In the 1950s, when Isaac Merritt Singer began mass marketing eye-pointed-needle sewing machines, he brought a suit against Howe, who wished to be paid royalties for the machine. Meanwhile, Hunt engaged in an intellectual property struggle over the sewing machine after Elias Howe patented a similar machine in 1846. The safety pin has hundreds of uses, including fastening diapers and clothing such as trousers, shirts, and jackets, and even as a component of jewelry.
Sales of the invention would later earn a number of opportunistic businessmen substantial fortunes, but Hunt never earned another penny for his creation. 6,281), and he willingly sold rights to it for just $400. This feature, of course, exists in virtually all safety pins the world is accustomed to using today.Īt the time, however, Hunt apparently thought little of his invention. A version appeared in 1842 that did not include the spring mechanism that Hunt designed. His was not the first contemporary version of the safety pin either. Hunt’s invention was not entirely novel it was actually an improvement on a concept that the ancient Romans had used in jewelry, namely, fibulae, or brooches. He began twisting a piece of metal wire until he had created a device he called the “dress pin,” with a spring at one end that forced the other end into place and a clasp that kept the pin’s point inside a protective case. He began working feverishly to think of a new creation that would earn him enough money to repay the sum. More than a decade later, Hunt faced a situation in which he owed a man a $15 debt. However, it is said that his daughter talked him out of commercializing the device by warning him that it would lead to massive unemployment among seamstresses. In 1834, he built one of the world’s first eye-pointed-needle sewing machines. Among his most notable innovations were a fountain pen, a new type of rifle, a knife sharpener, artificial stone, a flax spinner, and an ice plough. Mechanic and independent inventor Walter Hunt secured a place in American history when he invented the useful, everyday device known as the safety pin in 1849.īorn on July 29, 1796, Hunt lived and worked in New York, where he invented a variety of tools and household items and made improvements to existing machinery.