When were plug 8 first invented?

I am trying to get a basic understanding of the chronology/order of what main styles of cuffs were around in Britain. I know the typical chain Darby cuff was around the 1860s. There are Irish 8 which have the Darby mechanism (which & when came first and second?) and plug 8 which I think is older than both those other ones, but I am not sure. Between that and nippers I'm just confused on when things were first made and what context were things used in eg "these were only used for this scenario" etc.

If you could enlighten me and everyone else who comes across this thread I'd appreciate it. I did a search but I could not find what I was looking for.

The earliest Darby I have is a (Thomas)Griffin, which dates it between 1780 and 1816. A push-key version should be older than the screw key version.

Griffin plug 8 would be same date as Griffin Darby, but single plug cuffs seem to date even earlier and lack a manufacturers mark, but they are sometimes dated, with an owners mark.

The Irish 8 would date from around 1916 onwards, as a guess - my earliest is probably a Froggatt or a John Ireland.

Then there are other variations of side key darby, side-snap 8 with screw-key and plug, and a few other cuff styles.

But darbies and plugs and irish were all made at the same time - before WW1 with Irish being the late arrival.
Paul

Very interesting. I did not know there were any Darby handcuffs before 1860. I thought they were invented around that time?

So plug 8 is a very very old design then. Glad I have a modern reproduction (KUB) of this mechanism in my collection. I doubt I will find a genuine old one in my price range.

PaulJDavies wrote: ↑

Nov 17, 2022

The earliest Darby I have is a (Thomas)Griffin, which dates it between 1780 and 1816. A push-key version should be older than the screw key version.
Griffin plug 8 would be same date as Griffin Darby, but single plug cuffs seem to date even earlier and lack a manufacturers mark, but they are sometimes dated, with an owners mark.

The Irish 8 would date from around 1916 onwards, as a guess - my earliest is probably a Froggatt or a John Ireland.
Then there are other variations of side key darby, side-snap 8 with screw-key and plug, and a few other cuff styles.
But darbies and plugs and irish were all made at the same time - before WW1 with Irish being the late arrival.
Paul

1916 is a good guess.
The Irish 8 goes back to 1909 that I can document and has to go back a few years before that.

This fairly common Dartmoor Prison Chainroom photo is known from 1909 and the grainy photos show a few Irish 8's on the wall.
If the cuffs were around 5 years old at the time the prison had them, 1904 could be realistic.

viewtopic.php?p=46120#p46120
I recalled this post which i had to search for  and  has an 1882 Irish 8. Similar in date of the Boer War heavy plug 8.

I suppose it makes sense that Irish 8 would be somewhat old. I have seen them now in the Hiatt 1904 catalogue. I am not sure what came first, Irish 8 or Darby, but since Plug 8 predates both, it would seem right that the Irish 8 might either be just before Darby handcuffs (a new mechanism for the same figure 8 style) or they went from plug 8 to Darby chain handcuffs and thought it would be a good idea to use the same mechanism on the rigid figure 8 design that had previously been using plug mechanism.