Узел цеппелина: история, применение и особенности завязывания

Bend knot

A zeppelin bend (also known as the Rosendahl Bend) is an end to end joining knot formed by two symmetrically interlinked overhand knots. It is stable, secure, and highly resistant to jamming. It is also resistant to the effects of slack shaking and cyclic loading.

The commonly accepted name for this knot stems from its alleged use on airships: a zeppelin being a rigid bodied type of airship, and Charles Rosendahl being the US Navy officer who allegedly insisted it be used on airships under his command. Dr Camplin asserts that a rolling hitch (#1735) is a more likely method used by ground handlers to join ropes. It is also likely that a 'toggle' was used to connect mooring lines with fixed eye splice terminations. Dr Camplin's report was published in issue #60 of 'Dirigible' in 2010. Historical records now point to Bob Thrun as the first to publish his discovery in 1966 – naming it simply 'An easily untied bend'. Bob Thrun was well known in the caving community, and a remarkable innovator. Despite being declared by many sources as a nearly ideal rope joining knot, it is not very well known: it is not included in the chapter covering 'bends' (end to end joining knots) in the original publication of The Ashley Book of Knots. However, at illustration #582, Ashley identifies a 'lanyard knot' – which is remarkable because it is a blueprint for tying the Zeppelin bend. Budworth identifies #582 as a "blimp knot", because he recognized the geometric similarity with the Zeppelin bend. With the hindsight of the qualities of the zeppelin bend, a novel use of ABOK#582 is as an alternative to butterfly loop, to isolate a worn section of a long rope where the knot is tied such that the worn section is isolated in the middle of a Z folded central (double loop crossing) rope section. The knot will then look like a double slipped zeppelin bend with no ends sticking out.

Every end to end joining knot, or 'bend', has four corresponding eye knots. The usual method of creating an eye knot from a bend is by linking a tail with a Standing Part (SPart). Eye knots formed by linking of the two tails or the two SParts are usually of less utility due to the loading profile thus created. The Zeppelin loop is quite useful and is also jam resistant, being formed by linking a tail to an SPart. An example of a Zeppelin loop is found at this website: https://knots. neocities. org/zeppelinloop. html

Having on both ends, an elbow of the end rather than the end itself, cross the knot center, gives a single or double slipped version. It is still easier to untie by pulling the opposing bridges away from each other rather than by pulling the slipped end(s). The slipped Zeppelin bend can also be locked by pushing ends respectively through the eye of its own slip on the opposite side.

If instead of two ends, one forms two bights of the same rope, then three reliable loops are created; a loop at each of the two bights, and a third formed by the rope section connecting the two bights. These versions also have the same advantage with less curvature nearest the main ropes, thus having a higher break strength and being as easy to untie. This is also a way to shorten the rope, and/or to isolate up to three weak rope sections near each other.