W.A.J. Albert and his wire rope

It is generally accepted that by careful attention to detail and employing the strength of iron wire, that the first serviceable wire rope used in a technical application was produced in 1834 by Wilhelm August Julius Albert (Figure 1). Albert’s rope was developed for lifting ore out of the “Caroline” shaft near Clausthal. Since 1834 wire rope has developed in many ways: Today there are hundreds of different constructions and in contrast to Albert’s ropes which had a diameter of manufactured as well as ropes over 3,000 m in length. In addition to its use in applications like mine shafts wire rope is now an integral part of modern life, and is found in many applications e.g. cranes, elevators, ropeways, bridges, architectural buildings to name but a few. In the following the authors provide a summary of the work around W.A.J. Albert’s famous rope which we honour this year in its 175th anniversary.

Author(s): J.C. Weis and I.M.L. Ridge