Security
Testing has shown the water knot to slip very slightly, but very consistently, with each load and unload cycle. In tests using 9/16 in (14.3 mm) tubular webbing, repeated loading and unloading with 250 lbs (113 kg) caused one of the 3 in (76 mm) tails to work back into the knot in just over 800 loading cycles. When the water knot was statically loaded with 200 lbs (91 kg) no slipping was observed. These results validate the need to leave long tails and inspect water knots before each use.
Although used in climbing, the water knot is considered unsafe. According to Walter Siebert, several deaths have been reported due to failure of this knot. In Germany the knot is also named knot of death.
Read more about this topic: Water Knot
Famous quotes containing the word security:
“When kindness has left people, even for a few moments, we become afraid of them as if their reason had left them. When it has left a place where we have always found it, it is like shipwreck; we drop from security into something malevolent and bottomless.”
—Willa Cather (1876–1947)
“To have in general but little feeling, seems to be the only security against feeling too much on any particular occasion.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)
“I think the girl who is able to earn her own living and pay her own way should be as happy as anybody on earth. The sense of independence and security is very sweet.”
—Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906)