Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 56, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 March 1899 — Where the Pins Go. [ARTICLE]

Where the Pins Go.

What becomes of all the pins? is one of the most common of household conundrums. Harper’s Bazar assures us that an old gentleman in London has solved it. By a series of experiments conducted In his back garden he has discovered that pins go the way of all flesh, and are resolved into dust. Hairpins, which he watched for one hundred and fifty-four days, disappeared at the end of that time, having been resolved into a ferrous oxide, a brownish rust, which was blown away by the wind. Bright pins took nearly eighteen months to disappear; polished steel needles nearly two years and a half; brass pins had but little endurance; steel pens at the end of fifteen months had nearly gone, while their wooden holders were still intact. Pencils, with which he also experimented, suffered little by exposure; the lead was unharmed, and the cedar almost as good as new; but then, nobody has ever asked the question about pencils, and he might have spared his pains.