The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1898-10-15
THE AGE OF PINS.
They We're Used In Some Form
When the World Was Young.


W0o In the Last Century ana Tn0y
We're Made Of Finely
Twisted wire.
Pins are, as the saying goes, as old az
the hills. In some form or another they
have been in existence ever since our
first parents clothed themselves in fig
leaves which grew wild in the garden OF
Eden. AS matter of fact, pins claim
a very high antiquity, the earliest form
being the natural thorn, which is still
used to some extent by the peasant
women of upper Egypt. In prehistoric
times pins were also made OF the small
bones of fish and animals.
Among thc remains of the lake DWELL
ers OF Europe have been found bronze
pins and bronze brooches, in which the
pins form the prominent feature. many
of which are highly ornamented and
very beautiful. A few copper and one
iron pin have also been found. 1t is
estimated that 10, 900 pins have been col
lected at the lacustrinc station of Switz-
erlaud alone. A few of these pins have
double stems and were probably used as
hairpins. Three have been found at
Peschicre, which are exactly the same
in form as the safety pin of the present
time. Among the single stem pins are
many ingenious devices for preventing
the spike from passing entirely through
the cloth or other material it is used for
fastening together. Many of them are
30 formed that they are thicker in some
places than in others. A large number,
both of bone and bronze, have the head
formed of a loose ring passed through
an eye in the pin. A few of them have
the appearance of the scarf-pin now in
use. In Egypt pins with gold heads
have been discovered, while in ancient
Rome bronze pins and bone hair-pans
with ornamental heads have been dis
covered among relics of Pompeii.
In England the ordinary domestic pin
had become in the fifteenth century an
article of sufficient Importance to war
rant legislative notice. An act of par
lament passed in 1913. prohibited the
importation of pins. AS a necessity OF
the toilet pins were introduced into
England in the latter part OF the
fifteenth century by Catherine Howard,
queen of Henry VIII, who received
them from France. Very good pins
were made at this period of brass, but
q large portion of them were made OF
iron, which were blanched and sold for
brass pins. In order to prevent this i'm
position upon the good people of Eng
land parliament in 1543 passed an act
providing that mo person shall put on
sale any pins but such as shall be
double-headed and have the heads
soldered fast to the shanks of the pins
well smoothed, the shanks well shaped
the point well rounded, filed, canted and
sharpened.'
England depended upon France for
it's supply of pins until 1926, when John
Tilsby introduced the manufacture into
Gloucestershire. His business grew to
such an extent that it is said he gave en-
ployment to about / 800 persons; at any
rate, his pins-Stroud pins, as they
were were called-gained a high reputa-
ton. In 1886 the manufacture was in.
troduced into Bristol and Birmingham
the latter place ultimately becoming
the great center of the industry.
Pins in America made their first ap-
pearance during the last century. In
ITS prize was offered to the colonists
of Carolina who introduced the first
native pins and needles. During the
war of 1912, when, owing to the restric-
tions upon commerce, the price of pins
rose to one dollar q paper, the manu-
facture was actually started in the
United States, but does not seem to have
met with success, as the enterprise was
soon abandoned. The industry was not
fairly started in this country until ths
year 1886.
The early pins in this country were
made with globular heads OF fin'
twisted wire, made separately and Sc
cured to the shank by compression from
a falling block and die. These old pins
had the misfortune of often parting
with their heads. It was to overcome
this difficulty that the attention OF the
carly inventors was directed. The
solid-headed pin in common use to-day
took the place of the old form about
1s4o.-Brooklyn Eagle.