where does the saying money for old rope come from?

Question

i know the answer but who will reply first that first right answer gets voted best answer

Answer 1

This saying originates from the days of public hangings. It was a perquisite of the hangman to keep the rope used to hang his 'customer'. The rope, however, was popular with the macabre crowds, so the hangman used to cut the rope up and sell it.

Answer 2

Money For Old Rope

Answer 3

I think it may originate from the practice of unpicking old rope to use as a filler to seal between the boards in the side of a ship. This is the same as the old prisoners ocupation of picking oakum.

I expect that as the "old rope" could be used for oakum, that it had a small residual value, hence the phrase, implying money for something otherwise worthless.

Answer 4

Rope made from hemp had a limited lifetime. When it wore out it was picked apart and recycled. It was used for caulking. Rope fibres (known as oakum) were hammered into the seams between planks of a ship and hot pitch was poured over it. This was done to waterproof the ship. Of course you got money for the old rope. The phrase came to mean money for anything (seemingly) worthless.

Answer 5

Victorian days when women were in imprisened for minor crimes,or in the workhouse, they were subjected to work up to six hours a day in total silence to unpick rope which was of no value what so ever. A form of punishment, It made theIr FINGERS BLEED like mad, can you imagine that. Six hours every day for up to 3 months The offenders had women guards watch over them like life guards in a swimming pool to make sure they didnt speak to each other. When that rope was unpicked it looked wirey and prickly. Dont know what it was used for, but somebody got paid. Hence.. MONEY FOR OLD ROPE. Probably the first recycling ever. So sad for all those women.

Answer 6

The Silent system. Under this system, based on Auburn Prison, New York, USA, prisoners could work, but monotonous and pointless work, in total silence. The work was:



Picking oakum (separating the strands of old ropes so that they could be used again - hence the saying "money for old rope")

Answer 7

The prison system. Prisoners were paid ine penny for every pond weight of oakum they produced. This was the stripping of old ships' ropes into fibres to be used in caulking ships. With time the meaning has changed.

Answer 8

People used to buy bits of rope used in public hangings...a nice lickle souvenir of a day out (they didn't used to sell pencil sharpeners at these sort of events).

Answer 9

when they hung people they sold the "old rope" the more notorious the crook theemore money they got