Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1934-03-22
Safety Pin Very Old Idea
-Fibulas, Many of Which Have Beef Discovered in the
Northern Part of Italy, We're the Precursors
of This Most Useful Little Device.

Again the Field museum knocks
The stufiing out OF an American In
sfitution- A few weeks back il
ciifred a few feathers from The crest
Of national pride by proving that
huekwheaf cakes were not born
Americans but belonged TO an Asiatic
culinary aristocraey whose pedigree
ran back mor than 1900 years
Now. the indispensable safety pin.
one of the cherished Yankee notions.
hailed as an ~alI-American invention
and respected as q unique product
OF the United States OF America. is
disclosed by the Field museum as an
immigrant whose ancestry has been
traced beyond the Seventh century
Il. CHATS more than 2.6O0 years
a-0.
What's more, these ancient safety
pins can be seen In the Efruscan col
lection of the Field Museum of Nat
ural History. only they are labeled
.-%tibulas." not safety pins"
In this assembIage of relics which
were discovered In the ancient GENE
terry Of Marco In Etruria. about ninety
miles north of Rome, Italy, hy exca-
yat0rs under the direction of A l.
rockingham, are a number of bronze
bracelets to which tibulas are at
Iached.
As explained By DR. Berthold Ian
fer. curator of the museums depart
ment OF anthropology. a fibuia is n
clasp. usually ornamenfed. and II was
Indispensable to the ~ancients for fas-
tening their garments. il is the pre-
cursor of our safety pin As we ar
ry spare tires on u cars 10 be used
in case of emergency. so the Efrus-
rams carried spare fibulas on their
bracelets TO have them handy I'm case
one was lost, which could easily hap
pen"
Any oId-timer who takes In the
thousands of interesting sights of
Field museum ought 10 leave the i'm
stitution feeling that he is not 50 M
eient after all There are plenty OF
older things than he Ii in the insfi-
turion-those fossil oyster shells for
instance They belong to the oIi-o-
or miocene geological period
nineteen to thirty-nine million years
ago.
Think OF ordering q dozen on the
half-shelI In those days in a care res
taurant and have the cave-iweITing
waiter spread out on the stone table
d dozen dainty mollusks each u foot
across-men were men In those
times
Ton will find these fossils LIN Ern-
est r. Graham haIl-fney came from
southern Argentina from Lodges OF
sandstone and gravel In which they
had been buried 50 many million
years.
Repeal has ~rejnvenated the cork
industry, the corkscrew has been
brought out Of hiding and now IL be
come an honored household gadgef.
Maybe that il why the young mel
who are on the staff OF DIR. Stephen
c. Simms, the genial director of Field
museum. Is directing attention to the
museums cork exhibit Cork. ONE OF
the most familiar OF home things, has
always been more or less a mystery
to most people. Lleweiyn Williams,
assistant In wood technology. lis Civ
Ing visitors some interesting infornaa-
ton about cork
Cork Is the soft, spongy and some
what elastic outer Layer OF the bark
of a species OF oak lquercus suber)
cultivated principally In Spain. Por.
tugai and northern Africa said he
-For commercial purposes the bark