The need to pay a $15 debt sparked one of the most useful of inventions, patented on this date in 1849. Walter Hunt, a mechanic in New York, owed the debt. While he thought about how to raise the money, he fiddled with a small piece of wire. Finally, he bent the wire with a twist in the middle, creating a spring, and formed a clasp at the other end, to guard the point of the wire. He had invented the safety pin. Hunt called his device a “dress pin,” and sold his rights to it for $400, little realizing that its utility would be enduring and lucrative. Manufacturing pins, needles, buttons and other fasteners is a near-$900 million a year business in the U.S., employing about 5,500 people. You can find current data on the country’s economy by downloading the America’s Economy mobile application at<www.census.gov/mobile>.
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Speaking of safety pins–I received the new Century Link phone directory–the maps are laughable and the print in the entire directory (except for ADVERTISING) is smaller.
Prudence, you obviously can navigate the web so why do you need a paper phone book. The majority of all personal phones are cell numbers and they are not listed in any book.
As an advertiser in the phone book, I’m quite disappointed with the ever decreasing size of it, especially compared to the ever increasing cost.