Well, groovy is a regular vocabulary word for me, so I guess I am stuck in the 70s, lol.
I've been up since 2:00 AM (has to do with a bus and a TV show in NY, dropped the wife off at her college, and now I can't sleep), Davenport the Pug is laying on the couch near my desk and snoring, so if you don't mind, I'll blab a bit.
Found a couple of groovy books that relate to this project. One I found in a used book store last week, called "Catapult: Harry and I Build a Siege Weapon," by Jim Paul, published in 1991. It's a strange and fun book, this guy's ruminations as he and a buddy build a catapult. The weapon they build is not Roman, but is basically two huge truck leaf springs bolted to a 10 foot long beam, with a comealong to span it. He goes into all kinds of ancient and bibilcal history, the origins of iron smelting, his relationship with his father, geology and paleohistory, scavanging for parts, and lots more.
I also found this little phamphlet called "Making Horsehair Rope" by Diane Gadway and Richard Schneider, published in 1993. Essentially, it is how to build a primative rope walk using 3 people to make rope, using techniques still used in Mexico. The techniques and processes they outline in the book are essentially the same as the rope makers who made the countless miles of rope in seaports all over the world (the rope jack, which you crank on to twist the smaller stands into rope, is called the Tosidora, and the traveler, which a second man used to keep tension on the other end of the ropes (the bitter ends) is called a Yegua in Spanish) until the age of sail ended and automatic machinery replaced skilled rope making.
There is one historic working ropewalk in the world in England, but here in Charlestown Naval Yard, outside of Boston, is the longest ropewalk (and maybe the only one left) in the US. I'll have to go visit it one day. They call them ropewalks, by the way, as the master rope maker has to walk backwards. They did a ton of walking, as a matter of fact, and for the really huge cable laid ropes that you could moor a ship with, it took 200 men to make the rope (and btw, the ropewalk building was very long and narrow, and the ultimate length of the rope was determined by the length of the building. Imagine a low brick shed, but hundreds of feet long, up to 240 yards long).
Luckily, I don't need rope that big.
I wonder if I can talk my wife into helping me? Mmmmm....maybe not. I don't know if I can do it alone, but there is a solution to every problem. No worries now though. Probably bribe someone with pizza and beer into helping me.
Here is a link to how to build a miniature ropewalk for making rope for model ship buidling, so you can get an idea of how they work in practice. A tiny one like this might be neat to build for making bowstings? I'll have to give it a go one day, just to see. It would also be good practice before I put together the full-sized rope jack, traveler, and top. How the Romans made rope, I am not sure right now, but I understand these tools date to the medieval period, so I still need to research all this some more. No one, of course, will know if I use 19th century-style tools, so be very quiet.
http://www.members.cox.net/elarson5/ropewalk.htmOne of Lil's collegues was over for a bit last night, a fellow English professor. The bundle of horsehair was on the dining room table where they were sitting and talking, and she asked about it. So, I had to explain that I am building a couple of siege engines, and got the "you are a weirdo" look, polite but unmistakable.
And that is all from me for now. Thanks for indulging me.
Dane
