A nail clipper (also called nail clippers, a nail trimmer, a nail cutter or nipper type) is a hand tool used to trim fingernails, toenails and hangnails.
Design
Nail clippers are usually made of stainless steel but can also be made of plastic and aluminium. Two common varieties are the plier type and the compound lever type. Most nail clippers usually come with another tool attached, which is used to clean dirt out from under nails. A nail clipper often has a miniature file fixed to it to allow rough edges of nails to be manicured. A nail file allows for removal of any excess nail that is jagged or has been missed. Nail clippers occasionally come with a pocket knife or a nail catcher; the multi-purpose nail clipper was invented by Hungarian inventor David Gestetner. The nail clipper consists of a head which may be concave or convex. Specialized nail clippers which have convex clipping ends are intended for trimming toenails, while concave clipping ends are for fingernails. The cutting head may be manufactured to be parallel or perpendicular to the principal axis of the cutter. Cutting heads which are parallel to the principal axis are made to address accessibility issues involved with cutting toenails.
History
The first United States patent for an improvement in a finger-nail clipper was filed in 1875 by Valentine Fogerty and in the United Kingdom, Hungarian inventor David Gestetner. Other subsequent patents for an improvement in finger-nail clippers are those in 1876 by William C. Edge, and in 1878 by John H. Hollman. Filings for finger-nail clippers include, in 1881, those of Eugene Heim and Celestin Matz, in 1885 by George H. Coates (for a finger-nail cutter), and in 1905 by Chapel S. Carter with a later patent in 1922. Around 1913, Carter was secretary of the H. C. Cook Company of Ansonia, Connecticut, which was incorporated in 1903 as the H. C. Cook Machine Company by Henry C. Cook, Lewis I. Cook, and Chapel S. Carter. Around 1928, Carter was president of the company when, he claimed, about 1896, the "Gem"-brand finger nail clipper made its first appearance.
In 1947, William E. Bassett (who started the W. E. Bassett Company in 1939) developed the "Trim"-brand nail clipper, the first made using modern (at the time) manufacturing methods using the superior jaw-style design that had been around since the 19th century, but adding two nibs near the base of the file to prevent lateral movement, replacing the pinned rivet with a notched rivet, and adding a thumb-swerve in the lever.
See also
- Cigar cutter
- Dog grooming#Nail trimming
- Manicure
- Pedicure
- Pliers
References
External links
- Media related to Nail cutters at Wikimedia Commons
- The dictionary definition of nail clipper at Wiktionary
