English pin: what do we know about it?

It is hardly possible in our time to find a house in which there would not be this ingenious device. It's hard to believe, but once a small English pin could change the world. And we say this without any exaggeration. Today, this unique item is used not only for its direct purpose, but also as a stylish accessory.

What an English pin looks like

To avoid confusion and uncertainty, we will immediately describe its appearance. Of course, it's hard to imagine that someone has not seen it yet, but who knows ... So, the safety pin has the shape of a metal needle fastened with a rod and closed with a special lid. This simple object is meant for fastening or pricking pieces of clothing, or pieces of fabric.

History of invention

And do you know that only in Russia the name "English pin" has taken hold? In all other countries it is called safe (safety pin). It is curious that various devices, outwardly very similar to the pins we used, were used by the peoples of the Black Sea region three thousand years ago. Also to the number of precursors of safety pin belong the ancient Roman fibula, which is a metal buckle, which was worn as an ornament. Nevertheless, in the usual modern form, an English pin was born thanks to the American engineer Walter Hunt. It happened in the summer of 1849.

Here, perhaps, the reader will be surprised: how did it happen that the inventor - an American, and the pin is called English? Like many other inventions, this object was born by chance. Once American Walter Hunt owes his friend $ 15. The money was tight, and trying to find a way to repay the debt, he nervously twisted the piece of wire that he had gotten into his hands. It took us about three hours, and in Hunt's hands, it turned out to be a kind of present-day English pin. Walter suddenly realized that if to the most popular metal product in the form of a loop with a needle to attach a "lock" in which you can hide a sharp end, then in this case the owner of a pin can be sure that he will not lose it. Seeing this invention, the lender not only forgave Hunt the debt, but also paid $ 400 for the assignment of the right to obtain a patent.

This comrade was none other than Charles Rowley, a British subject. The perspicacious Englishman did not believe that a patent in the States in the 19th century could protect his rights, and therefore decided to register it in his homeland. So the name for the novelty was born - an "English pin", although it would be fair to call it "American".

Stylish accessory

While superstitious people wear this object exclusively "from the evil eye," representatives of various subcultures use it as a fashionable decoration. An English spiral may be part of a badge or, for example, a brooch. Most actively in this role safety pin began to use informal after the middle of the twentieth century, and everything began, as the legend goes, with Richard Hella, who at that time played the role of a soloist in the group Richard Hell & The Voidoids. At first they were just pinned to the clothes and fastened with their help specially torn jeans. But some time passed and the English pin suited designer rebels, such as Vivienne Westwood, John Richmond and Alexander McQueen, and appeared on the podium.