Antique Brass Diaper Safety Pins with Serial Numbers

[scoots]

Something just turned up on my local Craig's list: three heavy brass safety pins reportedly for cloth diapers and each is stamped with a unique number.

Were these provided by a laundry service, and the numbers are part of an inventory control?

 

[alr2903]

Net bags for military barracks laundry were clipped shut with similar pins. I wish we had something for scale like a dollar bill.  Blues in one bag ,white cottons in the other.  No doubt these could of been from a diaper service as well.  I would think there were different sizes to secure different net bags.. Nice old school find.

 

[launderess]

Safety pins with numbers

Go back to the early days of power/steam commercial laundries.

There are larger ones used to secure net bags shut (they look like blanket pins), while the smaller ones simply ID a bag.

In order to keep laundry separate in those huge washers, extractors, etc.... items would be placed in net bags. This way you knew what belonged to who. See clip in following post: http://www.automaticwasher.org/cgi-bin/TD/TD-VIEWTHREAD.cgi?64331_5~1

Preferred method for tracking laundry in commercial settings was and often still is via marking. Before machines that did this work (again see clip in above thread), this was done by hand and was time consuming and expensive. Also many housewives and other customers objected to having certain items if not all their laundry marked. In such instances delicate things and or those Madame didn't wished marked (lace hankies, tablecloths, etc...) would be washed in net bags as above.

Using net bags and or marking allows a laundry to be run more economically with less cost; you only need several large washers and extractors. When smaller motors were invented with enough power for use in smaller washing machines such as 20lbs or less, you began to see the use of individual machines for each customer's wash much as what you see in today's laundromat wash & fold services. Customers liked this better as well because their laundry was not mixed with God only knows who's.

 

[sudsmaster]

Ah! I've got a big safety pin like that in my workshop, left behind by the previous owners. It's about four inches long. Seems to be steel, but I suppose I could polish it up to find out for sure.

 

 

[launderess]

Pins for marking a laundry bag:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/LOT-OF-9-VI...226527?hash=item4d40a7e41f:g:g-0AAOSwmmxW3fRa

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Bra...847284?hash=item488a1db234:g:f34AAOSwDuJWz4VG

Blanket/bag closing pins:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Brand-new-l...746972?hash=item4644d8745c:g:MUcAAOSweuxWTP0p

 

[sudsmaster]

OK, here's the one I found in my garage.

 

It's about five inches long.

 

It's not magnetic. It appears to be nickel plated brass, although most of the plating has worn off. The number is "213".

 

The former owner was in the merchant marine so it might date from the 40's.

 

And here I was for the past 19 years thinking this was for very large diapers... LOL...

 

It's quite stout, takes a strong squeeze from a hand to open and close.

 

 

 

[luxflairguy]

This takes me back to my youth! Our swim club used these to show you had membership. Mom pinned one on each towel we took to the pool and we showed the attendant the pin to gain access. Ours were stainless steel. Greg

 

[launderess]

It's quite stout, takes a strong squeeze from a hand to

It would be wouldn't it?

Those pins had to withstand forces inside a H-axis or other types of washing machine and possibly a tumble dryer.