Safety pin

“ Besides the common or toilet pins, there are today numerous special bank and desk pins which are made to meet special requirements.
Pin production in the United States has reached a high stage of development. The number of pins made in 1914 reached the tremendous total of 25,000,000,000. These figures are almost too great for comprehension. If all the pin wire used for these 25,000,000,000 pins were in one piece it would go around the earth fifteen times. Safety pins, hooks and eyes, and hairpins, are generally made by pin concerns. ”

“ A Buckskin's Pocket
When we speak of his pocket that includes all of his clothes, because on the inside of his coat, if he wears one, are stuck an array of safety pins (Fig. 234) , but usually the pins are fastened onto his shirt. A safety pin is as useful to a man in camp as is a hairpin to a woman, and a woman can camp with no other outfit but a box of hairpins. ”

“ The opposite end of the thread, which will be somewhere about thirty inches in length (this again being a point to be determined by experiment) , is passed through the curled end of a good-sized safety pin. This, for use in the trick, is attached to the inside of the performer’s vest, just within the lowest part of the opening. To the free-end of the thread, after passing through the loop of the pin, is attached a disc of copper or zinc, three-quarters of an inch in diameter, against which, on one side, is pressed and flattened out a pellet of conjurer’s wax, in good adhesive condition. ”

“ A large proportion of the pins sold are stuck into paper by an automatic machine not less ingenious than the pin making machine itself. Mourning pins are made of iron wire, finished by immersing in black japan and drying in a stove. A considerable variety of pins, including the ingeniously coiled, bent and twisted nursery safety pin, ladies' hairpins, &c, are also made by automatic machinery. ”

“ The stuffing of the bag will retain the pin in its position until a slight degree of force is used to withdraw it. With the use of this ingenious little contrivance, pins can be kept in safety with the points always hidden and their heads exposed to view. It will be found much more economical and convenient than the plan of carrying pins loose in the pocket, and eventually will be generally adopted, we think. ”

“ Many styles and sizes of safe-deposit locks are made to meet varying conditions, the lock probably most used being the Yale, or pin-tumbler, variety, in which additional security is obtained by using keys of special proprietary forms. For safe-deposit boxes of large size, the dial lock is often used. [Pg 69]
Subtreasury locks are intended for use on the small safety chests, or “subtreasuries,” often placed within a fireproof safe. These locks, which are illustrated in Fig. 57, are of various types and sizes, and are suitable for use on metal doors of all kinds.
Fig. 57
50. ”

“ They never wholly outgrow safety pins, and though they love to ornament them with jewellery, precious metal, and enamels, they are naught but safety pins after all. Some ingenious philosopher could write a full tractate on woman in her relation to pins—hairpins, clothes pins, rolling pins, hatpins. ”

“ It is more than necessary to see that the pins are usable and not rust to the head. There should be black ones and white ones, long and short; also safety pins in several sizes. Three or four threaded needles of white thread, black, gray and tan silk are an addition that has proved many times welcome. ”

“ Now it is to be understood that the sole function performed by the guard pin is to strike the edge of the roller A at any time when the fork starts to unlock the engaged pallet, except when the jewel pin is in the slot of the fork. To avoid extreme care in fitting up the passing hollow, the horns of the fork are arranged to strike the jewel pin and prevent unlocking in case the passing hollow is made too wide. To delineate the safety action we first draw the fork and jewel pin as previously directed and as shown at Fig. ”

“ The apparatus which has been described, though a great improvement on anything which had preceded it, was still but a clumsy affair, and naturally [191] the friction of the levers on the locks was so great that they soon became worn, and when worn they could not be relied upon to move the switch-points with the necessary accuracy. The new appliance of safety had, therefore, as is often the case, introduced a new and very considerable danger of its own. ”

“ Petitioner used the dome running board, not simply because it happened to be there, but also because it had to be there for him to perform his duties safely, and performance of his duties was essential to the operation of the tank car. At best, appliances standardized in Commission regulations represent the minimum of safety equipment, and there is no prohibition of additional safety appliances. If a dome running board is provided by the railroad or the makers of the car and used by the railroad as an appliance necessary for the use of the car, it must be a safe board as required by § 2. ”

“ Rubber gloves and rubber shoes or boots are still safer, but they cannot usually be procured quickly.
If a live wire is under a person and the ground is dry, it will be perfectly safe to stand on the ground and pull him off the wire with the bare hands, care being taken to touch only his clothing, and this must not be wet.
A live wire lying on a patient may be flipped off with safety with a dry board or stick. In removing the live wire from the person, or the person from the wire, do this, with one motion, as rocking him to and fro on the wire will increase shock and burn. ”

“ Hardly had they stepped through the doorway, when the clang of a big gong overhead scattered a group of laborers who were piling heavy castings on flat cars.
Five pairs of eyes looked up as the five Safety Scouts turned to see where the gong was. Away up above them on a track that went from one end of the long room to the other, they saw something like an oddly shaped freight engine running along with a heavy wire cable dangling toward the floor. The big, strong cable was carrying a load of several tons of steel castings as easily as a boy carries in an armful of wood. ”

“ Permanent signboards must be used for signs relating to prohibitions, warnings and mandatory requirements and the location and identification of emergency escape routes and first-aid facilities.
Signboards and/or a safety colour must be used to mark permanently the location and identification of fire-fighting equipment.
2.1.2. Signboards on containers and pipes must be placed as laid down in Part III.
2.1.3. Places where there is a risk of colliding with obstacles or of falling must be permanently marked with a safety colour and/or with signboards. ”

