ask them," said the Chief Engineer, "why they do a thing a certain way. They tell you simply that 'that's the way to do it.'" In the old days John A. Roebling figured out the way, and gave it to his workmen in the shape of orders--today somewhat different methods are utilized. To the cumulative experience of over eighty years of wire-rope making, the Roeblings have always availed themselves of the latest engineering skill. With up-to-date research, chemical and metallurgical laboratories, every progress in the art has been incorporated in their product. [Sidenote: FOLLOWING THE ROPE AND ITS USES] The Roebling people say that wire rope is their "baby." They give it the utmost of skill and care and caution in the making, and then to see that these are not wasted, they follow it into the field, where it is to serve, with personal attention to its installation and with the most detailed instruction for its protection and use, figuring out with nicety the speeds to be maintained, the size of the sheaves or drums around which it should travel to minimize the strain, prescribing its lubrication, providing printed warnings against all forms of misuse or neglect, with pictures to show the reason why, and other instructions and pictures to aid in detection of the first signs of trouble or exhaustion, and the reasons therefor. Study of the Roebling method, from the ore yard to the field of operation, makes clear the reason why Roebling rope, from the very beginning of the manufacture, has been accounted standard for quality. A Roebling catalogue is never complete. It cannot list and illustrate, without competing in size with the unabridged, more than a small part of the uses for which rope--and much of it special rope--is made, or the infinite number of attachments and accessories provided for installation and use on the job. [Sidenote: WIRE ROPE AND ITS WORK]