While researching this article, several examples of statements that are commonly repeated as "facts", turned out to be myths or mistaken assumptions. By far, the biggest of these is about the origin of carabiners, as virtually all sources, including carabiner manufacturers, get it wrong. To make it easier, I have gathered them all here:
Wire cables were not invented in Germany. They had been made the same way over 1750 years earlier in the Roman Empire, using the same construction as ropes.
EDELRID did not originally invent kernmantel rope construction, though they may have sold it specifically for mountaineering first. It had been used for ropes and cables several decades earlier, and kernmantel rope was patented by Geo Gleistein & Sohn.
Otto "Rambo" Herzog did not invent or design or make carabiners, and was far from being the first climber to use them. He did not develop the climbing carabiner. The carabiners he bought and used were not the shape they are normally shown to be.
Carabiners were used for carbine and arquebus rifles 200 years before the Napoleonic wars, and did not originate in the Napoleonic wars.
Carabiners were used for horse tack for over 100 years before they were used to hold carbine rifles, and did not originate as a carbine rifle hook.
The earliest known carabiner to be sold commercially for climbing was a modern oval design, not a narrow pear-shape, and the oval design was sold in the 1920s not the 1930s. Carabiners were first sold for climbing in 1924, not 1921.
Carabiner was originally spelled with a "C" in German, and is still spelled with a "C" in some German speaking countries. It is actually correct and more appropriate to spell it with a "C" in English.
Wire ladders (using cables) were first used by British cavers, not Robert de Joly.
The Petzl Grigri was not the first auto-locking belay device. A similar device had been invented 100 years earlier in Germany.
Norbert Casteret used a maypole long before Fernand Petzl is supposed to have made the first one.
Lazarus Schopper was lowered manually into Propast Macocha (Macocha Abyss) on a boatswain's chair, and did not use a rope ladder.
Jean-Estéril Charlet-Straton did not invent abseiling or rappelling, or retrieving a rope. Descenders had existed for over 350 years, and body abseiling had existed for 400 years, before he ever slid down a rope using a technique that others had already used for centuries. Retrieving a rope had already been done by Edward Whymper.
Hans Dülfer did not invent the classic abseil, even though it is known as Dülfersitz in the USA.
Abseiling and rappelling were orignally different things, and the word rappelling is almost always used incorrectly.
Prusiking was originally invented for rope access, not for mountaineering or caving, and was widely used in many countries for centuries before cavers or mountaineers ever used it. It was not invented by Karl Prusik. However, vertical caving developments were critical to modern rope access.
Prusiking with friction hitches was not invented by Karl Prusik. E. Gérard developed it 3 years earlier.
The frog system was not originally invented by André "Ded" Meozzi. It was originally invented by Léon Pérot, and reinvented several other times first.
The Texas system was not originally invented by cavers from Texas. It was originally invented by steeplejacks from New York.
The inchworm system was not originally invented by Charley Townsend. It was originally invented by Ed. von Mengden.
Rope walking was not originally invented by American cavers. It was invented by Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim, reinvented by Robert Cockerell, reinvented in Europe, and used by French cavers long before American cavers.
What Americans call the "prusik method" was not actually developed or used by Karl Prusik, it was developed by E. Gérard (American myth).
The Jumar system was not invented by Adolph Jüsi and Walter Marti, and was not created for use with Jumars. It was originally invented by Karl Prusik, for use with Prusik knots.
French cavers used SRT for cave exploration long before American cavers did, and used advanced mechanical ascenders and descenders for caving, long before American cavers used SRT of any kind (American myth).
Cavers developed prusiking before mountaineers, and Karl Prusik was not initially instrumental in its development.
Henri "Kiki" Brenot and Pierre Chevalier were not the first cavers to try prusiking, but they were the first to use it in a cave.
Fernand Petzl did not use prusiking during the exploration of the Dent de Crolles.
Although French cavers developed SRT for caving first, they did not make much use of it, after its initial development.
William Franklin "Vertical Bill" Cuddington did not invent SRT. He was not even the first American caver to use SRT in caves, and was partly taught by other American cavers who had done it first (American myth).
