“Seven one-thousandths,three one-thousandths,one one-thousandth—onerecord after another waspassed.
At last a wire was drawnthat measured one four-thousandthof an inch indiameter—twelve times finerthan the hair on your head.
The spider, so long counteda master workman, had beenoutdone.”
John A. Roebling
FOUNDER OF JOHN A. ROEBLING’S SONS COMPANY
Outspinning the Spider
CHAPTER I
WIRE AND MODERN LIFE
It is the wire age.
Modern life, in all its intricate bearings, runson wire. Wire everywhere; in the heavensabove, the earth beneath and the waters underthe earth. In all the legerdemain of science,which has put nature in bondage, wire is theindispensable agent.
A curious, slow, finical little trade at whichthe smiths of forgotten races toiled andpottered and ruined their eyesight for unnumberedthousands of years has become, withinless than a century, under the spur of modernneed and modern driving power, the pack-bearerof the world and the mainspring ofevery activity from the cradle to the grave.
Wire still makes toys and gewgaws as italways did, but it is no longer the plaything ofvanity alone. Cancel wire and wire rope andtheir concomitant, “flat wire,” from the inventoryof human assets tomorrow, and theworld would stop stock-still.
This is not hyperbole. Picture yourself startingfor business in the morning if there were nowire and see what the verdict would be byquitting time. Considering the vital part thatwire plays in the growing and transportationof food for man and beast, it is likely you wouldgo breakfastless after sleeping on a bed withoutsprings or the luxury of a woven wire mattress.But that would be only the beginning of sorrow.The trolley would stand dead. Perhaps youare a commuter and journey to town by steamroad. The ferry would hug its slip, and whereis the railroader who in these days of congestionand short headway would dare to send atrain out without the protecti