How was the safety pin invented?

The modern safety pin is credited to Walter Hunt, a mechanic and independent inventor from New York. He patented it on April 10, 1849, as U.S. Patent No. 6,281. According to the standard account, he came up with it while twisting a piece of wire and worrying about a $15 debt. He called it a dress pin, and he sold the rights for $400. [1] [2] [3]

Hunt was born on July 29, 1796, in Martinsburg, New York. The Museum of Every Day Life says he was struggling financially in 1849 and sat in his workshop worrying about a $15 debt owed to a friend while he played with a length of wire. The museum reports that he found the wire kept enough spring, once coiled and clasped to itself, to be unclasped and clasped again. It says he finished a prototype and several design sketches in a single evening. [2] [4]

The design had a twist or coil in the middle of the wire that acted as a spring, and a clasp at the other end that covered the point and kept it from opening. The sources describe the story of the debt as the account of how the idea arose. The museum uses the word "reportedly" for the scene in the workshop. [3] [5] [4]

Hunt did not invent the idea of a pin that fastens clothing. Ancient Romans used fibulae, which were brooches, to hold togas, cloaks and other garments. They were usually made of bronze or iron, and some were decorated with enamel, glass, coral or bone. They replaced the straight pins of the Neolithic and Bronze Age. [4] [1]

A version of a safety pin also appeared in 1842, but it had no spring. The spring is the feature found in nearly all safety pins today, so Hunt's work is described as an improvement on earlier ideas rather than a first invention of the pin. [1] [2]

Hunt sold the patent rights for $400. The Museum of Every Day Life names the buyer as W.R. Grace and Company, though the other sources here do not name one. The money covered the debt with some left over. Other businessmen later made substantial fortunes from the pin, and Hunt earned nothing further from it. [4] [3] [1]

Hunt was a lifelong inventor of practical tools and household gadgets. The National Inventors Hall of Fame says he built one of the first sewing machines but did not patent it, for fear it would put seamstresses out of work. The safety pin is used to fasten clothing and diapers, in jewelry and in first aid kits, and its design has stayed virtually the same since 1849. [6] [4]