The Mummery tent is a compact, lightweight tent without a bottom or with a separate litter bottom, invented and first used in the 1880s by Albert Frederick Mummery (1855–1895) and named after him. A.F. Mummery was one of the first British climbers, made many ascents and came up with a tent for his high-altitude expeditions, in which light weight equipment is of great importance.
Content
Background
The first tent, designed specifically for mountaineering, was the Whimper tent , created in the 1860s. That tent weighed about 9 kg , was mounted on four racks 2 m long each, and was suitable only for numerous expeditions such as those that its inventor Edward Wimper (1840–1911) conducted in the Alps in those years.
Unlike Whimper, Mummery preferred small expeditions without the participation of professional mountain guides and porters , and he needed a tent of smaller size and weight, which he designed and manufactured in the period from 1888 to 1892 [2] [3] [4] .
Design
In the book "Mountaineering" ( Eng. Mountaineering ), published in 1892, its author Clinton Thomas Dent ( Eng. Clinton Thomas Dent ), a contemporary of Alberta Mummery, provides a detailed description of the design of the tent [5] . The Mummery tent is a gable tent with low side walls, very similar to modern camping tents - “houses”, but usually without a bottom. But in those days, oiled silk served as the material for the roof and walls of the tent. These tents were made in different sizes, but the most common was a double tent 1.8 × 1.2 m [5] .
In the 1880s, long (1.2 ... 1.4 m) ice axes were developed on the basis of early alpenstock stocks [6] .
Mummery came up with the revolutionary idea to use these ice axes instead of tent racks - to install one ice ax from each end and secure them with guy ropes. This allowed us to make a tent weighing less than one kilogram (the mass of ice axes is not included - they are taken on a mountain hike regardless of the tent). A model of the Mummery tent with a bottom (floor) and pegs, the mass of which was 1.6 kg [5] [7], was also developed . Unlike Wimper’s tent with a built-in bottom, the Mummery tent’s bottom was a separate part and could not be used at all to relieve weight.
Production
Albert Mummery designed and manufactured tents for his own non-commercial needs, and did not try to organize serial production of goods - this was undertaken by the British company Benjamin Edgington in 1892 [3] . Parsons, a former executive director of Karrimor , noted that “... such a tent design was perfect, and it, made of silk or tarpaulin, actually became the emblem of high-altitude mountain camps until the 1950s " [Approx. perev. 1] [8] .
Mummery tents were issued until 1968 [9] .
Continued use and development based on
It has always been a mystery to me why other climbers in the Alps do not use such compact tents. For a long time, most of the small “huts” were disgusted, while the free life possible in camping did not add much charm to mountain expeditions. Having tried it so many times in the Himalayas, on Skye , in Norway, in the Canadian Rockies and in Switzerland - of course, I can be biased - but even if I have no chance to conquer the Alpine mountain peaks of the first class, I will still come back here, to live this lazy, charming - and even not respected - life in a tent near snow, ice and pine trees, where it smells of smoke from a fire; I’ll just lie all day among flowers and meadows, listen to the wind, look at the sky and at the huge silent peaks of the mountains. Original text Why there are not more mountaineers who take small tents to the Alps is always to me a mystery. For long ago most of the huts have become abominations, whilst the free life that is afforded by camp life adds a very great charm to mountain expeditions. Having tried it so often in the Himalaya, in Skye, in Norway, in the Canadian Rocky Mountains, and Switzerland, perhaps I may be biassed, but even if I never again had a chance of climbing a first-class peak in the Alps, I would return there to live the lazy, delightful, disreputable life in a tent, near the ice and the snows and the pine woods, to smell the camp fire, lie on my back all day amidst the grass and the flowers, listening to the wind, and looking at the sky and the great silent peaks. - From Collie's Climbing on the Himalaya and Other Mountain Ranges , 1902 [10] |
In the Himalayas, the tents of Mammeri were first used in 1892, when Martin Conway took them on an expedition to Karakoram [4] [11] .
