The modern-day safety pin was invented on the 10th of April 1849, by New York mechanic, Walter Hunt. Hunt, who was a prolific inventor, was born in 1796, the year that a vaccine for smallpox was developed by English physician Edward Jenner.
Despite not preventing as much suffering as Jenner’s medical marvel, there is no doubt that Hunt’s new and improved version of the safety pin has made life easier for billions of people in the generations since. Hunt’s safety pin was the first to have both a protective clasp and a spring hinge. Safety pins didn’t spring from nowhere. The ancient Romans pinned brooches into place with a safety pin like mechanism.
Walter Hunt was not the savviest businessman the world has ever seen. He sold the rights to his safety pin innovation for only $400. Although that is the equivalent of approximately $16000 in 2024 money, it’s mere pennies in comparison to the fortune that various others have amassed from safety pins.
Some of Walter Hunt’s other inventions were a new type of rifle, an ice plough and one of the forerunners of Lewis Waterman’s modern fountain pen. Waterman perfected the fountain pen in 1884.
© Rodney Hunter, 2024
References
When was the fountain pen invented? (2023) Goldspot Pens. Available at: goldspot.com/blogs/magazine/when-was-the-fountain-pen-invented (Accessed: 08 April 2024).
Inflation rate between 1849-2024: Inflation calculator (2024) Value of 1849 dollars today | Inflation Calculator. Available at: officialdata.org/us/inflation/1849 (Accessed: 08 April 2024).
History of smallpox: Outbreaks and vaccine timeline (no date) Mayo Clinic. Available at: mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/history-disease-outbreaks-vaccine-timeline/smallpox (Accessed: 08 April 2024).
National Inventors Hall of Fame (2024) National Inventors Hall of Fame Inductee Walter Hunt Invented the Safety Pin. Available at: invent.org/inductees/walter-hunt (Accessed: 08 April 2024).
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