Early mountaineers and rock climbers wrapped their ropes around arms and body to secure each other when out in the mountains. The system worked fine, but could be pretty cruel if a lead climber took a big fall with many a tale of rope burnt hands and ripped flesh! A German, Franz Sticht, invented one of the first belay plates in the 1960’s and there followed a multiplicity of versions in the following decades, one of which we have here in the collection. Nicknamed the ‘bucket’,this particular version was the brainchild of American climber, Jeff Lowe, and a few were imported into the UK in the late 1980’s by a company called Dark Peak in Oldham, England. The generic term for this type of belay device is a ‘tuber’ and some are called an ATC – Air Traffic Control! This particular one was kindly donated by our good friend, Alan Fyffe, pioneer Scottish climber and Mountain Guide.