Thumbtack

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Thumbtack
Pin with molded plastic handle

A pushpin is a short nail with a large, domed head made of sheet metal, which is used to hang up documents on a wooden board and which can easily be removed by hand. The pushpin is as thumbtack , drawing board pin , tack , bug , pushpin needle also Pinnnadel or short tiller referred. The last two terms often also specifically designate the pinboard purposes with a higher, fully plastic head.

The thumbtack similarly provided and for the same application which is piercing needle (also pushpin called), a short and strong needle with a handle made of plastic, glass or metal.

Usage

The original purpose of the drawing pin was to attach drawing paper for technical drawings to drawing boards . These tacks consisted of a short, very pointed steel pin held in place by a flat head (over which the drawing rails and templates can slide) made of brass. Modern tacks usually have a small plastic coating over the head, which reduces the risk of injury if the nail comes off the head and slips backwards.

Tearing means here as in plan, side plan drawing, especially with an ink pen. The terms puntina da disegno (Italian ... to draw) and drawing pin express the purpose of holding drawing paper. Thumb tack expresses the fact that these nails can be driven in with the thumb, with door nails that wooden doors can be tagged with them.

Thumbtacks with a diameter of 9 to 14 mm, or slightly larger ones with 3 points, are mainly used to attach paper to wood. Both to draw on it and to post a notice on wood. Particularly large and strong with a diameter of 20-25 (and only one nail tip) are also known as carpet nails , which, depending on the hardness of the wood, require a hammer plus an intermediate layer to drive in .

invention

Memorial plaque in Lychen
Thumbtacks with plastic caps. Head and pin riveted, brass-plated.
Drawing pins from Poland, 1930, "K.Wasilewski & S-ka N (r.) 3", point in the middle
Tin box with hinged lid for "1 Gros drawing board pens" from Pelikan

August Kirsten from Lychen received a patent for a tiller or thumbtack as an inventor in 1879. His son Johann Kirsten developed it further around 1902 and then produced it on a small scale.

The drawing pin is said to have been invented by watchmaker Johann Kirsten between 1902 and 1903 in the town of Lychen in the Uckermark in Brandenburg . According to the latest research, this could be a mistake.

In 1903 Kirsten sold his idea for little money to the merchant Otto Lindstedt, who owned a haberdashery factory. His brother Paul applied for a patent in 1904. The patent specification is for the term tack. The patent application made the Lindstedts millionaires. The watchmaker did not participate in the profits. The brand of the Lindstedtschen Metallkurzwaren-Fabrik is "Record - Safety Drawing Board Pins" ("impossible to push through")

Most of the production in the metal factory was done by women, sometimes at home. During the Second World War , prisoners from the Ravensbrück concentration camp toiled in the factory, guarded by dogs. "Probably out of fear of the Russian army, Otto Lindstedt killed himself and his family on April 30, 1945 shortly before the end of the war."

The metal goods factory was also called "The Tiller".

The factory is expropriated in 1945, circulated as VEB (K) Metallwarenfabrik Lychen again or again, in 1960 automatic punching machines were introduced. Depending on the source, production or operation as a whole ends in 1964 or 1966 - for good. The sales brand for thumbtacks in GDR times was "Lymefa" (from: Lychener Metallwarenfabrik)

In 2003, on a private initiative, a memorial in honor of the inventor Johann Kirsten der Heftzwecke was created, the commonly known Heftzwecke monument, 2 km northwest of Lychen on the Wurlsee peninsula Lindenhof, on the grounds of the Seehotel Lindenhof in the form of an approximately 2.5 m high cylindrical column on the sloping side a thumbtack with a slightly curved head plate about 70 cm in diameter and a nail pin of similar length that also penetrates the upper edge of the column. In the rafting town of Lychen (since 2008) there are 16 red or blue thumbtacks with a diameter of about 1 m as an eye-catcher for information about special places in the city - about the tiller, the rafting and the Jewish cemetery.

Other sources attribute the invention of the drawing pin from just one piece of steel strip to the Austrian factory owner Heinrich Sachs and the factory production (5 finished drawing pins per excavation) in 1888. The main difference was that the drawing pin from Austria was made from one piece and all designs and models previously consisted of two parts, namely a head and a nail. The legacy of Heinrich Sachs continues today in Brevillier Urban & Sachs  GmbH & Co KG in Vienna and under the brand name SAX.

The inventors of modern tacks are therefore at least three people who have developed and distributed practical utensils with very similar functions, some independently of one another.

Tacks and thumbtacks and the like can be constructed and manufactured quite differently in the application despite having the same function, and further development of the manufacturing process is possible, so that there is room for several patents next to one another.

