Though there is a little confusion about the spelling, it seems that a Mr Hiat(t) started producing prisoner’s handcuffs, felon’s leg irons, gang chains and ‘n***** collars’ in Birmingham around 1780. Fortunately, the leg irons, gang chains and collars were soon consigned to history, though Hiatt as a company survived for over 200 years as one of Britain’s, and the world’s, leading providers of handcuffs. The factory closed in 2008, though it seems ‘Hiatt’ still survives under new ownership since Hiatt products are still available in 2013.

Unsurprisingly, for a company that specialised in high quality steel restraint devices, they diversified a little at some point to produce pitons and karabiners. We don’t have any direct information of when this came about, but the early karabiners seemed to have appeared in the late 1950s with the British Mountaineering Council approving the large ‘D’ shaped karabiner in 1963.

The two we have here in the collection are a wee bit of an enigma as the maker’s stamp is spelt differently to the usual, (HIAIT) see pic. above. We’re fairly sure that they are HIATTs though as in the advert above. We’d be pleased to know from anyone who knows differently.