The history of scissors is rooted in antiquity. Surprisingly, the first scissors were not invented at all for cutting clothes or trimming nails. Such an important subject for everyday life was created by breeders for shearing sheep. But scissors for human needs appeared much later.
First scissors
The history of this instrument began about three and a half millennia ago in ancient Rome. The design of the first samples was significantly different from the modern one. It is not known who invented the scissors first, but they were intended for shearing sheep and looked like two knives connected together like tweezers by a flexible metal plate. The blades acted as forceps that needed to be squeezed by hand. This device coped quite well with the task, although it was not too successful. Strange, but in this form, scissors continued to exist for more than two millennia without any design changes.
Roman history of the invention of scissors
Only in the 8th century AD a craftsman from a Middle Eastern country guessed to cross two knives, fix them with a nail in the middle, and bend the handles. For what craft this invention was intended is unknown, but since then significant changes have begun to occur in the history of scissors. Masters experimented with shape and size, decorated items with forging and painting, put autographs and stamps on their crafts.
In Europe, scissors appeared two centuries later. Around the same period, around the 10th century AD, this useful item reached Russia. The first Russian scissors were discovered by archaeologists in the Gnezdovsky mounds near Smolensk.
The device was given a modern look by the ingenious inventor and artist Leonardo da Vinci. His manuscripts contain a drawing of a tool that most accurately reproduces the appearance of scissors as we know them today. After that, the device became widespread; hairdressers, tailors, and doctors began to use it.
Alternative Theories
Some scholars argue that the ancient Egyptians mastered scissors back in the 16th century BC. e. Archaeological finds confirm this theory, but the construction of the Egyptian artifact is completely different than in Rome. Scissors are forged from a single piece of metal, without connecting plates. In China and Eastern Europe, archaeologists also found ancient scissors dated to about the same period. It is difficult to say for sure who exactly was the inventor, but one thing is clear: residents of different countries at the same time sought to improve their lives and created this extremely useful device.
Materials
The main material for production was steel and iron. Aristocrats turned scissors into a luxury item. For the rich, details were made of silver and gold, intricately decorated. Modern scissors are most often made of stainless steel, but special ceramics are often used, which is incredible in strength and lightness.
Scissors evolution
Thanks to the rich imagination of the craftsmen and the ever-growing demand, the shape of the blades and handles has been constantly improved. Scissors were made in the form of an exotic bird, the sharpened beak of which cut the matter. Rings for fingers were entwined with a vine, roses, lilies. Scissors were made in the shape of a dragon, decorated with ornate paintings. Passion for beautiful things led to the fact that too abundant jewelry prevented normal use of the subject.
Over time, both craftsmen and customers began to pay more attention to the convenience and quality of products. Customers demanded that the blades fit snugly and precisely together. Gradually, the models acquired smooth contours, and the blades began to be decorated only with neat engraving and delicate inlays. A new round has been outlined in the history of scissors: they become more and more beautiful, comfortable and accurate. Keeping the basic design, they were decorated with thin carvings, slightly changed their shape to make life more aesthetic.
In the Middle Ages, in the circle of aristocrats, scissors were used to demonstrate a man’s interest in a beautiful lady. In the 14th century, it was considered a good form to give your object of adoration a pair of elegant gold scissors in a leather case. Then the British created a device for mowing lawns, the French learned to use a tool for cutting clothes, the Germans created industrial copies.
In addition to traditional hand-made samples, today there are electric scissors. In appearance, they resemble a drill with a special nozzle and allow you to cut rubber and plastic at a speed of up to 20 meters per minute. In addition, the inventors came up with a whole machine based on ordinary scissors, designed to cut textiles. This high-tech device is able to reproduce patterns on the monitor, independently transfer them to fabric and cut. The cutting speed is more than a meter per second.
Varieties
By functional purpose, several main types of scissors are distinguished: stationery, manicure, hairdressers, dressmakers, kitchen, garden, for cutting metal.
The task of stationery scissors is to cut paper or cardboard. They are made of low-cost steel and have a straight blade shape. There is a long way to sharpen scissors at home. To do this, just cut a strip of sandpaper into strips. To create applications and curly cuts, there are zigzag scissors. Manicure intended for trimming nails, burrs and cuticles. The blades can be straight or curved, and the tips are most often thinly pointed. Children's manicure scissors, on the contrary, have a smooth, rounded edge.
The hairdresser's set consists of two types of scissors: straight and thinning. Straight lines have a standard shape of the blades, and thinning - with a serrated edge, which allows you to cut less hair and create a natural, smooth haircut line. The tailor's instrument is characterized by an important difference: the size of one of the rings is larger than the other. This is due to the fact that the cutter often needs to make significant efforts, and three or four fingers can be threaded into a wide ring at once.
Garden shears - this is a whole category of devices designed to cut grass, branches, bushes. All of them have different shapes and sizes.