At the annual August Art in the Park show in South Portland, Maine, I was enjoying a sunny Saturday and the offerings of artists working in every medium imaginable when I came across a booth with the intriguing banner: “Rope Art.”
Rope as an artist’s medium!
I had to take a closer look.
Why was Britain so dominant at sea for centuries? They had great rope, of course! Amazingly, traditional rope is still made at the 1,200-foot long ropewalk at Historic Chatham Dockyard in England. Read about how rope enabled the British to rule the waves in my piece from the UK Daily Express.
In June 1752 Ben Franklin conducted his famous “kite experiment.” He flew a kite amid lightning and thunder to prove that a storm’s bright flashes were electrical in nature. He did this by lofting a kite in a thunderstorm that had a metal key tied to the kite line. The idea sounds a bit dangerous and Ben, indeed, is usually shown out cavorting in a field as lightning cracks all around him. In reality, the wily Franklin wasn’t quite so willing to sacrifice himself for science. Rope was an important element in the experiment since the hemp control line not only held the kite aloft but also was part of Ben’s electrical sensing system.