*The wires are real strange. At first glance they look like conventional
16ga stranded power wire, but they are more like insulated coax with no
center conductor, just filler inside the braid.*

The cable construction resembles that used (or at least was used) for optic
fibre cable to be laid over swamp. Since the tension on the cable varied
greatly, and the fibre would only survive a (very) limited amount of
extension, it was laid up around a soft core. As the cable was stretched,
the diameter deceases, along with the pitch circle diameter of the laid up
fibres. This provides additional  fibre length to account for the
extension.

RP

On 30 June 2018 at 09:08, Bob Blick <bobblick@outlook.com> wrote:

> The story I hear is that this rope was used to tow three gliders full of
> soldiers behind a DC-3 over France near the end of WW2. The gliders cut
> loose one at a time and had soft(crash) landings behind enemy lines. The
> rope has three insulated wires embedded in it that were used for
> communication between tow plane and gliders. A crazy wartime mission that
> probably wasn't very successful.
>
> The wires are real strange. At first glance they look like conventional
> 16ga stranded power wire, but they are more like insulated coax with no
> center conductor, just filler inside the braid.
>
> That's all I know. The dollar coin is used for scale, just to confuse
> everyone. Dollar coins aren't really used very much, except when given to
> me as change in my local parking garage :) The rope is about 18mm diamete=
r.
>
> Happy Friday, everybody!
>
> Bob
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