Category Archives: Inventions

Why don’t you pin these clothespin facts?

• Clothespins are devices typically used for attaching clothes to a clothesline or airer.
• ‘Clothespins’ are also known as ‘clothes pins’, ‘clothes-pegs’, ‘clothes pegs’ and ‘pegs’.
• Clothespins are most commonly used for pegging up wet clothes, for the purpose of drying, on washing lines outside.
• Clothespins are believed to have been first patented early in the 1800s, by Jérémie Opdebec, which was the traditional one piece design, and they were commonly made by hand by English gypsies.
• Traditional styled one piece clothespins are usually made of wood although they are sometimes made from plastic, and are often called ‘dolly pegs’, as they were, and still are, also used for making peg dolls.

• The more modern styled clothespin was invented in 1853, by David Smith of Vermont’s Springfield, United States and featured two separate pieces of wood and a spring, and was later improved upon in 1887 by Solon E. Moore.
• Clothespins are often used in children’s craft, and occasionally used in artwork, and have also inspired artists to sculpt enormous pegs.
• Modern clothespins are typically made from plastic with a steel spring, although sometimes they are made from wood.
• Around the house, clothespins are often used for holding a variety of items together, like a clamp, and are also prominently used on film sets.
• Clothespins come in a variety of shapes, sizes and colours, but generally feature a spring, in between two wedge shaped pieces of plastic.

Bibliography:
Clothespin, 2014, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clothespin

Greenbaum H & Wilson C, Who made that Clothespin?, 2012, The New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/13/magazine/who-made-that-clothespin.html?_r=0

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These stapler facts will staple all that information together.

• Staplers are machines that use thin staples, typically made from metal, to hold items, such as paper, together.
• ‘Staplers’ are also known as ‘staple binders’, ‘stapling machines’, ‘paper fasteners’, and ‘staple drivers’.
• Staplers can be manual, meaning they require force from one’s hand; or electric, which generally function automatically or with the press of a button, and are either battery operated or are plugged into an electrical power outlet.
• It is believed that a stapler was first invented in the 1700s for the French King Louis XV, in France and the staples were engraved with the royal insignia.
• Staplers usually hold a quantity of staples in a cartridge, that are pushed one at a time through the paper or other material to be stapled, and the staple is usually forced to bend behind the material as it hits the metal plate, an ‘anvil’, located at the base of the machine.

• The invention and modification of the stapler is evident in the later half of the 1800s, while the earliest known patent for a machine to use a staple and clinch it (bend the staple) is dated 1877, and was invented by American Henry Heyl, from Philadelphia.
• Staplers are most often made from a combination of metal and plastic, and come in a variety of colours, shapes and sizes, with each machine holding staples of a particular size.
• The first stapler to become a financial success in the commercial world, is said to be the one designed by American George McGill, in 1879 in New York, and the modern style hand operated machine was available from as early as the 1940s, the invention of which is commonly attributed to John Munford, from England.
• A stapler can have special features, like a long arm, to staple books; an anvil that can be moved so that the staple folds outwards like a pin, for a less permanent securing method; and variations like the machine with no anvil, called a ‘staple gun’, which can secure items without needing to access the back of the material.
• Staplers are most commonly used in work, school or home environments, as well as hospitals, where there are special surgical ones that can be used to staple skin together during surgery.

Bibliography:
Antique staplers & other paper fasteners, 2013, Early Office Museum, http://www.officemuseum.com/staplers.htm

The History of Staplers, 2004, Wayback Machine, http://web.archive.org/web/20070831072958/http://www.oldstaplers.com/stapler_history.html

Staplers, 2014, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stapler

Welcome, 2008, DIAO, http://www.stapler.cn/history.asp

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These facts are attached to a lanyard.

• Lanyards are lengths of textiles that can be used as decoration, for holding items, and for rigging.
• Lanyards are typically used to prevent misplacing or dropping small items.
• ‘Lanyard’ comes from the French word ‘lanière’, meaning ‘lash’ or ‘strap’.
• Lanyards are generally worn on the shoulder, neck or wrist, depending on their use.
• Lanyards come in many sizes, colours and shapes, are commonly decorated with advertising, and often end with a metal latch that enables the user to attach items on the end.

