Few objects are as humble as the safety pin. It holds up hems, fastens diapers, and rescues us when a button pops off at the worst possible moment. Most of us have a few rattling around in a drawer. Yet this little tool has a surprisingly human backstory.
Here's the short answer. American mechanic Walter Hunt, regarded as the inventor of the modern safety pin, created it to pay off a $15 debt to a friend. He patented it in 1849, sold the rights for $400, paid his friend, and kept the rest. The company that bought it went on to make millions.
A Simple Twist of Wire
Hunt's design was brilliantly simple. He took a piece of brass wire about 8 inches long and made a coil in the middle, so the pin would spring open when released. At one end, he added a clasp to cover the sharp point and keep it from poking the user.
That clasp is what made it a safety pin. It kept the point covered and held the pin closed, while the circular twist at the bend acted as a spring. It's essentially the same design we still use today.
Fifteen Dollars and a Patent
Hunt received U.S. patent number 6,281 on April 10, 1849. He then sold the patent to W.R. Grace and Company for $400, roughly $15,000 in today's money. He paid back the $15 he owed and kept $385 for himself.
It seemed like a good deal at the time. But in the years that followed, the company made millions of dollars in profits from his little invention. Hunt never shared in that fortune, because he had sold the rights outright with no future royalties.
He wasn't the only one with the idea. In October 1849, Charles Rowley of Birmingham, England, independently patented a similar safety pin, though his version is no longer made.
An Inventor Who Kept Giving Ideas Away
The safety pin wasn't a one-time stroke of luck. Walter Hunt, born in 1796 in Martinsburg, New York, was a prolific inventor. After seeing a horse-drawn carriage run over a child in New York City, he invented a foot-operated warning bell for coaches that was soon used throughout the city and beyond.
His list of ideas is astonishing. He created a forerunner of the fountain pen, a precursor of the Winchester repeating rifle, a knife sharpener, a street-sweeping machine, and even suction-cup shoes for circus performers to walk upside down on ceilings.
Most impressive of all, sometime between 1835 and 1837 he built an early working sewing machine that used two interlocking threads, a big leap at the time. Yet he didn't patent it right away. Again and again, Hunt sold his rights cheaply and never became wealthy.
An Idea With Ancient Roots
Hunt's pin wasn't the first fastener of its kind. Around the 14th and 13th centuries BC, the Mycenaeans in Greece invented the fibula, a brooch used much like a safety pin to hold tunics together. Hunt's spring coil and covered point made the idea far safer and easier to use.
So the next time you reach for a safety pin to fix a hem, give a little nod to Walter Hunt. He solved a $15 problem and handed the world a tool it still can't do without.
