Chatham rope walk.

The old rope walk in Chatham historic dockyard.
The machine is driven by an endless rope belt on the far side, which is a bit hard to see in this video. The belt is now driven by an electric motor but before that it was steam powered and manpowered before steam came along.
The machin fist twists the strands , then after the three strands have been passed through the large wooden guide block, they are twisted together in the opposite direction.This twisting drives along the trolley on which the man is riding. The machine also moves but is held back to keep the rope tight by dragging a canvas sheet behind it which has weights paced on it to adjust the tension.

[@RainJetSprinklers]

We're learing about the industrial revolution in my history class right now, interesting video and machine!

[@GenericGene]

Good video - very informative, thank you.

[@COMB0RICO]

Thanks for posting.

[@manxman8008]

Thanks for this - we went when it wasnt running