Total Trivia: Clothes Pegs and Coat hangers.

Hanging the washing, this morning I got to thinking, Who invented both the clothes peg and the coat hanger and when? A search of Wikipedia gave me the answers.

Clothes pegs or clothes pins, the kind used for hanging washing, were patented by  Jeremie Victor Opdebec in the early 19th  century.  This design was fashioned in one piece and didn't use a spring.

The design that we use, today was invented by David M Smith of Springfield, Vermont in 1853. This was done with a small spring, wedged between interlocking wooden (or now plastic) prongs.

In 1887, Solon E Moore improved the design, with what he called a 'coiled fulcrum', what is used in todays pegs.
A wooden peg made from a single piece of wood. Sometimes called a Dolly peg.
A wooden peg with the coiled fulcrum.
Some of the plastic pegs, available today.

So thank you to  Mr Opdebed,  Mr Smith and Mr Moore for the humble peg.




Now the coat hanger; several people are credited with this objects beginning. The shape, used today, is credited to O. A. North in 1869 or  Albert J Parkhouse, in 1903, then there is Christopher Cann, in 1876, he was an engineering student at Boston University. So to who ever invented the coat hanger, thank you, with out them our wardrobes would an untidy mess!


A collection of my coat hangers, from the sturdy wooden one, the skirt hanger, a padded one, one my mum made, (orange and white one) and two different wire ones.

Bye for now,
Lilian.

Comments

  1. It is so cool to find out the history of our everyday items. Thanks for this Lilian.

    ReplyDelete

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