††A safety pin is a pin looped over with a clip to guard the point.
Fasteners made on this principle were known from the Bronze Age in Europe, about 1300 BC. The modern safety pin was re-invented by both Charles Rowley, an Englishman, and Walter Hunt, an American, in 1849.
The original version lacked a spring and depended on the amount of material being pinned in order to close it.
