Objects Database

Fisher Figure of Eight Descender

Accession Number

492.2008.1

Object Name

Fisher Figure of Eight Descender

Created

25/11/2008

Creator

Hermione Cooper

Accession Date

25/11/2008

Brief Description

Special steel figure of eight abseil device

Materials

Special steel

Dimensions

10.5(l) x 7.5(w)cms

Number Of Objects

1

Colour

gold

Maker

Fisher

Object Production Place

UK

Provenance

Cumbrian mountaineer, Outward Bound Instructor and Mountain Rescuer, George Fisher, opened his first ‘Outdoor Shop’ in Keswick, English Lake District, in 1957. Fishers is still there in 2022, though under new ownership since George headed off to the big gear shop in the sky some moons ago.
Always on the lookout for good, innovative equipment, George, also had a creative streak bringing new ideas to the ever growing outdoor market and one of his novel innovative ideas was the figure of 8 descender we have here, an improvement on an earlier version which you’ll find elsewhere in the collection.
First appearing in 1965 the advert opposite conveniently gives us all the details, though the ‘made of a special steel’ has caused a wee problem since we thought brass, were told bronze but think we’d better leave it at ‘special steel’
George almost certainly had these made by a local engineering company but unfortunately, we don’t know which one.
These abseil devices were some of the first to appear on the market, and we have good evidence to show that the idea came from a piece of fishing tackle used on North Sea Trawlers called a Kelly’s Eye.
Scottish Mountain Rescue Teams were using them to control stretcher lowering in the early 1960’s.
We have a couple of Kelly’s Eyes in the collection…check them out or buy a North Sea Trawler manual!

Acquisition Date

25/11/2008

Condition Check Date

28/04/2009

Rules

Spectrum : UK Museum documentation standard, V.3.1 2007

Modified

28/04/2009

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