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A thumbtack is a short nail or pin with a large, slightly rounded head made of metal which is used to fasten documents to a background for public display and which can easily be inserted or removed by hand. In the UK and Australia, thumbtacks are usually called drawing-pins.
Types of Thumbtack
The most common thumbtacks are made by attaching a brass stem to a flat brass head. Some have coloured plastic tops, to make them more attractive.
Map Pins, or push pins, are also a type of thumbtack. Map Pins have a handle-like cover of plastic, which brings the pin out of the wall, allowing quick and easy removal from surfaces.
History
The map pin was invented by Edwin Moore around 1900, the year in which he founded the Moore Push-Pin Company *.
As far as is currently known, the thumbtack was invented by the clockmaker Johann Kirsten in the year 1903 in the town of Lychen in Uckermark, Germany *. He sold the rights to the invention to Otto Lindstedt, a businessman, who received a patent for the thumbtack on 8th January 1904. Lindstedt became a wealthy man while Kirsten, the clockmaker, remained in poverty.
Other sources ascribe the invention of the thumbtack to Austrian factory owner Heinrich Sachs in 1888 *.
Physics
A thumbtack can be inserted by hand because of the large area of its head relative to the area of its point. When a relatively low pressure is applied across the large head of a thumbtack, a high pressure will be applied by the tip of the thumbtack. The low pressure on the head means the thumbtack will not pierce a person's finger. The high pressure at the tip allows it to pierce the surface to which the document is being fastened.
Odd Facts
A thumbtack can be made to spin on its tip like a spinning top by holding the pin (with head facing up) between thumb and forefinger and rapidly spinning and releasing it in one fluid motion.
Today, thumbtacks are a popular weapon in hardcore professional wrestling promotions, mainly due to the fact that they often remain visible after use on the wrestler, and are very cheap. This use was mainly popularized by the now-defunct Extreme Championship Wrestling. Infrequently, they may be used by more mainstream promotions; one famous use of thumbtacks in the WWF was in the 1998 Hell in a Cell match between The Undertaker and Mankind, and Cactus Jack vs. Randy Orton at Backlash 2004. (Note that Mankind and Cactus Jack are both portrayed by Mick Foley.) Thumbtacks in the WWE were also used at WrestleMania 22 in a Hardcore match featuring Edge and Mick Foley, and during a Extreme Rules Match between Ric Flair and The Big Show on ECW On SciFi.
A common miscomseption is that the thumbtacks and other weapons such as barbed wire are fake when used in professional wrestling. While this may be the case in some promotions, in others it is usually false especially when discussing the use of the thumbtacks. Although a large amount of them will probably cause a fair amount of physical pain, especially when being slammed onto them, it does not pose any serious threat to the performers and therefor it is safe to say that real thumbtacks are always used.
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"Thumbtack"