Even before Roebling's removal to Trenton, wire rope was fast becoming one of the accepted tools in the transportation (railroad and canal) industry. That he cultivated this as his earliest important outlet is witnessed by the fact that in 1846 Roebling advertised his wire rope in the American Railroad Journal.
As the new product became more highly developed; as it could be made more flexible, easier to handle; as price went down, and, much more important, as production capacity increased, new markets opened up rapidly. Of course, among the first of these was mining. The coal mining districts of Pennsylvania were accessible to Roebling, and these miners had an opportunity to observe the performance of wire rope on the inclines of the canals.
Another important field which was among the first to recognize the value of wire rope was that of power transmission. In a great many diverse cases it was necessary to transmit power mechanically from a central power plant to buildings some distance away, and wire rope's durability, strength and comparative resistance to exposure qualified it admirably for the job. Although this field today is extremely limited since the advent of electrical power equipment, it consumed a considerable volume of Roebling's output from the 1850's to the early years of this century.
In the 1860's the Otis Brothers were experimenting in a field which since has become one of the largest consumers of wire rope. Until then, elevators had been used sparingly, and then mostly for industrial purposes because of their lack of safety mechanisms. The Otis Brothers, however, brought out safety devices which have been largely responsible for the expansion of the elevator industry. And the advent of wire rope, which John A. Roebling designed to suit their needs, contributed integrally to this development.
Also in these early years of the Roebling business, wire rope, as a stable piece of equipment, was first introduced to the marine markets. Both rigging and tiller ropes were produced, and it is this fact--that two such extremes of flexibility and of other characteristics had been developed--that gives striking evidence of the rapidity with which Roebling experimented and improved his new engineering instrument. Records show that this development had occurred by the 1860's at the latest!
Many valuable records of the course
of the company's growth were destroyed in 1908, in the first of
several great fires which have occurred in Roebling's history.
It can definitely be established, however, that as early as the
late '60's Roebling was making his first contact with the manufacture
of electrical conductors, when he undertook to fabricate cylindrical
lightning rods which were stranded in somewhat the same manner
as wire rope.
A Typical Early Installation In Which Power Is Transmitted
Mechanically Across A River By Means Of Wire Rope
An Early Roebling Advertisement in
The American Railroad Journal
Advertisements appearing in The American Journal of Mining
--1867 (above) And In The Iron Age--1875(below)
During the first few years of this evolution
of wire rope, "rope walks" similar to that on which
John A. Roebling had made his first rope were used. However, production
methods as well as the quality of the product were immeasurably
improved when Roebling designed vertical stranding and vertical
rope-laying machines. Although the rope walk was not abandoned
entirely until 1862, the new machines assumed more and more of
the load during the several years prior to that time. That these
machines were of sound design is witnessed by tile fact that essentially
the same basic principles are used even in today's machinery.
Of course, the greater part of the credit
for this phenomenal growth of the business, both from the product
and from the market aspects as well, must go to John A. Roebling
himself. But in 1859 his second oldest son, Ferdinand William,
who graduated that year from chemical engineering school, joined
his father in the business and immediately became interested in
its sales and financial aspects. To his keen awareness of the
possibilities of their product and to his constant search for
new outlets must be attributed much of the expansion of the Roebling
enterprise.
In the meantime, Ferdinand's older brother, Washington A. Roebling, had become active in the business in 1857, two years earlier than Ferdinand. His interests at once became centered upon the many great bridge-building projects which his father had under way, including the Allegheny and the Cincinnati-Covington bridges. His horizons were broadened by four years of experience as a military engineer with the Union Armies during the Civil War. Despite his youth (he was then in his early twenties), his ability as an engineer quickly won for him promotion to the rank of colonel.
After being mustered out of the Army,
he rejoined his father in the bridge-building end of the business;
and thus it was that he was fully apprised of the details of a
plan which had taken root in his father's mind, and which was
to be responsible for the undertaking which would prove to be
at once John A. Roebling's greatest monument and his death.
Colonel Washington A. Roebling
A Drawing Of The Rope Walk Used By Roebling In The Meadow Behind His Saxonburg Farm (above) Contrasted With A Modern Horizontal Rope Closing Machine Shown Below
