The Best Kind of Everyday Engineering
To be honest, safety pins are an incredible functional design turn. They’re inexpensive, straightforward and somehow batshit useful. From fashion fixes and first aid to D.I.Y. projects and diaper duty (hello, vintage cloth diapers), they’ve weathered the test of time. And that’s in part thanks to the sort of small design details like those in a hole in a safety pin. It’s one of those “you don’t see it until you really see it” type of things.
Makes you think about how many more common tools have hidden features we never knew about, right? Like the hole in the pot handle (yup, that’s for your spoon), or that little groove you see at the bottom of plastic bottles (pressure control!). Engineering is truly lowkey amazing.
The Hole’s There for a Reason
If you’ve read this far, congrats; you’re now one of the 2% of humans who know what the hole in a safety pin is for. To recap:
It’s a crucial section of the spring mechanism.
It allows for tension and snap-back.
It is a touchstone during the manufacturing process.
It may even have some useful DIY applications if you’re crafty.
So next time you employ a safety pin — whether you’re mending a wardrobe malfunction or fastening it onto your punk jacket — thank that humble hole. It’s doing more than you knew it could.
And who knows, you might just gamify your chance of winning a random trivia game or impressing someone with your freakishly specific knowledge. Either way, you’re in the know, officially.
