Last week we were high-tech, this week we’re going low- tech.
Clothespins – or clothespegs, as some call them – have probably been around since people first started washing their clothes, though perhaps not in all the splashy new forms we have now.
Wait, wait, here we go, from that bastion of all knowledge, Wikipedia, on the origin of clothespins:
The one-piece wooden clothes-peg was invented by the Shaker community in the 1700s. A later version was patented by Jérémie Victor Opdebec. This older design does not use springs, but is fashioned in one piece, with the two prongs part of the peg chassis with only a small distance between them—this form of peg creates the gripping action due to the two prongs being wedged apart and thus squeezing together in that the prongs want to return to their initial, resting state. This form of peg is often fashioned from plastic, or originally, wood. In England, clothes-peg making used to be a craft associated with gypsies, who made clothes-pegs from small, split lengths of willow or ash wood.[1]
Today, many clothes-pegs (also clothespins) are manufactured very cheaply by creating two interlocking plastic or wooden prongs, in between which is often wedged a small spring. This design was invented by David M. Smith (inventor) of Springfield, Vermont, in 1853.[2][3] By a lever action, when the two prongs are pinched at the top of the peg, the prongs open up, and when released, the spring draws the two prongs shut, creating the action necessary for gripping.
The design by Smith was improved by Solon E. Moore in 1887. He added what he called a “coiled fulcrum” made from a single wire, this was the spring that both held the wooden pieces together and forced them to snap shut.[2]
Heh. So yeah, probably more than you ever wanted to know about clothespins. I wonder if the Shakers used them as sex toys?!?
Since then even clothespins have gotten higher tech, but the old-school wooden peg remains a favorite of kinksters everywhere. And of course there are boundlessly creative ways to use them in kink and sex play. Zippers are a personal favorite of mine, and I have seen them (and experienced them) used in all kinds of predicament play, and had hundreds placed all over my body at one time or another.
Then again, a single clothespin can be just as effective. A punishment or deterrent for a mouthy sub or bottom?
So how about it – do you play with clothespins?
Tell us about it!
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