Thumbtacks
Thumbtacks are short, handy pins with rounded heads, used to secure documents, flyers, notes, pictures and other sorts of paper goods onto a surface (frequently a wall-mounted bulletin board). They can conveniently be inserted and removed by hand.
There are different types of thumbtacks, including push pins and map pins.
A standard thumbtack has a short pin, and a flat, round head, somewhat like a very squat very wide nail. They are easy to insert, but often awkward to remove because the head, if pushed down far enough, is relatively flush with the surface.
Standard push pins, however, have a taller, easy to grip head, which is often longer than the pin itself, providing for effortless, fast insertion and extraction by hand.
Map pins come in a wide variety of styles, but most typically consist of a very long pin with a very small, coloured plastic spherical head. They are used as place markers on maps. Some of the more popular variations include pins with numbered heads to allow routes to be followed more accurately on maps, and pins with small plastic flags for heads.
Push pins were the brainstorm of Pennsylvanian inventor Edwin Moore. Mr. Moore founded the push-pin company back in 1900. Working hard, he dedicated his afternoons and evenings to constructing push-pins. Over the next several years his clientele slowly grew. Finally, on July 19th, 1904 his company was incorporated as the "Moore Push-Pin Company".
Thumbtacks are referred to as drawing pins in the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand.
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