Let us go back and try to trace the history of the rope. It is a long one, going out of sight in the far past. In very early times men must have used some kinds of cords or lines for fishing, for tying animals, at times for tying men. These may have been strips of hide, lengths of tough, flexible wood, fibrous roots, and such gifts of nature, and in time all these were twisted together to make a longer and stronger cord or rope. [Illustration: SCENE IN EGYPTIAN KITCHEN, SHOWING USE OF A LARGE ROPE TO SUPPORT A SORT OF HANGING SHELF] We have evidence of this. Tribes of savages still have in use cords made of various materials and some of them very well made. These have been in use among them for long centuries. Take the case of our own Indian tribes. They long made use of cordage twisted from cotton and other fibers, or formed from the inner bark of various trees and the roots of others, and from the hairs, skins and sinews of animals. [Illustration: REPRODUCTION OF SCULPTURE FROM A TOMB IN THEBES, SHOWING PREPARATION OF LEATHER CORDS BY PROCESS SIMILAR TO ROPE MAKING] Good rope was made also by the old Peruvians, by the South Sea Islanders, and by the natives of many other regions. Those on the seashore made fishing lines and well-formed nets, and certain tribes, among them the Nootka Indians, harpooned the whale, using cords made from the sinews of that animal, these being very strong and highly pliable. The larger ropes used by them, two inches in diameter, were made from the fibrous roots of the spruce. Civilized Rope Makers. All the ancient civilized peoples used ropes and cordage, made from such flexible materials as their countries afforded. We have pictures of this from ancient Egypt, in which the process of twisting strips of leather into rope is shown on the walls of their tombs. One workman is seen cutting a long strand from a hide which he turns round as he cuts, while another man walks backward with this, twisting it as he goes. The Egyptians also made ropes from papyrus and palm fibers, of which specimens still exist. Only by the use of large and strong ropes could they have moved the massive stones seen in their pyramids and temples. [Illustration: CORDAGE MANUFACTURE BY THE ROPE WALK METHOD Yarns passing from bobbins through perforated plates in forming of strands. Top truck used in laying of rope. Forming machine making strands. Closing tarred Russian hemp cable, 15-3/4 inch circumference, for Argentine Battleship “Rivadavia.”]