Did you know ........?

I have been looking at the design of simple inventions that are produced in the millions:- here goes with ten facts you may not know about the safety pin

1. Invented by Walter Hunt, an American, and patented in 1849
2. The Guiness Book of Records longest safety pin chain is 1091.8 meters, set in Canada in 2013
3. Hunt sold the patent rights for $400 to W R Grace and Company
4. Dr Chevalier Jackson devised special instruments for removing swallowed safety pins. Safety pin ingestion is still a common problem in some countries today
5. Punk rockers used safety pins as clothing decorations and piercings
6. In 1864, E J Manville invented an automatic fourslide machine which is the forerunner of machines still in use
7. The ancestor of the safety pin is the Ancient Greek 'Fibulae' meaning brooch
8. The most common metals used in safety pins are spring steel, brass and stainless steel
9. Over 3 million safety pins can be made by 1 factory in 1 day
10. This equates to almost 1 billion per year!!!