In 1895, Albert Mummery, John Collie and Geoffrey Hastings went on an expedition to Nangaparbat - this was the first known attempt to climb the eight-thousander and the last expedition of Mummery: from it he did not return alive. Later, John Collie with nostalgia recalled that expedition - and those small and light silk tents [10] .
William and Fanny Workman studied the Karakoram glaciers in 1908, and Fanny was photographed at the entrance to her tent, which was a modified Mummery tent [12] [note 1] .
In 1920, climber Harold Raeburn proposed to improve the construction of the Mummery tent: to make an attached bottom; he also stated that the ice axes are too short to be used as tent racks. Therefore, Reborn recommended that two light bamboo sticks 0.3 m long be attached to ice axes [14] . The 1921 British Intelligence Expedition to Chomolungma used two such tents in East Rongbuk camps: they were at the beginning and at the end of the final stage of the expedition: climbing the Northern Saddle [15] .
Translator Notes
- ↑ original English "... as a general design it was ideal and the tent, whether in canvas or silk, virtually became an emblem of high-altitude camps until the 1950s"
Explanation
- ↑ Essays about their 1906 expedition mention flannel linings and sewn-in bottoms at tents [13] .
Notes
- ↑ Dent, Clinton Thomas. Mountaineering . - 2. - Longman, Green, 1892. - P. 63.
- ↑ Parsons, Mike; Rose, Mary B. Lead-User Innovation and the UK Outdoor Trade since 1850 // Business and Economic History: journal. - Business History Conference, 2009. - Vol. 7 . Archived May 12, 2013.
- ↑ 1 2 Gear Timezone. Innovation Chronology . Innovation for Extremes . Date of treatment August 7, 2014. Archived October 11, 2013.
- ↑ 1 2 Parker, Philip. Himalaya: The Exploration and Conquest of the Greatest Mountains on Earth . - Anova Books, Nov 30, 2012 .-- ISBN 1844862380 .
- ↑ 1 2 3 Dent, Clinton Thomas. Mountaineering . - 2. - Longman, Green, 1892. - P. 62–64.
- ↑ Dent, Clinton Thomas. Mountaineering . - 2. - Longman, Green, 1892. - P. 68.
- ↑ Bruce, Charles G. The Passing of Mummery (Neopr.) // Himalayan Journal . - 1931. - T. 3 .
- ↑ Parsons, Mike C. Invisible on Everest: innovation and the gear makers / Mike C. Parsons, Mary B. Rose. - Philadelphia, PA: Norhern Liberties Press, 2003 .-- P. 64. - ISBN 978-0970414359 .
- ↑ Parsons, Mike C. Invisible on Everest: innovation and the gear makers / Mike C. Parsons, Mary B. Rose. - Philadelphia, PA: Norhern Liberties Press, 2003 .-- P. 63. - ISBN 978-0970414359 .
- ↑ 1 2 Collie, J. Norman. Climbing on the Himalaya and Other Mountain Ranges . - David Douglas, 1902. - P. 83, 109, 182.
- ↑ Conway, William Martin. Climbing and Exploration in the Karakoram Himalayas . - T. Fisher Unwin, 1894 .-- P. 168.
- ↑ Workman, William Hunter. The Call of the Snowy Hispar / William Hunter Workman, Fanny Bullock Workman. - Charles Scribner's Sons, 1911 .-- P. 113.
- ↑ Workman, William Hunter. Peaks and Glaciers on the Nun Kun / William Hunter Workman, Fanny Bullock Workman. - Constable & Co, 1909. - P. 97.
- ↑ Raeburn, Harold. Mountaineering Art . - Frederick Stokes, 1920 .-- P. 247.
- ↑ Davis, Wade. Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory, and the Conquest of Everest. - Random House, 2012 .-- P. 356. - ISBN 978-0099563839 .