Drawing pin

A thumbtack is a short nail with a large, domed head of sheet metal, which is used for the posting of documents and can be easily removed by hand again. The thumbtack is also called Pinnnadel, thumbtack, drawing board pin, Thumbtack, bug pushpin needle or tiller. The latter term is often referred to specifically whiteboard purposes with a higher all-plastic head.

The thumbtack similar and intended for the same use, the piercing needle (also called Pushpin ), a short, strong needle with a handle made of plastic, glass or metal

Importance

The original purpose of the thumbtack was attaching drawings on drawing boards. These tacks consisted of a short very sharp steel needle ( can slide over the rails characters and templates ) from a flat head was kept in brass. Modern tacks usually have a small plastic cover over your head that reduces the risk of injury when the nail separates from the head and slipping backwards.

Invention

The thumbtack was invented according to current knowledge by watchmaker Johann Kirsten 1902-1903 in the city Lychen in Uckermark in Brandenburg. Near Lychen is also a pushpin monument. His idea Kirsten sold in 1903 for less money to the merchant Otto Lindstedt, who owned a haberdashery factory. His brother Paul she reported in 1904 for a patent. The patent reads on the name Tack. The patent application made ​​the Lindstedts millionaires. The watchmaker was not involved in the profits.

Other sources attribute the Austrian factory owner Heinrich Sachs, the invention of the drawing pin from a single piece of steel strip and the factory-like production (per 5 Excavation finished thumbtacks ) in 1888 to. The main difference was that the tack of Austria was carved from one piece and all designs and models previously always consisted of two parts, namely the head and nail. The Legacy of Henry Sachs today is to Brevillier Urban & Sachs GmbH & Co KG in Vienna on.

As the inventor of the modern thumbtack would therefore at least two people in question who have developed and disseminated practical utensil independently.

Production

Much of the tacks are made by a piece of solid wire is pulled through a hole in the stamped sheet metal head, and then the projecting end is flattened. This " merge " head and wire. The tip is formed by obliquely cutting the wire. After an anti-rust alloy is applied with brass on the thumbtack through electrolysis. The plastic cap for the head to be punched out using a cylinder of plastic wrap and bulged by a second cylinder inside the first.