Safety pin

A safety pin or safety pin is a small object used to attach together parts of fabric in a fast and temporary way.

They are generally in Métal; in Nickel for silver plated, even in Aluminum for those of less quality, and in Brass for gilded. If their forms, sizes and colors can vary, the safety pins are assembled most of the time on small a Ressort and their prickly end is protected by a cap.

Its character of safety comes from what the prickly end is protected by a cap, which almost completely reduces the risk of wound, contrary to the ordinary pin; in addition the precision of the Geste S which its opening requires limits the risks which it occurs by accident.

History

The ancestor of the safety pin is the Fibule of which the use was primarily esthetic.
Des stitches S of Bronze resembling a safety pin, used to maintain two sides of fabrics on the shoulder and dating from the XII E, were found in Western Europe.

The safety pin such as it exists today with a spring and the hidden prickly end was invented with New York by Walter Hunt in 1849. The legend wants that it has redécouvert this object by automatically handling a piece of Fil of iron and would have yielded the rights of the patent to a colleague for 400 dollars in order to settle a debt of 15 dollars under the number: 6281.

If the safety pin did not evolve/move much since its invention, the manufactoring processes, as for them, followed the technological advancements. As from the 15th century, they are directly manufactured starting from Fil of iron. It is the invention of the automatic turn to metal in 1864 which will make it possible to mechanize the manufacturing process completely. In France, the first automatic machine of assembly of safety pin is allotted to Benjamin Bohin in 1890.

Punk symbol

It is used as accessory or Piercing in particular in the culture Punk of the street, then in its commercial recovery as a movement of mode . The first English punks were often inspired by the practices and the fetishistic objects and practiced the diversion of objects and symbols (example: swastika or the collar of dog carried by Sid Vicious or Siouxsie Sioux). This invention of diversion of a usual object is frequent in many artists of the Années 1970. Many artists practiced the détournemet objects since Marcel Duchamp, Andy Warhol, the realistic Nouveaux , the Arte Povera, César etc With regard to the nurse pin, her diversion is allotted to various origins according to the sources, but its sources remain unanimous on the direction first which they allot in their initiator (such or such musician of the punk scene) to economic causes and practices well before an esthetic goal, both in the punk one are inseparable.

For the ones, it is Malcolm McLaren which would have taken up the idea with Elli Medeiros of the Stinky Toys which occurred at the time with safety pins on the pants; for others, McLaren would have taken up the idea with Richard Hell. For others still, it is Vivienne Westwood store Sex which would have had the idea of accessoiriser the object after having seen Johnny Rotten equipped with clothing mended with. At all events it will be the first Styliste to use the safety pin in collections of mode.

The first use of the object on the small pocket of a Disc date of 1977 with Richard Hell & the Voidoids on the 45 turns of Blank Generation where it posed with a shirt torn and rapiécée with safety pins. The Lyons group Starshooter used it on Tee-shirts.

It is also used by the Graphiste Jamie Reid in a joining made starting from a photograph of Cecil Beaton where the queen Elisabeth II carries one in the lip from there, this image should have been used for the small pocket of God save the queen of the Sex pistols in May 1977 but this version will be replaced by visual judged less shocking by the recording company (Virgin) and the image will hardly be diffused that on the flyer S and promotional Affiche S announcing the 45 turns. It will be republished in its original version in 2004 for an limited edition.

The use of the safety pin as Symbole of punk is described in 1977 as symbol of nothing by To ballast Bangs.

Use

It is also called safety pin because the Nourrice S and the Mère S more generally made use of it to fix the langes infants. The safety pins intended for this use are sometimes decorated at the ends with mouldings in plastic in the shape of head with animals for example. They also often have a double security system where the cap must be moved to allow the opening. With the appearance of the disposable layers, this use became less current but the object remains strongly associated with the newborns and the safety pins are used in the tricks of new mothers to indicate the center of breast feeding by positioning it on the Soutien-gorge.

It can be used to fix Badge S or to manufacture artisanal pins. For this use, the side which does not open can be flat in order to facilitate of it fixing by joining or welding on the object. In the same way, the cap to accommodate the prickly end can be more sophisticated and include a system of closing with a latch.

It is used in Bricolage for the clothes industry as jewel X artisanal. It is used to be used as support with the manufacture of Brazilian bracelets but it can be also used like a Maille and the prickly end can then be used for to insert Perle S decorating the jewel.

It has also its place in the cases of First aid where it is intended to maintain bindings, by specifying that the safety pins used in medical environment are in Stainless steel.

In addition to its use as fixing, it is also used in Couture to help to make pass a cord of tightening of replacement for example on the pants S standard jogging.

Its various uses make of it a useful object regularly quoted in the lists of equipment, at the Scout S, in the Race on foot (to maintain the number), etc

Manufacture

The manufacturing process modern comprises several stages. The Fil of iron is initially cut to the adequate size, then a extremity is cut in order to be pointed. Then the piece of wire passes in an automatic turn to metal to take its final form in Ressort and the nonprickly end is folded so as to maintain the cap. The cap is separately worked by another machine starting from metal sheet. It finally is inserted and crimped on the finished and delivered safety pin closed. According to the wanted completions, stages of varnishing for example, can be added.

Anecdotiquement, there exist machines making it possible to deliver the opened pins, adding a stage to the manufacturing process and increasing their cost.

Economic situation

Nowadays, the sectors which use the most safety pins are the sectors of the Couture, that of the Blanchisserie and the Nettoyage.

The manufacturing costs vary according to metal used. The manufactoring processes being automated, a factory can produce up to three million parts per day.

In the Film Charlot apprentice , the hero closes his pocket with a safety pin.

The hero of Cartoon Superdupont maintains his belt in place with a safety pin: the pin of national security .

The safety pin is sometimes used like hook in some cartoons.

In 1978, the group of folk-rock'n'roll Machin leaves the album Râles folks with a Clothes pin on the small pocket which is presented like the answer baba cool to the punk safety pin.

In 1994, Liz Hurley, then partner of Hugh Grant, knows an enormous media success while being presented to the first of Four Marriages and a Burial in a grinding dress Versace, attached on the side by large safety pins revealing a good part of its anatomy.

Anecdotes

In Swiss French, it can be indicated by the “unlosable” term.

Certain infectious agents have the shape of a safety pin: it is the case of the Bactérie Yersinia pestis, person in charge of the Peste or Pseudomonas pseudomallei, person in charge of the Mélioïdose.

Random links: