Tailor Twain

John King Tarpinian assures me that on this day in 1871 Mark Twain received a patent for suspenders.

I wonder if those were the famous suspenders of disbelief so necessary to fiction writers?

Here’s more detail about the patent from Time:

One of the first U.S. patents for suspenders was issued in 1871 to Samuel Clemens (better known as Mark Twain) for “Adjustable and Detachable Straps for Garments,” that attached to everything from underpants to women’s corsets and were designed as an alternative to suspenders, which Clemens reportedly found uncomfortable. Metal clasps were invented in 1894 so that suspenders could be clipped on rather than buttoned, meaning that pants no longer had to come with buttons sewn in the waist, as they commonly did at the time.

One thought on “Tailor Twain

  1. Twain had a way of investing in useful things that would make people millions in the future … but investing in the wrong inventor. I wonder what went wrong this time? The straps were buttoned or snapped to the pants cuffs, or then went under the shirt?

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