“ The following operating rules are referred to in the foregoing:
In case of doubt, adopt the safe course.
Speed must always be sacrificed for safety.
1. A blue flag by day and a blue light by night, displayed at one or both ends of an engine, car, or train, indicates that workmen are under or about it. When thus protected it must not be coupled to or moved. Workmen will display the blue signals, and the same workmen are alone authorized to remove them. Other cars must not be placed on the same track, so as to intercept the view of the blue signals, without first notifying the workmen. ”

“ The Human Factor. The railroads of the country are made as safe as possible by installing wonderful devices which work automatically. The tracks are inspected, old ties replaced by new ones; bolts are tested, yet in spite of all the excellent devices to secure safety, accidents occur in sickening succession. An entire circus company was recently wiped out by an accident on the Michigan Central Railroad. ”

“ It is best to keep the band only just tight enough to do the work, for should the car get off the track, or be overwound, or should a cage stick in the shaft for any reason, the band will slip and thus become a safety appliance, and not strain or break the rope, shaft timbering, or machinery, as would be the case if a positive clutch, Fig. ”

“ It is on roads of this sort that most of the accidents occur. Almost if not quite all depends on the clear-headedness and quick-witted grasp of the despatchers and strict obedience to orders by the trainmen. To remove as much chance of error as possible, safety signalling methods have been devised to warn the engineer of danger ahead. Many modern railroads are divided into short sections or "blocks," each of which is presided over by a signal-tower. ”

“ The seed thus sown has taken deep root, for at the present time nearly every leading railway in the country has an organized safety committee, whose duty it is to make regular periodic inspections to see that work places and tools are in safe condition; that yards, tracks, stations, buildings and grounds are clean and properly lighted; that shop machinery is protected by safeguards over gearing and other exposed moving parts, and that men are taking proper precautions for the protection of themselves and others. ”

“ Everyone in the agricultural community should make renewed efforts to be informed about potential hazards and take steps to minimize those dangers. This includes the conscientious use of mechanical safeguards like protective equipment and safety belts. I commend our farm equipment manufacturers for their emphasis on building safeguards into their equipment and warning of possible hazards in operational misuse, but there is no substitute for vigilance and common sense in using equipment. Awareness, on the job and off, is the surest way to avert mishaps and tragedies. ”

“ The sides of the car are usually designed to slide against timber guides on the shaft walls. Some form of safety device, of which there are several kinds, should be employed to prevent the fall of the elevator, in case the hoisting rope breaks, or some mishap occurs to the hoisting machinery, which endangers the fall of the car. ”

“ My experience leads me irresistibly to the conclusion that after all it is the man, not the safety appliance, that we must depend on to prevent accidents, as has been demonstrated by any number of cases that have occurred at points where the track has been lined with safety appliances. ”

“ In case of a cable parting, for instance, the men who are on the cage are protected by the safety apparatus, but the upper part of the cable is liable to spring backwards and kill the engineer standing at his engine fifty or sixty feet in the rear of the shaft, quite at the opposite end of the building. ”

“ It is for such emergencies that these safety appliances are provided,-for service in those instant decisions upon which the safety of life of limb of a man so often depends in this perilous employment,-and therefore this law requires that ultimately the location of these ladders and handholds shall be absolutely fixed, so that the employee will know certainly that night or day he will find them in like place and of like size and usefulness on all cars, from whatever line of railway or section of the country they may come. ”

“ Columns of water and of air have been so arranged that should the car fall the fall will be broken by the water or air cushion made to yield gradually to the pressure. So many safety devices have been invented that there is now no excuse for accidents. They result by a criminal neglect of builders or engineers to provide themselves with such devices, or by a most ignorant or careless management and operation of simple actuating mechanisms. ”

“ Each Federal employee occupying the front seat of a motor vehicle on official business, whose seat is equipped with a safety belt, shall have the safety belt properly fastened at all times when the vehicle is in motion. ”

“ Other safety devices consist of catches under the floor of the cage, so arranged that they are held out of engagement by the pull on the cables. But if the strain is suddenly relieved, as by breakage of a cable or accident to the engine or motor, they instantly fly into place and, engaging strong side-struts in the shaft, hold the car until it can be once more lifted by its cables. ”

“ They do not disappear until the draw is closed and the signals for a clear track are set. The engineman knew these signals were there, and he knew what they meant. A railroad may supply every safety device known to modern science for precaution, it may put in the perfection of safety appliances for the safety of its passengers and its stock, but you can’t get by the human equation. ”

“ Emergency Knives.—Any knife or tool designed for enabling escape in an emergency incorporating a blunt tipped safety blade, a guarded blade, or both, for cutting safety belts may be carried in the passenger compartment and need not be secured in a locked container, glove compartment, or console. ”

“ If railroads can afford to protect their rolling-stock in the way described, the interests and property of the public might reasonably be expected to receive equal consideration. In plain language, the pressing of a button in crossing-houses, in connection with proper signals, would give the public the protection so urgently called for. Altogether the foregoing may be taken as a very good object lesson on the safety problem oh our railroads. ”

“ It is unquestionably true that it is safer than travelling by coach or on horseback, and probably it is safer than any other method of getting over the earth's surface that man has yet contrived, unless it may be by ocean steamer. If one wants anything safer he must walk.
Stephenson's Steam Driver-brake. Patented 1833.
In considering the means that have been adopted to make railroad travel safe, it must be remembered that there are very few devices in use that are purely safety appliances. ”

“ It is well for the reputation—such as it is—of these second-hand safes that they are covered with paint; the more the defects the nicer the safe frequently looks, [52] outwardly; for it is easy enough to cover up cracks, bad joints, &c. with putty, and then paint it all as smooth as a carriage-panel. The angle-iron, by which the plates are fastened together, is very slight, the rivets are small and few and far between; the plates themselves are but sheet-iron, often of less thickness than the mere linings of good safes ”