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Oakum is a preparation of tarred fibre used in shipbuilding for caulking or packing the joints of timbers in wooden vessels and the deck planking of iron and steel ships, as well as cast iron pipe plumbing applications. Oakum was at one time recycled from old tarry ropes and cordage, which were painstakingly unravelled and taken apart into fibre. This task of picking and preparation was a common penal occupation in prisons and workhouses. In modern times, the fibrous material used in oakum comes from virgin hemp or jute. The fibers are impregnated with tar or a tar-like substance, traditionally pine tar (also called 'Stockholm tar'), an amber-coloured pitch made from pine sap. Tar-like petroleum by-products can also be used for modern oakum. ''White oakum'' is made from untarred material. ==History== The word oakum derives from Middle English ''okome'', from Old English ''ācumba'', from ā- (separative and perfective prefix) + -cumba (akin to Old English ''camb'' comb)—literally "off-combings". Picking oakum was a common occupation in Victorian times in British prisons and workhouses. In 1862, girls under 16 at Tothill Fields Bridewell had to pick a day, and boys under 16 had to pick . Over the age of 16, girls and boys had to pick per day respectively.〔 The oakum was sold for £4 10s (£ in modern money) per hundredweight ().〔 At Coldbath Fields Prison, the men's counterpart to Tothill Fields, prisoners had to pick per day unless sentenced to hard labour, in which case they had to pick between of oakum per day.〔Mayhew & Binny (1862) p. 312.〕 In Herman Melville's novella ''Benito Cereno'', crew members of a slave ship spend their idle hours picking oakum. Charles Dickens's novel ''Oliver Twist'' mentions the extraction of oakum by orphaned children in the workhouse. The oakum extracted was for use on navy ships, and the instructor said that they were serving the country. ''The Innocents Abroad'', a novel by Mark Twain, also mentions in chapter 37 a "Baker's Boy/Famine Breeder" who eats soap and oakum, but prefers oakum, which makes his breath foul and teeth stuck up with tar. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「oakum」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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