The main concern of this book is to present the methods used to calculate the most important rope quantities as well as to explain how they are applied by means of a large number of calculations as examples. The book, based on the most important chapters of the German book DRAHTSEILE, has been kept up to date and the recent developments have been taken into account. The first section of the book deals with the different types of wire rope and their component parts. The second section looks into the effects of wire ropes under tensile forces (stationary ropes). The third section takes a look at the wire ropes under bending and tensile force (running ropes). This book is an important source for everybody working with wire ropes - the construction engineers, operators and supervisors of machines and installations running on wire ropes.