The Parker post., 1913-08-16
ORIGIN OF THE PIN
Adjunct of Everyday Life of
Great Antiquity.
Ia Crudest Form IL Was Doubtless
Natural Thorn-Maehins Now Used
- Make Thorn the Invention Of
Massachusetts, Man.

From the earliest times the pin has
peen an adjunct Of every day life. In
t. crudsst form 1t WAS doubtless u
natural thorn Of the sort still used as
1 fastening by the peasant women OF
Upper Egypt The name itself goes
Far toward indicating the origin. spina
being. of course. the Latin for thorn.
while the spina christi Ia the great
horn tree. Centuries ago the Welsh
ased "pindraem. thorns scraped and
dried, for fastening their clothing,
while even today In England gypsies
blaekthorn for this purpose. The Red
indians and the central Asian tribes
have the same habit
After this primary form Of pin came
the bone pin Of the prehistoric age
an instrument made from the bone
Of some animal, split and then rubbed
20 point. From this emerged the
bronze pin of the bronze age, polished
and finely tempered, and it was during
The bronze period that the safety pin
came into being. The first efforts in
the latter direction were bOw-shaped
and awkward, but these soon fined
down to a virtual replica of the pin
seen today. There we're also long sti-
,etto pins with ribbed handles, many
Of which have been found In
Egyptian deposits of 400 B. c.,
and in Cyprus and Sparta. Need
70
dangerous weapons in violent hands,
apropOs of which Herodotus tells a
strange story Of the disastrous ex-
petition undertaken by the Atheniaus
in the sixth century. One man alone
returned to Athens, fact which so
they set upon the unfortunate sur
vivor and slew him with the stout
pins which fastened their dresses.
After this the ladies Of Athens were
officially debarred from the use Of
these dangerous stillett0s.
Hairpins have been elaborated as
means Of decoration since the earliest
times. Particularly beautiful is the
variety and delicacy Of their work
manship, two of the finest specimens
being the gold pins which were found
at Salamis in Cyprus and are now
In the British museum. Even more
handsome were the Saxon pins Of a
,ater date, with their shanks of brass.
head of gold and establishment Of
sarnets and pearls. These were, too,
the larger sort Of pins so conspicu-
)usly and frequently mentioned in the
Bible. The instrument driven by Jasl
through the temple OF Sistera was
probably tent pin. while Delilah
fastened the web OF SamsOns hair
with a pin or batten. In the middle
ages pins were a great fashion-in-
deed. necessity-in France, and we
have 1t on record that in 1347 10000
pins were removed from the royal
wardrobe for one Of the French prin-
cesses.
The convenience was probably lit
tie later in reaching England, but in
1910 we hear Of Queen Catharine
(Howard) importing pins from France.
In 1850 the trade underwent consider
able change, brass superseding iron,
while ut the same time the price was
lowered During the reign Of James
l. the metal pin came into fashion.
In 1917 a machine for producing en-
tire pins WAS invented by an Amer
lean. Seth Hunt. but 1t remained for
Samuel Wright of Massachusetts to
patent In 1924 the wonderful pinmak
Ing machine which Is generally used
tOday.