The idea for a ‘figure of eight’ in mountaineering terms seems to have stemmed from a thing called a Kelly’s Eye which is part of the tackle on a fishing boat. We are not sure exactly how its used on a boat since the fishing manual is not helpful:- “The small ring is connected to the back strop through a shackle. The other ring is for jamming the figure of ‘8’ link……8 is also called stop link/ stopper link.” There’s some evidence that a guy called Max Pfrimmer created an ‘8’ in the 1940’s and Schuster’s mountain shop in Munich had a version in the 1960’s. George Fischer, in the English Lake District, produced a wire version in 1963 and a special steel version a couple of years later – you will find both elsewhere in the collection. We do know that some of Scotland’s West Coast Rescue Teams started using Kelly’s Eye’s for stretcher lowering in the 1960’s, a welcome relief from the body belays of old. Interstingly, the Kelly’s Eye along with the Clog figure of ‘8’s we have here in the collection worked well with the hawser laid ropes of the era, some other ‘8’s did not.