Clothespin

A clothespin ( in Bavaria Glupperl, Waschglupperl in Austria also caliper ) is used to attach laundry on a clothesline.

The original form of the clothespin is a divided or provided with a slotted piece of wood that was put on with a rollover on the clothesline down and wash them so fixed on a leash.

With industrialization in the second half of the 19th century, the development of the clothespin began both to simplify the handling, as also cater to machine production. Thus, patents have been granted in the United States until 1900 for over 150 different models.

Today, the most widely used embodiment consists of two identical, elongated legs of wood or plastic, which are held together in the middle by a leg spring made ​​of stainless metal. The leg spring simultaneously serves as a hinge. By squeezing the two legs at one end, the other end opens. The clamp is released, the force of the spring presses the legs together.

Wood brackets are made of bright, non-marking and non-gumming of wood, usually from birch wood. The modern form is compared with the simple plug-in brackets with the laundry more gently around as they do not rub on the clothes when attaching and detaching.

In Germany the simpler Aufsteckklammern were distributed without the spring next to the present, modern model until the 1960s. Plastic clamps displaced in the 1970s the wooden brackets almost completely. With the return to nature and the environment in the 1980s gained wooden clothes pegs again a large spread. With newer designs is trying to reduce the production cost in the already inexpensive product on. To achieve this, plastic is used and efforts are made to reduce the spring or omit it altogether, to save the costly compared to metal or simplify the mounting omitting the spring. This smaller springs, but no longer exert a uniform, independent of the opening of the clamp clamping action, and springless models have next to the unwanted friction to the clothes the disadvantage of complicated and unfamiliar handling.

BDSM

Commercial clothespins find often in BDSM use. Here, they serve to stimulate sensitive parts of the body such as nipples through varying degrees applied pressure and train. They are applied to men and women and provide an alternative to the use of special clips dar.

Mini clip

Since the late 1950s, in Germany there are miniaturized, functional plastic clamps, clothespins - in the dimensions 25 mm long, 6-7 mm wide and 3 mm thick, in a wide range of colors - are modeled. These so-called party clips, mini clips or rock-' n' -roll brackets Klämmerchen serve to fix a napkin on the clothing, the mark ( personalization) of beverage glasses at parties, for holding together a Sticky Note, as a toy for children, as Münzverstärker in working with children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD ) or when manually Gelenkigkeitstraining of seniors. The wearing of rock-' n' -roll clips on the shirt collar by young people in the GDR was interpreted as " western friendly".

Others

The clothespin in its modern form has now become a mass product and is also used in other areas. So they are of musicians often used as a blade holder (about to keep open to hymnals on the score board of a church organ at the desired song). Wooden clothespins or their parts are especially popular as a craft material.