How is rope made?

Rope

If you inspect a piece of rope, you’ll see it is made by many tough, threadlike fibers twisted together.

The best rope fibers came from the long leaf stems and stalk of a plant called the abaca plant, which grows in the Philippines.  This fiber is generally known as Manila hemps.

Almost all rope is made by machinery, in the rope making plants, the long, tough plant fibers are separated and combed straight.

Then, through a series of twisting steps, the fibers are twisted end-to-end into tight into strands which are then twisted together to form the finished rope.

Each time the fibers are twisted the twist is made in the opposite direction to the twist before it.  This makes the rope hard and strong and helps keep it from untwisting.

Today, ropes made of wire and such man-made fiber as nylon and glass have replaced plant fiber ropes for many use.

Visual source:  getknotted

“What Makes Poison Ivy itch?”

poisonous plant

The leaves and stem of poison ivy contain a poisonous oil that is very irritating to the skin.  It is one of the most common and most-feared poisonous plants in North America.  Few people can touch the leaves or berries without being poisoned.  The poison is an oil that is extremely irritating to the skin, causing it to blister and itch.

 

Poison ivy is very common, everyone who goes into the woods and fields should learn to recognized it.  It always has three leaflets on each leaf.  Poison ivy may grove as a vine twining on a fence or as a bush.  The leaves are shiny green in the summer, turning scarlet in fall.  Later in the season clusters of poisonous white berries form.

 

Photo courtesy:  landscaping

What is a Spanish moss?

  

spanish moss tree

SPANISH MOSS IS AN AIR PLANT THAT CAN BE SEEN IN SOME SOUTHER STATES HANGING IN LONG, GRAY STREAEMRS FROM TREES. 

 

Spanish moss is a plant that can be seen hanging in long, gray streamers from the limbs of trees in the cypress swamps of the South.  It is not really a moss at all, but an air plant that belongs to the pineapple family. 

 

Spanish moss spends its entire life perched in trees.  Unlike mistletoe, a plant that steals its food from the tree it grows on, Spanish moss lives entirely upon what it can get out of the air. 

 

The only help it needs from the host tree is to be lifted up into the sunlight. 

 

It has no roots.  It’s long, slender stems and leaves, which look like hair hanging from the trees, are covered with scaly hairs that take in water and food from the moist air.  It has tiny yellow flowers, but not many people notice them. 

 

The seeds are formed in tiny pods.  When these open, the seeds are carried by the wind.  Some find a perch and can start growing.  Spanish moss is sometimes dried and used to stuff furniture.  - johhnywonder