Northern English cavers probably did not use abseiling or prusiking before other British regions, with Mendip cavers being the first known to use abseiling, and South Wales cavers being the first known to use prusiking.
French arborists were using ropes as a safety line for climbing (the earliest equivalent to SRT for arborists), long before Leeman F. "Lem" Strout (often mis-spelled Lem Stout) supposedly became the first person to do so. Leeman F. "Lem" Strout initially used ropes to hold paint buckets, not to climb trees, but may have been an early American user of ropes for arboriculture tree climbing (American arborist myth).
British and American arborists avoided using ropes to actively climb trees until about the same time that cavers started using SRT.
Arborists did not use fliplines until much later than arborists commonly claim. Fliplines are not one of the oldest methods of climbing trees, were not originally used with tree climbing spikes, but they do predate the use of SRT by arborists and lumberjacks (arborist myth).
Tyrolean traverses were not invented in the Tyrolean Alps, they were invented in China thousands of years before climbers used them. Even within climbing, the first use of a Tyrolean Traverse was not in the Tyrolean Alps.
Suspension syncope (harness hang syndrome) takes effect faster when you are standing, than when you are sitting in a sit harness.
There is absolutely no evidence whatsoever that China had swings (which inspired sit harnesses) before 200-500 CE, and the claim they had swings at the start of the iron age is based on myths supposedly written in medieval-era books that have since been lost, and subsequently stated as facts.
The boatswain's chair, which was used as a sit harness, almost certainly did not originate in sailing. It appeared in numerous other trades as an adaptation of the swing, and may have been used underground before it was used at sea.
The first parachute, which included a belay belt instead of a sit harness, was drawn by Francesco di Giorgio Martini, not Taccola.
Horse-shaped hanging seats (used as a sit harness) were used for at least a century with Ottoman merry-go-rounds before they are said to have appeared in Europe, and were not inspired by the European version of the cavalry carousel.
Steeplejacks used boatswain's chairs as a sit harness for at least 40 years, and probably a whole century, before the 1760s (steeplejack myth).
Thomas Kisbee did not invent the modern life ring (or lifebuoy). One was depicted several centuries earlier by Leonardo da Vinci, and Thomas Kisbee's design used a pair of oversized shorts fixed inside it as a sit harness.
Hundreds of descenders and a large number of ascenders already existed long before cavers or mountaineers decided to use SRT. They were not developed for caving or mountaineering.
The Jümar was not the first commercially available mechanical ascender. Mechanical ascenders had been commercially available in many countries for as much as 80 years before the Jümar was released, with non-commercial designs existing for around 400 years.
Petzl did not invent the Simple, Stop, or Basic ascender, though they did make small adjustments to the designs. The Simple was made by Bruno Dressler, the Stop was based on the BO.VE Diabolo, and the Basic was based on Bruno Dressler's Schtroumpf.
American cavers did not originally invent the rack. It was originally a Belgian device.
Hitches are knots that grip something. They don't have to fall apart just because there is nothing to grip. Some non-hitch knots fall apart more easily than hitches.
Werner Munter did not invent the Italian hitch, and was not responsible for the way it is used today. It was first used for shipping in Phoenicia, then as a way to tie up packages, then as a German body abseil, then Russian mountaineering, then as a way to make circus fences, then for shipping in Italy, then for German military mountain rescue abseiling, and then for belaying by Swiss and Italian climbers, all before Werner Munter ever used it.
The klemheist knot is stronger when pulled in reverse, not weaker, and is known as the Hedden knot in that direction.
Karl Prusik almost certainly did not originally invent the Prusik knot. It was already in use by sailors.
Serge Machard did not invent the klemheist knot, and was not the original inventor of the autoblock knot either. Both were already in use by sailors or well diggers, and Chet Hedden reinvented the klemheist knot.
E. Gérard wrote about the Gérard hitch in 1928, not 1922.
Neither Clarence Cook nor Larry Penberthy originally invented the helical knot. It had been used by W. H. Little in 1955 for caving, and well diggers had already used something very similar.
Jason Blake did not originally create the Blake's hitch. It was originally created by Heinz Prohaska.
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