Allow me to post the first ERRATA, all of these mistakes were caused by editing and meddling by a so called proof reader I might add. - I will post it here so that it fits with this thread and also in the Tec section as requested by Webadmin
Gordon (Co-author)
Thank you. (Although you missed the later WebAdmin advisory re Subject format.)
I'm sorry not to have yelped earlier, but Errata msg.s do not belong in the
Knot Theory & Computing forum -- not for other than some testing
period, anyway. They should have their own forum, as a single source
will often have Practical & Decorative knots and so garner errata for both.
access to the internet is allowing them to learn increasingly more about their subject
Although this begs the question of what this "more" amounts to?
As the OP shows, the WWWeb can simply spread nonsense more quickly
and broadly for being cheap & accessible. There can be a real issue with
signal-to-noise ratio aspects of the WWWeb information. Fortunately,
there is some hope with a good guard at Wikipedia, and some other active
minding of that. But grounding some helpful information (i.e., providing
footnoted references) can be tough, as the published stuff is what needs
correcting or improving. (In the time it takes for some few people to try
to check whether there ever actually was a use of the Bull Hitch with livestock,
several dozen sites can pop up and link to or copy the eHow misinformation
for their own.)
But further discussion of these sorts of things needs a new thread,
"Towards a Science of Knotting".
-----------
Okay, and just this for tonight's reading of a Hansel&Gretel bedtime story:
pp.86/88pl.39 #233, #235 The Cross Turn Bend is an unusual [I'll say!] method of making
a Bend with a cross turn in the middle.
&
The Hitched Figure-of-Eight Eye is made by passing a Hitch through a Figure-of-Eight eye.
Right-o.
The first peculiarity has the illusion of a Fig.8 but is actually a non-knot,
through which the 2nd rope is reeved, apparently in a "cross turn" -- and
of course we all know what
that is! No? Well, H&G have a Glossary:
[C.T.] "Turns that are taken around a rope at right angles to the turns of the
lashings or seizing." Not that this illusory Fig.-of-8 has such turns to be
taken at the perpendicular of, but ... no matter.
And, typical for H&G's book, the reader has NO idea of what ends are to
be loaded, in this so-called "Bend" (capital "b"!). "Bend", btw, per H&G
"is defined as a method of joining the ends of two ropes together, or in
the language of the sea, the bending of two ropes together, as the Sheet
Bend, Carrick Bend, etc." ... "Also; to secure, tie or make fast, ...". Well,
through many a tested seashell, and even directly, the sea has not spoken
to me quite thus, but this is a different world. But take off 10 points for
the remark about "sheet bend" -- that is pretty well nailed to bending the
sheet to the clew (a non-rope entity).
But back to zero: what is this knot supposed to do, and how? No hint.
(It actually works half-decently if the ends on the same side/end (top or
bottom, in the book) are taken as the opposing S.Parts. -- something
reminiscent of that "Technical Hitch (bend?)" Rob Chisnall once showed.
But I want most of the credit for discerning
this knot out of #233.)
And #235? As if one can give a history & purpose all in a name, does
"The
Hitched Figure-of-Eight
Eye " say it all ? As you see,
there's little more than that, repeated, to follow, for all of H&G's text.
And, here too, there is no actual (and equally none apparent, even)
figure-of-eight. And an "eye"? This structure can work well
qua
noose , which some think of as (non-"fixed") eyes; I prefer
to distinguish such things -- "eyes" are fixed; "nooses" maybe not so.
(For those lacking the tome, the knot I just discerned out of H&G's
ambiguity is like making Two Half-hitches, but instead of completing
the 2nd, take the end towards the object and back up through the
(first) Half-hitch and the bight just made in nearly making the 2nd;
this should be more secure than TwoHH, in tension and without.)
Well, I might as well visit nearby ...
pp.88/9pl.39#238 & p.102/4pl.40#356 The Twisted Knot in Eye is a method of tying
a twisted knot in an eye loop. [brilliant!]
&
The Crossed Eye Tie is a method for putting a crossed tie in an eye. [repeatedly brilliant!!]
Were not its alleged invention some years later (Ashley vintage), one might think
that Hansel&Gretel did a great many Crossed Eye Ties after a few too many Mai Tais.
Again, one has no clue as to which end to load (or why bother); taking it qua
noose hitch, one has a workable item; qua
eye knot, much less so.
These two "knots" are the same (one points upwards, the other downwards).
But you have your choice of names. Blurred vision & slurred speech helps.
(I will not assert that there is not another occurrence of it in the tome.)
And we are --really!-- still just scratching the surface of this long-lived
"must have" book of "knots", rated so highly by relatively many on Amazon.
Sweet dreams, may your closed-eye ties free the ring from the bull.
--dl*
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