Page 164 - J. C. Turner - History and Science of Knots

154 History and Science of Knots

and more and more use was made of anchorages , initially with just a turn or
two round natural rock knobs and chockstones . When knots were used, they
were just standard hitches which I will not discuss further. Knots and rope
techniques developed in pure rock climbing were, when suitable, adopted in
general mountaineering and vice versa.
Some caves are more or less horizontal and can be explored by scram-
bling and crawling only, without need of ropes. Other caves have vertical
sections; at first tackled with ladders and winches and needing only very basic
knotting. Yet other caves include steep and difficult terrain ; rock climbing
techniques were adopted, often with minor modifications for the different con-
ditions. However , it was a long time before cavers developed any special knots
not already in use by climbers.

Fig. 6. Bowline and Half Hitch Fig. 7. Figure Eight Tie
The second report of the Special Committee of the Alpine Club [2] gives
the (first account of the Bowline used for climbing (Fig. 6). Note that the
running end is secured to the nearby leg of the loop with a Half Hitch. All
early climbing manuals that mention the Bowline stress the need for this, and
all manuals published after the introduction of nylon rope stress the necessity
for securing the end in some way, as discussed later, but some manuals written
between the Wars omit this point. However Wright and Magowan [34], in one
of the best accounts of climbing knots ever written , discuss the tendency of the
Bowline to `spring loose', of the end to `spring out', and recommend having
a long end, which is twisted round the adjacent leg of the loop several times
and fastened with one or two Half Hitches. They recommended that the twists
and Half Hitches should have a handedness opposite to that of the turn of the
Bowline. The Committee [2] also recommended the Fishermans Loop (Fig. 4)
for a mid loop and the Fishermans Knot (Fig. 3 ) for temporarily bending two
ropes of the same size together, but a Figure Eight Tie (Fig. 7) for joining
two ropes for prolonged security. This Figure Eight Tie is made by the follow-
through or reweaving technique , making a simple Figure Eight Knot in the
end of one rope and then following all of its turns with the other end. This
method of tying is used for quite a number of climbing knots (see later), though
it is uncommon in general knotting. They also tested several other knots, said
to be `likely to be of interest and importance to mountaineers', but it is not