The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-10-25
NEEDLES, PINS AND BUTTONS.
QUEER PATENTS IN EVERYDAY
ARTICLES.

Ancient People Were Familiar with
Pins and NeedIes-Safety-Pin $500
Years AgO-NeedIes and Pins of
savages-Hatpins and Hairpins.
buttons and Some of the Strange
Material Used For Making Them.
From the Hartford Times.
There is a rush in pin patents-not-or-
binary, pins, be it understood, but hat pins
and safety pins. Applications for exclu-
slye rights in new styles of hair pins aver
age fifteen a week; yet there is not a salts
factory pattern on the market That is
why inventors are still trying to suit the
women-folks on this point. There is moth
ing the matter with the conventional safe
~ pin, though ingenious persons are con-
tinually trying to improve on it. 1t was
lust what it is now $500 years ago. Plenty
of specimens, with the familiar spring and
catch, have been dug up out of the ruins
of old Rome and still more ancient Etrus-
can cities Patents, by the way, are often
Granted by mistake for things contrived in
times well-nigh prehistoric. That is bound
to occur now and then; but not long ago
one of the examiners turned down an i'm
provement on a threshing machine on ac-
count of a description of something sImi-
lar in the book of Job.
The hairpin is another puzzle. The con-
trivance in its present state is unsatisfac-
tory; it does not hold the hair. So long
ago as 1857 the spiral pin was devised for
this purpose; the wavy hairpin is still old
er, Neither of them does the work to
please the women. Some hairpins have
been made rough, and others wriggly in
various ways but they are inefficient. The
latest pattern, patented last June, has it's
points covered with peculiar woody fiber,
to keep it from slipping. The oldtime
question as to what become of all the pins
might well apply to hairpins also There
is no answer, and it might be made the
subject of most interes ting essay on the
inevitable disappearance of useful things
which have small value. The United States
treasury manufactures 100000 pennies
every year, to take the place of lost cop
pers.
The consumption of such trifiing articles
of everyday use is simply amazing. 1t is
known that the factories of Birmingham,
Eng, produce 35,OOOO0O pins daily. Each
machine turns out 200 finished pins min
ute, cutting the sections of wire, fatten-
ing the ends for heads by means of little
hammers, and inserting them into the pa
pers which are to hold exactly so many
apiece, in a given number of rows. Hardly
is the newest type of printing press, which
prints, folds and binds a magazine ready
for delivery to subscribers, more wonder
81 ful than the mechanical contrivance that
turns out papers of pins all day long at the
rate Of so many per hour. Its operation
gives one notion that the human animal
b Is himself a creator on a small scale,
During the reign of Henry VIII there
was a law to the effect that mo pins
should be put on sale which were not
doube-headed, soldered fast to the shank.
well smoothed, filed and sharpened." I'm
der Charles, the pin-makers' corporation
was founded in London. Those were prim-
alive days, when an average workman
might not turn out more than a dozen
pms in day. In 1924 an American, L. w.
Wright, contrived machine that would
make perfect pin by a single revolution
Of wheel. Within the last quarter of
century the progress of invention in this
Inc has been very rapid, and to-day a
pound Of pins, representing $1,000 pins, is
SOLD for from 80 cents to rs cents, accord
III ing to quality.
There are good many queer kinds of
pms chronological pins, for example,
are expressly made for the use of bug
hunters, professional and anna teur who
employ them for sticking insects in boxes
win cork bottoms. They are japanned, to
prevent them from rusting, and they cost
SL'5 an ounce. One ounce represents 1000
pms so it will be seen that they are
pretty costly. All of them are manufac-
tured in Germany Perhaps the most re-
of 10.
mat tastens a boutenniere and at the
sdHie llme furnishes a water-filled recep-
tacIe Tor the flower, which is thus kept
Hesh' There are ever so many contrivan-
eeS 10 prevent scarf pins from getting
a"dy and one of these is a safetypin
/ locking
but there is no use in trying to give a list
the queer inventions in this line There
dn ornamental pin for the hat, which
aries a revolving butterfly on a pivot
H9 pattern of hatpln has a spiral screw,
Hu Is supposed to hold the hair of the
carer as a shirt-stud of similar design
Halhtalns grip on the shirt. A hairpin
ias one prong that is detachable and turns
l'o penholder when required Strange
say the origin of pins is enveloped in
XnSslery. Whether the ancient Egyptians
Seu them or not is uncertain. A primi-
ye sort of pin is used by the Alaskan Els
VINO employ 1t to sew up a wound
Killed seal, tying it up with a string of
lew SO as not to lose the blood.
ms and needles go together naturally;
ne secures temporarily what the other
axes permanently fast. The tools which
wages use for sewing are very interest
49, me needle with an eye is unknown in
aVagery The Eskimo have bone needles
lth eyes, but it Is believed that they ac-
lred the suggestion from whalers and
hlte fur traders. The primitive needle
Ia 'he large bone of the wing of a big fly
y Dlrd The wing bone of the wild goose
lu wild swan is thus utilized by the Es-
mo The humerus of the eagle is ex-
emely hard and very suitable for the
lrpose.
Inc large upper joint of the bone affords
convenient grip, and the straight part
afpened on rock is almost as hard as
needle of steel. The savage woman
instantly rubs this sort of needle upon
one as our grandmothers used an em-
y-oag. For bigger needles the North
herlcan aborigines have sometimes ems
Huyed the slender shinbone of the deer.
sh-bones are sometimes utilized as nee
rs put In tropical South America thorns
preferred by the savages, who make
scanty clothing of bark-cloth. In