• Lanyards were first mentioned by the French in the 1400s, and were later used in France’s military for securing whistles, guns and swords.
• Lanyards can be used ornamentally on uniforms, and are sometimes used to mark a person’s position in the military.
• Lanyards are made from a variety of materials that are generally braided or woven, and can include PET plastic, leather, cord, rope, satin, polyester, nylon or silk.
• Lanyards can be worn on a person’s wrist, and used as a safety strap that is connected to a machine, so that if the person falls off or down, it triggers an ‘off’ mechanism on the machine.
• Modern style lanyards have become very popular, and are commonly used to hold electronic items, keys or identification cards, around one’s neck.

Bibliography:
Lanyard, 2014, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lanyard

Wilson L, The History of the Lanyard, 2013, EHow, http://www.ehow.com/about_5580332_history-lanyard.html

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Clean knowledgeably with these laundry detergent facts.

• Laundry detergent is a compound typically used in conjunction with water, to clean articles of clothing, towels, sheets, and other linen, most often in washing machines.
• ‘Laundry detergent’ is also known as ‘washing powder’ and ‘laundry powder’.
• Laundry detergent is most commonly available in the form of a powder, but it is also readily available as a liquid.
• Laundry detergent was historically made of a combination of charcoal, water, ash, sulphur and silicates, and at different times, only some of these ingredients were used.
• Soap was the traditional and most common cleaning agent for cleaning laundry items, up until the late 1940s.

• Chemical laundry detergent has been manufactured since 1916, first in Germany due to the lack of soap available as a result of World War I.
• Laundry detergent became popularised in 1950, due to the increased use of washing machines, and was primarily made of branched alkylbenzenesulfonates, which were not environmentally friendly, until the improved, linear alkylbenzenesulfonates, were used.
• Laundry detergent is typically made of alkylbenzenesulfonate, although other surfactants may be used, water softener, bleach and enzymes.
• Modern laundry detergent often contains phosphates, that can cause significant ecological issues, and for this reason are currently being removed from most detergents.
• Laundry detergent helps to remove dirt and other particles from materials, mainly by suspending them in water, which prevents them from reattaching themselves to the fabric.

Bibliography:
Laundry Detergent, 2014, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laundry_detergent

Long H, Laundry Detergent History, 2014, Love to Know, http://cleaning.lovetoknow.com/Laundry_Detergent_History

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These facts are screwed in.

• A screw is generally a small tapered rod, with a thread, that is used to attach two or more items to each other, and it typically has a sharp pointed end to puncture the material it is being threaded into.
• ‘Screws’ are sometimes called ‘bolts’, although this term is somewhat inaccurate, as bolts usually require a nut, while the former, do not.
• Screws have a flat or raised top, called a ‘head’, to prevent deep embedding and in some instances, to provide a decorative finish.
• A screw is commonly used with a screwdriver or wrench to rotate it, so that it threads into the material, as well as to tighten it.
• Screws typically are designed to fasten clockwise and have, what is called ‘a right handed thread’, although anticlockwise (left) fastening ones are available.

• Screws were most likely invented before 300 BC, possibly by the legendary Archimedes, a Greek polymath, and early forms were generally made of wood and were often used as part of a press for wine or oil.
• Screws are most commonly made of strong metal, typically steel, although noncorrosive materials are sometimes needed, so stainless steel, brass, and in some circumstances, plastic, is used.
• Metal screws have only been popularly used since the late 1700s, and they were patented multiple times in the second half of the 1800s.
• Screws can be used instead of nails, pins, rivets, glue, tape, welding and soldering.
• Screws most commonly have a signal straight slot in the head, for a screwdriver, although the cross shaped slot in a Phillips head is also popular, and there are many other designs available, including square, hexagon and star shaped slots.

Bibliography:
The History of the Screw, n.d, Wagner, http://www.wagner-werkzeug.de/fileadmin/pdf/Geschichte-Schraube-ENG.pdf

Screw, 2014, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screw

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