Demarcation

  • Pin needles have a very similar function, but are thinner than needles, have a handle or ball head and are often pierced at an angle and leave no piercing marks in textile-covered panels
  • Carpet nails are (one-piece) thumbtacks, i.e. with a partially punched / pushed-through nail in the shape of a slim triangular tongue, but larger with a diameter of 15-25 mm. Carpet nails can, however, also be made in two parts: with a 20 mm head, slightly convex downwards at the edge, nickel-plated sheet metal with a thickness of 2 mm, a nail shaft with a diameter of around 2–2.5 mm is pressed in at the bottom.
  • Decorative nails for furniture wallpaper often have a round head made of plastic

Molding and manufacturing

Thumbtacks / thumbtacks are produced in different shapes. Only those are considered here who hold themselves and thin pierced material by driving one or more nail-like tips into absorbent material. ("Magnetic thumbtacks" are therefore not taken into account.) To date, all thumbtacks have nail tips made of metal, all made of iron ( steel ), and often fully formed all-metal thumbtacks are thermally hardened, galvanized (nickel-plated, brass-plated, tin-plated - or made from tinplate ) and or with a colored plastic cap.

  • All metal
    • One-piece: From a sheet metal surface, the future head of the drawing pin, one or more approximately 15–20 ° acute-angled triangles are cut out by incompletely punching out on their long sides. Each triangle forms a nail extension, the narrow side of the triangle remains connected to the head surface via a right-angled bend at the edge of the hole created. Thumbtacks typically have a brand or type name, a size number, sometimes a circle along the edge of the head or an ornament stamped on the top of the head, which also improves the adhesion of the finger to the head when pressed. The head is slightly convex at the top
      • A tip: A triangle with a height of about 65% of the head diameter is pressed out-punched out of the round disc. The bow is about 25% of the diameter. Brands / types are: SAX / Phalanx, President; FIXO; K.Wasilewski (&) Ska (see picture), Dellera / Leone / Astra
      • Three tips: Basically the tips are shorter, but the triple nail does not twist.
        • Radial tips: Made from an equilateral triangular piece of sheet metal with a side length of 15 mm, triangular tips folded radially outwards, the corners of the head bent downwards a little. Brands: SAX / Delta D3 tricorn nails
        • Points made tangentially: Round head, possibly with center hole. Brands: Leone, Bufetti (both: round, central hole, 3 triangular points made of tangential holes), Maped
    • Two-part - with a tip
      • Head with through hole: A round disc (about 9-11 mm in diameter) is punched out of sheet metal (about 0.6 mm thick). A hole is punched in the middle of the disk with the sufficiently hard, held round wire (about 1.5 mm in diameter), pushed through a little at the same time and then riveted to the head disk so that the wire is also significantly thickened by compression below the head disk. The wire should no longer protrude above the head, the head is often arched (convex at the top), which makes it stiffer. There are shapes with 2 or 3 holes in the domed head. Brand: JPC.
      • Head with a blind hole: A punched disk made of a rather soft metal (aluminum, zinc?) Is pressed into a 1.5 mm high head with a diameter of about 11 mm, which has a blind hole in the middle with a depth of about 1 mm. A typical four-sided iron wire nail (about 1.5 mm in diameter, 10.5 mm in length) is inserted with its blunt end into this hole, which is then held in it by a press fit. Brand: Alco Garant.
  • Metal nail combined with plastic
    • Metal thumbtack, head covered with plastic: A finished thumbtack of the type "head with through hole" is encased on the head with a small plate (0.5 mm thick) formerly made of celluloid , now another thermoplastic. As the plastic cover cuts under the head, the plastic cap holds captive but slightly slidable on the head.
    • Metal nail with a plastic head: A nail or a needle, pre-formed, is joined with a plastic head by casting around it or by melting it in.

hazards

If the thumbtack has been produced incorrectly and has a through hole in the head, the rivet compression of the nail under the head disk is too weak. If the thumb is pressed so hard on the head of the drawing pin that the head disk breaks loose to the nail shaft and slips down the nail shaft, the nail shaft penetrates out of the head and often painfully into the tip of the thumb.

Tacks deserve careful storage in a sufficiently strong, lockable container. If a thumbtack falls to the ground, there is a certain probability that it will remain upside down. The pointed pin of the thumbtack then points upwards for feet and pneumatic tires when climbing on or rolling over them represents a significant risk of injury. Sufficiently hard and thick shoe soles or tires protect, high tire pressure increases the risk of penetration. Although a thumbtack stuck in a bicycle tire can make clicking noises when rolling on asphalt, these are hardly noticeable by the rider himself. Historically, there were nail pullers for wheels , which, mounted on the fork head of the front wheel, had the task of pulling out a nail that was partially protruding while driving. It happens that a thumbtack provisionally seals the hole it has made in the tire and tube for a certain period or distance.

