The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1869-05-02
ARTS, SCIENCES, ETC.

The Inuention and Use of Pins.-Pins, as
now used, are of comparatively modern
invention. Iron pins were first introduced
into England in 1460; finer ones, OF brass,
being first brought from France by the
beautiful Catherine Howard, one of his
wives whom the "great" Henry VIII. be-
headed But though introduced by
queen, and doubtless at first an article
exclusively applied to aristoeratic uses,
they soon became q meas9re OF va1ue
worth q pin is a. proverb which we lind
in use soon after their introduction.
Thomas Tusser, who wrote about 1850,
writing of a not very reputable character
says RS ~ 49, Il seAl NJ
His fetch is to aatter, to get what he can:
His purpose once gotten, n pin for thee then.
And Shakespeare makes Hamlet show his
utter indifference to life by saying ,t,4r
II do not set my life at pins fee.'
Pins were first mentioned as an article OF
commerce in a statute OF 1853 FROM u
law passed in the reign of Henry the Eighth,
we find it decreed that "no person shati put
to sale any pins but only such as shall be
tdouble-headed and have the heads soldered
fast to the shanks of the pins, we'll smooth,
ed. the shanks we'll shapen, the points we'll
and round filed, canted and sharpened." "A
pin possessing these qualities would not be
| q bad pin even now. -.
Although pins are of such modern an
| yeution. there is evidence that articles Tor
fastening clothes have existed from remotest
antiquity, but very unlike the pm. In tue
| museums which have been formed ouG Oh
ruins of Herculaneum and Pompeh' OF
Uriconium in England, we fnd sSe"eIs "
| bone. of brass of silver, of gold, whlch
! werg used for this purpose: 4ta-tse
EaetsFese4.tatie of tAe-life- of the people
found in the Egyptian hierogiyphlcs we
discern the means which they employed
for the like necessary purpose ouS no,
where do we meet with modern pm; IL
| STRUTS illustrations we find ribbons, looP
holes, laces with points and tags, clasps
hooks and eyes, of every form, SIZE anu
| variety of use and often turned TO very
extraordinary and surprising accouII III ~
completing the toilette OF the ancient p '
and the adornment of the ancient b.aSu'
/ The modern pin would have been of lACCle
use in sustaining that towering head-dress'
in fastening that wonderful cloak, N
keeping uD those curiously slashed TUNES,
or in retaining the stiff HPFightness of that
extraordinary ruff. After pins came into
use those eccentricities of costume and
| fashion were destined to give place to
other fashions, in which, perhaps, the
modern pin has played tricks as fantastic as
its many substitutes in the olden time.
When Adam and Eve, after their fall, but
before their expulsion from Eden, made
themselves aprons of fg-leaves, they
doubtless used the thorn In the construction
of their first garments.
\ Pins were worth dollasa paper in 1912
and very poor at that. Then it took
4 fourteen processes to make a pin; now only
one machine, which finishes and sticks them
into the paper. Saving pins, half Q
century ago, was as Important as saving
cents and hence the habit then formed
sticks to many elderly gentlemen whose
coat sleeves are ornamented with rows Of
them rescued from loss. Then it was that
1pin money" had significance, but nov
tie cost Of pins is not n twentieth part AZ
great as the cost of perfumery. 1t is es
fimated that from seven to ten tons of pint
arr made in the United States each week
The seven wonders of the world were
the Pyramids of Egypt, the Hanging Gar
dens of Semiramis at Babylon, the templ'
of Diana at Ephesus, the statue of Jupiter
ot; Athens by Phidias, the Mausoleum o
Halicarnassus, the Colossus of Rhodes, anC
the Pharos of Alexandria.
solid iron column viii sustain create
load than a hollow, iron column of the SAM
| length and diameterj but solid irol
column will not sustain as great load a
/ a hollow iron column of the same weigh
: and length.