Note 98 — XIII.

The experiments made at Fort St. George near Madras in July, 1850, with lines and rigging made of abáca and European hemp, with the view of testing their respective availability, gave the following interesting results: a rope of Manila hemp, 12 feet long, 3 1⁄4 inches in circumference, and weighing 28 11⁄16 oz., required a strain of 4460 lbs. to break it: on the other hand a rope of English hemp of similar dimensions, weighing 39 oz., broke with a strain of only 3885 lbs. A second smaller rope of Manila hemp, 1 3⁄4 inches thick, and 9 1⁄2 oz. weight, also 12 feet in length, required 1490 lbs. to break it, while an exactly similar cord of English and Russian hemp, weighing 13 oz. per fathom, broke with 1184 lbs., so that in the first instance the abáca line was 13 per cent., and in the second nearly 22 per cent. stronger than ropes of similar size of European hemp.