At this point hard fibers--Manila, Sisal and New Zealand--are usually oiled to soften them and to make them more workable for the operations that follow. The oil, furthermore, acts as a preservative. It is a matter of importance to the buyer, however, that the fiber should not be too heavily oiled, for that merely increases the weight and cost of the rope without improving its quality. Our experts have determined through long experience the amount of oil that should be used to best serve the interests of both manufacturer and buyer, and have perfected a process which insures a perfect distribution over all the fibers, while frequent tests on each machine, in which definite quantities of fiber are weighed before and after oiling, prevent any excess. [Illustration: WHERE THE LUBRICATING OIL IS MIXED] The quality of oil used is also important, for grades containing acids have a harmful effect on all vegetable fiber. We compound our own oils and we also take great care to prevent acids from entering our grounds or factories and so coming in contact with our products. Long ago the Plymouth Cordage Company learned that in the methods employed in the preparation of fiber for spinning lay one of the secrets of fine rope-making. To secure a more effective and special treatment in this process, we have added to the regular machines many improvements of our own. So highly perfected is the apparatus that by machine work entirely the separate hanks of fiber are combed and elongated into a soft, continuous sliver of any size desired and of convenient length, glossy in appearance, perfectly clean, and with each fiber lying as nearly as possible in the straight position which gives it maximum strength. These operations, in which the entire character of the comparatively short vegetable fiber changes seemingly, are wholly a development of modern rope-making, since in the days of hand spinning no sliver was necessary. [Illustration: FORMATION OF SLIVER--FIRST BREAKER] The machines are arranged in series, usually as follows: a first and second breaker, a coarse and a fine spreader and a draw frame. The treatment is varied to suit the particular requirements of different hemps or ropes by a prolonging or shortening of the series and by the adjusting of individual machines, but the method is always essentially the same. [Illustration: SECOND BREAKER SPREADER DRAW FRAME REDUCING SIZE OF SLIVER FOR SPINNING] The purpose of the first breaker is to form the primary sliver or “roping” as it is sometimes called. The hanks of fiber--somewhat matted if they have been oiled--are fed by hand into the machine, several at a time. Steel pins fitted to a slowly revolving endless chain grasp the mass while a second set of pins, moving more rapidly, draws out the individual fibers and combs them into a continuous form. [Illustration: GROUP OF DRAW FRAMES]