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In fact, by the early 1940’s, even though steel cables were available,
事實上，在20 世紀40 年代初期，盡管鋼絲繩能買到，
most ships in the United States Navy were not moored with steel cables; they were moored with Manila hemp ropes.
但是大多數的美國海軍船停泊時用的不是鋼絲繩；這些船用的是馬尼拉麻繩。
Now, why was that? Well, the main reason was that steel cables degrade very, very quickly in contact with salt water.
為什么會這樣呢？主要的原因是鋼絲繩接觸咸水后很容易腐蝕。
If you’ve ever been to San Francisco, you know that the Golden Gate Bridge is red.
如果你去過舊金山的話，你會發現金門大橋是紅色的。
And it’s red because of the zinc paint that goes on those stainless steel cables.
金門大橋是紅色的原因是鋼索上噴的鋅漆。
That, if they start at one end of the bridge and they work to the other end, by the time they finish,
如果工人們從鋼索的一端往另一端噴鋅漆，到他們完工的時候，
it’s already time to go back and start painting the beginning of the bridge again,
就該回來重新油漆一遍了，
because the bridge was built with steel cables,
因為金門大橋是由鋼絲建成的，
and steel cables can’t take the salt air unless they’re treated repeatedly with a zinc-based paint.
而鋼絲在咸性的空氣中容易腐蝕，除非反復給鋼絲涂上鋅顏料。
On the other hand, plant products like Manila hemp, you can drag through the ocean for weeks on end.
但是，像馬尼拉麻這樣的植物產品，你可以連續好幾個禮拜拖著它們穿過海洋。
If you wanna tie your anchor to it and drop it right into the ocean, that’s no problem,
如果你想綁上錨，然后將錨扔到海里，一點問題都沒有，
because plant fibers can stand up for months, even years, in direct contact with salt water.
因為植物纖維直接接觸海水也能堅持好幾個月，甚至好幾年。
OK.So how do you take plant fibers that individually you could break with your hands
那么你是怎么將只手可以拉斷的植物纖維
and turn them into a rope that’s strong enough to moor a ship that weighs thousands of tons?
做成強韌到可以泊上萬噸船的繩子的？
Well, what you do is you extract these long fibers from the Manila hemp plant,
你需要做的是從馬尼拉麻里抽出這些長纖維，
and then you take several of these fibers, and you group them into a bundle,
然后從中拿出幾縷，揉成一根，
because by grouping the fibers you greatly increase their breaking strength—
因為通過這樣揉搓，極大地加強了這些纖維的抗斷強度——
that bundle of fibers is much stronger than any of the individual fibers that compose it.
這一根的強度比起其中的任何一縷纖維都要強得多。
And then you take that bundle of fibers and you twist it a little bit, because by twisting it, you increase its breaking strength even more.
之后，再拿揉搓好的那根纖維捻一下，這樣能讓其抗斷強度得到更大的提升。
And then you take several of these little bundles, and you group and twist them into bigger bundles, which you then group and twist into even bigger bundles, and so on,
再然后，你將揉搓好的這些纖維揉搓和編織成更大的繩子，如法炮制，
until eventually, you end up with a very, very strong rope.
直至做出非常非常結實的纜繩。
