The New Thoughts of Galileo

ropes do, although they are much stronger. As for cylinders of metal or marble, where no such filaments appear, it seems that the resistance of their parts comes from some kind of natural glue.

The great strength or resistance of hemp ropes comes from the fact that each strand is so pressed by the others, with which it is intertwined, that when one pulls the rope, no strand can separate itself; from this it follows that it breaks almost as a piece of marble would, as if it were cut, without the filaments leaving one another; whence it happens that it breaks just as easily by tension as by pulling.

This resistance of fibers and filaments is explained well enough by the threads one holds between one's fingers: for one has all the more difficulty in pulling and separating them, the more tightly one squeezes them; and if they are wrapped around the finger, they break rather than let go. This is what he explains by two cylinders pressing a rope; and by its wrapping around one of the said cylinders: for this