Posted
on June 22, 2014
Before
this date in 1832, Americans bought pins made by hand in 18 separate
steps.What happened on this date in 1832? An American doctor named John Howe patented a machine that quickly manufactured pins in just one step!
More
patents followed – one by Howe improving his pin-making machine,
and several by his workers for machines that stacked pins or packaged
them.
A
straight pin is a piece of iron wire with a larger “head” on one
end (to help people use it and to hold it in place) and a sharp point
on the other end. Pins are most commonly used to hold pieces of
fabric together but are sometimes used to attach papers as well.
The
pin itself is ancient. Even prehistoric people made and used pins –
although they tended to be made from thorns or bone or ivory. Ancient
peoples also crafted pins out of bronze, silver, gold, and brass;
these ancient pins often had highly decorative heads.
The
modern iron straight pin was used as least as early as the 1400s, in
France, and there are mentions of pins or “papers of pins” as
part of a tailor's equipment from many areas of Europe at that time.
By
the 1700s, pin-making was “industrialized” – which means that
the labor of making a pin was divided among many people. Each person
could become an expert at one step of the pin-making process, and
could handle just one piece of equipment – making the process go
faster. Adam Smith even used a pin factory as an example of the
efficiency of the division of labor.
With
this division of labor, a factory could churn out 5,000 pins a
day.With Howe's machine, a factory could churn out 70,000 pins a day! That's 14 times as many!
But
the packaging step was still slow until 1843, when Howe and his
workers developed a machine to crimp paper and insert the pins in the
paper.
Do
some pin art!
- You could use one of those cool pin-frame toys to make interesting images. And you should definitely check out this giant pin-art installation!
Also
on this date:
Plan
ahead:
Check
out my Pinterest boards for:
And
here are my Pinterest boards for:
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