Safety pin: The interesting backstory of its invention
Imagine you are out for dinner dressed up in a nice shirt and one of its front buttons falls out. The first thing your eyes look for is a safety pin. You ask around if someone has it and voila, you got lucky! But, do you know the person behind the invention of this rather unnoticed essential? It was Walter Hunt, an American mechanic who happened to make this discovery by sheer accident.
The accidental discovery
Sitting at his desk trying to figure out a way to pay off some of his debts, Hunt was just casually playing around with some wire. To his surprise, he discovered that when coiled, this wire could clasp to itself and unclasp again. And that is what led to the birth of a safety pin in April 1849. But what was it meant for? The basic purpose of Hunt’s invention served was to fasten pieces of fabric or clothing together.
Hunt’s safety pin: Why was it unique?
Hunt’s invention wasn’t a totally new idea. But with variations on clothing pins going all the way back to the 14th century BC, it was a massive improvement on anything that came before.
Well, for one, it was the first pin to have a clasp and spring action. The clasp at the end kept anyone from getting poked (hence the name) and the coiled wire design gave enough spring to keep the pin locked in place even as the person wearing it moved around. Secondly, apart from the design being extremely functional, the whole thing was also incredibly easy and cheap to manufacture.
Hunt and his inventions
But you would be surprised to know that Hunt sold the patent of this significant discovery to W.R. Grace and Company for a mere four hundred dollars as he badly needed some money to pay off his debt. Little did he know that in the years to follow that Grace would make millions of dollars in profits from his invention.
In fact, this was the fate he had almost with each of his inventions. Yes, the safety pin wasn’t the only thing Hunt invented. There were various unique and meaningful items on the list which could have made him extremely wealthy and famous, but which never did because of his proclivity to sell his patents immediately and move on to his next great invention.
The first safety pin
If you thought Hunt’s safety pin was the first such product, you would be wrong. In fact, the very first pins used for clothing date back to the Mycenaeans during the 14th century BC and were called fibulae.
The first design of the fibulae was a kind of violin bow that looked similar to the modern-day safety pin. It had a low flat arch with its body running parallel to the pin resembling a violin bow. The bow could take any shape - round, square, or flat and ribbon-like in cross-section.