In the mid-1970s, I would occasionally visit a climbing shop in Sewickley, PA. I no longer remember its name. One thing I saw there was a variation on the carabiner brake bar scheme, where a bent metal rod substituted for the carabiner. There were two versions: one open and one welded. The shop closed before I bought any, to my lasting regret. Finally, after three decades of kicking myself, I finally made my own version. The first one was particularly rough, so I eventually made a second. Although not visible in the photo, Version B has a small gap where the two frame ends close. One of the original Sewickley descenders had this as well, and there was enough flex in the frame to allow the brake bar to "snap" shut. Mine does not have very much flex, but I was able to tap the notch in the brake bar closed enough to get a good "snap." In use, the bar ride up to cover the slot.
I don't have much temptation to make this my primary rappel device, but it is an interesting historical curiosity. It has one major advantage over using brake bars on aluminum carabiners - the steel oval in the Sewickley descender does not wear as fast as aluminum carabiners do.
In Rappelling (2nd ed., p. 6-83), Tom Martin shows the Coe Descender made by Penticton Engineering. It is essentially the same thing, and came in two welded versions, with regular and long brake bars. I'm interested in obtaining original, so if you can help, please contact me.
MiscDesc946.html/070318
©2007, Gary D. Storrick