Fast Facts About Fasteners Trivia Quiz

Answer: Switzerland

Velcro has been making life easier for tots, people with arthritic hands and everyone else who has difficulty with other types of fastenings since it was patented by Swiss mountaineer/inventor George de Mestral. It seems that George and his dog got covered in burrs after taking a stroll along the Alpine trails and George was fascinated by the way the burrs clung so securely to his trouser legs (we don't know what his poor dog thought about it). He saw the possibilities for a new type of fastening device and, ignoring the derision of his colleagues and friends, got busy with a weaver friend to perfect his hook and loop invention.

Velcro was patented in 1955 and George set up Velcro Industries to manufacture his product (Velcro, by the way is a combination word taken from Velour and Crochet). Within a very short space of time de Mestral was selling 60 million yards of Velcro a year, and the sales of this Nature-inspired fastener now run into billions of dollars world-wide.

Answer: 1913

The first zipper-type fastener was invented by Elias Howe (who also invented the sewing machine). He patented his device in 1851 but never bothered to manufacture or market it. In 1893 Whitcomb Judson, the inventor of the Pneumatic Street Railway (whatever that is) also came up with a zipper-type fastener which he called the C-curity Fastener.

It had very limited success. It took Gideon Sundback, a Swedish-born engineer who was chief designer for the Universal Fastener Company in St. Catharines, Ontario, to come up with the zipper as we know it today.

He designed it in 1913, patented it in 1917, and also designed the machine that would make his 'Separable Fastener'.

Answer: Since the Middle Ages

Believe it or not, buttons have been around for thousands of years. Buttons have been found at archaeological sites in the Indus Valley (circa 2800-2600 BCE) and in China (circa 2000-1500 BCE), but those early buttons were used as ornaments, not as fasteners.

The button as we know it first appeared in Germany in the 13th century. They came into use with the prevalent fashion for snug-fitting clothing, and they've never gone out of style. I'm told that Qiaotou, in the Zhejiang province of China, is the centre of button manufacturing these days. They've got the world market buttoned up, so to speak.

Answer: 17th century

Hatpins have been around since the 15th century. Originally they were handmade and there are records of a Gloucestershire hatpin manufacturer who employed 1500 hatpin makers in the 1600s. Naturally, the hand-made hatpins were expensive, so only the very wealthy could afford them to hold their veils, wimples and other headgear in place when the wind blew. With the onset of the Industrial Revolution in the 18th century, hatpins were made by machines rather than people and my old hometown of Birmingham in the Midlands became the centre of the hatpin industry in the UK. So heavy was the demand for hatpins that British retailers began importing the commodity from France to keep up. The British Parliament, concerned about the effect of these imports on the balance of trade, actually passed an Act prohibiting the purchase of hat pins on all except two days a year, in January. Could this be the inspiration for January Sales, or even the term 'pin money'?

Nowadays no one need worry about hatpins affecting the balance of trade. Hatpins, like button hooks and mourning brooches, have become sought-after collectibles.

(My thanks to the Hat Pin Society of Great Britain for this information.)

Answer: Since 1849

The modern safety pin was invented in 1849 by American Walter Hunt. He sold the rights to his patent for $400.00 and I'll bet his heirs and descendants have been annoyed with him ever since, considering the millions and billions of safety pins in use around the world since 1849.

Hunt based his design on the fibula used by the ancient Mycenaean in the 14th century BCE. Indeed, those old fibulae were very similar to the modern safety pin and served the same function - except for the bra strap thing. The use of fibulae spread throughout the ancient world and they have been dug up in Roman ruins, Celtic archaeological sites and throughout Europe and the Middle East.

I suppose, in effect, Hunt didn't so much invent the safety pin as adapt an ages-old design.

Answer: pins

The little metal clips that keep your tensor bandage in place go by the pedestrian name of pins. I don't know about you, but I invariably lose the two that come with any tensor bandage I buy and I have to resort to using Mr. Hunt's modern adaptation of the fibula!

Snap fasteners were invented in Germany in the mid-1800s, grommets are the little metal (sometimes plastic these days) rings used to reinforce the holes in tarps, flags, etc., to prevent the fabric from ripping when rope is passed through them, and aiglets are those little metal or plastic tips on shoelaces that make it easier for us to insert the laces into the eyelets.

Answer: Late 1800s

Surprise! Bobby pins (kirbygrips, hairgrips) have been around since the late 1800s when they were used by - wait for it - men! Evidently those elaborate hairstyles adopted by men in the Gay Nineties needed more than pomade and macassar oil to keep them in place. As the story goes, bobby pins were invented and manufactured by one Bobby T. Plympton out of his home, and he sold his patent around 1900. He must have kicked himself for his short-sightedness when bobbed hair came into fashion in the 1920s and the sale of bobby pins really took off. By the 1940s, the bobby pin was an essential item in every woman's grooming kit, and they were even manufactured in various colours to match the wearer's hair.

I'm told that a bobby pin can be used to pick a lock but I hasten to assure you that I have never put one to this nefarious use.

Answer: 17th century

Shakespeare probably wore buckled shoes, and so did all those dashing cavaliers and less-than-dashing Pilgrim Fathers. Those buckles were nothing like the ornate, even bejewelled, buckles worn when the fashion hit its height in the 18th century. By the end of the Regency period, buckled shoes were worn only by the hopelessly old-fashioned.

The buckle came back into its own in the trendy 1960s, but usually as a mere decoration rather than a practical device designed to keep one's shoes on one's feet.

Answer: Since Medieval times

The shoelaces we know today, those strings passed through eyelets in our shoes, have been around since the 12th century. Just think, little kids have been crying with frustration for centuries as they tried to tie their shoelaces. I was five before my chubby fingers mastered the art!

When Alpine climbers found the well-preserved body of an Ice Age man in Switzerland a few years back, they noticed that his grass-filled animal skin boots were held on with thongs made of lime bark string. Thongs have been used in every culture and made of every material including animal hide, plant fibres or fabrics. In my part of the world - Western Canada - the aboriginal people tied their moccasins with buffalo sinew thongs. I suppose one could consider the ubiquitous thongs as the precursors of shoelaces.

Answer: Duffle coats

Duffle coats have been popular in the UK since the 1890s when they were first manufactured and sold by John Partridge. The name duffle describes a heavy woollen fabric first milled in the town of Duffel in Belgium (it was also used to make duffle bags, although the bags are now usually made of canvas). Duffle coats are distinct in that they feature a tartan lining, a hood, a button and strap neck closing and four toggle fasteners - a solid cylinder sewn onto the coat button-fashion, and secured with a loop of cord. The toggles nowadays are made of plastic, but originally they were made of bone or even walrus teeth!

Duffle coats were adopted by the Royal Navy during the Great War of 1914-18 as ideal wear for sailors at sea. During the Second World War one of the famous duffle coat wearers was Field Marshal Lord Montgomery.

My football (that's soccer to North Americans)-playing cousins in the UK tell me that duffle coats also make dandy goal posts for village green football matches.

Toggle fastenings originated, as far as we know, in China and were later adopted by the Japanese. Toggles in those days were made of fabric, bone, ivory or precious stones - though how one sewed diamonds onto a garment is beyond me.

Hospital gowns are tied on (often precariously in my experience!), and matinée jackets (those little jackets babies wear) and bed jackets are usually tied with bows or fastened with buttons.