For certain tradespeople, there’s a need to accurately throw a rope over a great distance. Arborists use this Big Shot Throw Weight Launcher, an oversized slingshot, to get a rope over branches:
Contractors and roofers use the tool to fire rope over a house, for instance if they need to hoist a tarp up there:
The Big Shot has a range of about 100 feet. The tool below can go much further, thanks to, well, rocket science.
Imagine two ships side by side, one of them disabled. The other is there to tow it to safety. How do they get the tow line from one ship to another?
The answer is this Linethrower 250, a rocket-based tool created by Wescom Group, a UK-based manufacturer of maritime survival solutions.
The tool is designed to be used by one person, and its teardrop-shaped cross section is pretty form-follows-function. The large cylindrical portion contains a length of rope coiled around a spool. The smaller cylinder up top holds a rocket launching tube.
The user holds the handle with one hand to aim it, then uses the other hand to break the seal on the knob and rotate it.
This releases a spring-loaded mechanical striker, which then slams into a cap; the resultant spark ignites the propellant, firing the rocket, which trails the line behind it.
Here’s that in slow-mo:
It can carry the rope up to 250m (820 feet) away. The thin “pilot” rope itself isn’t strong enough to tow a ship; instead the heavier-duty tow line is attached to the pilot rope, and then the crew that fired the rocket pulls the tow line through the water and onto their ship.
The tool can also be used for rescue operations, say if a person is in the water and out of life-preserver-tossing range.
The reusable tool has a service life of nine years, with the rockets needing to be replaced every three.