Nails scattered on roads are an attack on the tires and thus on the safety of cyclists (racing). In 2012 the Tour de France had around 30 tire defects due to tacks on the road during a descent. Tacks were repeatedly scattered at the New Forest Wiggle , a popular cycling race near the town of Bransgore on the edge of the New Forest National Park in England - with 15 victims in one year.

art

The Russian artist Andrey Tscheschin has been working with drawing pins since 2002 and has designed some objects based on this motif. The everyday object can sting and in the figurative sense stands for resistance.

As mentioned above, at or in Lychen there is a memorial and information displays in the form of large representations of thumbtacks.

See also

Web links

Commons : thumbtacks  - collection of images, videos, and audio files
Wiktionary: thumbtack  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations
  • Thumbtack in the atlas of everyday German language
  • And the inventor of the giant pushpin is ... Lychen, Michaela Kumkar, September 1st, 2015. - 3 pictures in a row, only the beginning of the text not available free of charge.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Wolfgang Hansen: About the thumbtack. In: Walter Hömberg and Eckart Roloff (eds.): Yearbook for Marginalistics IV . Berlin: LIT 2016, ISBN 978-3-643-99793-7 , pp. 168–175.
  2. ↑ Puntine Astra Dellera delleragiuseppe.com, accessed March 7, 2020
  3. ↑ Anais Tricky Purposes Blog, June 29, 2009, accessed March 8, 2020.
  4. ↑ Katrin Bischoff, Jürgen Schwenkenbecher. Lychen's thumbtack In: Berliner Zeitung , November 11, 2003; Retrieved October 4, 2013.
  5. ↑ Helmut Borth: The wrong story about an inventor. The small Uckermark town of Lychen basks in the light of the inventor of the thumbtack. Is that correct? Especially since a bear was tied up in GDR times. In: Nordkurier / Heimat, August 24, 2015, p. 27.
  6. ↑ Johannes Gernert: A rather tricky story on taz.de, November 28, 2003; accessed November 28, 2009.
  7. ↑ dbender: The tiller and its triumphant advance around the world moz.de, 2010, accessed March 8, 2020.
  8. ↑ A patented invention from Lychen: The drawing pin Infofolder der Stadt Lychen, 12 p., Accessed March 8, 2020.
  9. ↑ In front of the door: Lychen kurzmalwegblog.wordpress.com, kurzmalweginbb, Anja Klamann, May 17, 2016, accessed March 8, 2020. - Picture of one of the 16 pins: blue, "thumbtack, also called tiller".
  10. ↑ Dedicated to the inventor of the drawing pins Bild Denkmal, Tinuzeller / rasmus99, June 25, 2011, accessed March 8, 2020. N53.219174, E13.291998. - next picture
  11. ↑ Chronicle of Heinrich Sachs KG ( Memento of the original from March 5, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.sax.info
  12. ↑ Phalanx, but a picture from FIXO ebay.de, vasalat, March 4, 2020.
  13. ↑ Puntine (PDF) delleragiuseppe.com, Giuseppe Dell'Era (since 1850), accessed March 7, 2020.
  14. ↑ La nostra storia delleragiuseppe.com, pictures 4 and 5/8 show belt-driven production machines for thumbtacks, around 1850, Annone di Brianza , Lecco , Italy, accessed March 7, 2020.
  15. ↑ SAX Delta Puntine triangolari amazon.it, accessed March 7, 2020.
  16. ↑ Puntine a 3 punte - acciaio sforazzini.it, Bufetti 20 mm diameter, accessed March 7, 2020.
  17. ↑ Maped 031501 drawing pins with 3 points, 12 mm, nickel-plated architekturbedarf.de, accessed March 7, 2020.
  18. ↑ ... Reisnagel-Flugzeug-11-11mm ... ebay.de, diymaster03, February 27, 2020, accessed March 7, 2020.
  19. ↑ Tour: Teams stunned after nail attack diepresse.com, July 16, 2012, accessed March 7, 2020. - A first attack with nails is mentioned for the 1904 Tour de France.
  20. ↑ Peter Nonnenmacher: With tacks against cyclists blog.tagesanzeiger.ch, July 1, 2014, accessed March 7, 2020.
  21. ↑ Eugen von Arb: Andrey Tscheschin - King of the tacks spzeitung.ru, February 20, 2011, updated August 31, 2014, accessed March 7, 2020.