Will Later Be Fast Trivia Quiz

Named for its resemblance to a crustacean's claw, lobster clasps are the default fastener for necklaces and bracelets, and you can find larger ones on many handbags and keychains. The little levered gate on one side of the loop opens and stays shut using a spring. The similar clasp that uses a sliding, deadbolt-style gate, seen on most dog leashes, is called a "bolt snap."

Treasury tags are essentially ornamental fasteners for stationery that feature two crossbars attached by a string. You pass the string through a small hole in some papers, then wrap the ends of the bars around each other to hold them fast. "Treasury" is often capitalized, as the name derives from the British Treasury.

A modern variation on the string tags are the colorful plastic T tags, shaped like a larger version of the plastic "tagging barbs" used in clothing stores.

I've always wondered what to call these things. Hook-and-eye fasteners have been used to cinch garments shut since the 14th century. Of course, today they appear most commonly on brassieres, bodices, and so forth. The top closure on many pairs of men's trousers is also a variant of a hook-and-eye.

The photo is an old advertisement from Richardson and De Long. "E-CLIP-ses everything" is a dandy of a pun, isn't it? I think it's aged better than their other slogan: "See that hump?" (They were actually referring to the patented "De Long hump" on the long side of the hook, which prevents slippage.)

Binder clips, a.k.a. foldover, banker's, bobby, or handbag clips, is a fastener that secures a stack of papers. It's operated by bending it open by its two metal handles. Unlike the pitiful paperclip, the binder clip is sturdier, stronger, and won't rust, and you won't be tempted to make a daisy chain with them if you keep them in your bag. You can also use binder clips to prop up a cell phone or secure your messy computer cables.

Carabiners are sturdy metal hooks with a spring-loaded clasp on one side. They're usually used to hold together ropes or straps. They're great for climbing, sailing, scuba diving, rigging a hammock - anything involving rope that you'd like an easy way to detach. Because of their importance in rescue and extreme sports, carabiner manufacture is strictly regulated. "Carabiner" (or rather "Karabiner") is the German for "carabineer," one who wields a carbine machine gun: many WWI carabineers used them to secure their weapon slings.

For obvious reason, I just couldn't skip out on Terry clips. In the photo shown, the Terry clip is the thin clamp placed around the middle cylinder. You can use them to secure anything cylindrical in place by screwing or threading the straight side to hold it in place. Terry clips were invented in Redditch, England, a hub since the Victorian era for manufacturing fasteners, needles, and any kind of small, metallic paraphernalia.

There's even a museum in Redditch dedicated to needles.

"Flange" very simply refers to a lip that extends off of something, but it can specifically refer to many kinds of connectors (or points where a connection is intended). When it comes to pipe fittings and electrical conduits, flanges are often tightly secured with a ring of heavy stud bolts. The connection that joins a toilet to the sewer system is called a closet flange.

These things are known by lots of names - wall plug, screw anchor, or the proprietary eponym "rawlplug" - but their task is straightforward: stabilizing a screw in a drywall or plaster wall. The rawlplug was first patented by John Joseph Rawlings in 1911, but he could not find a material he liked for them.

He tried metal, jute, rubber, glass, wood, and paper. The metal rawlplugs sold well, but a much more suitable material was found after World War II, when those crafty Germans got hold of new synthetic plastics.

A more international name for these things is "crocodile clip," but I have always called them by the name of the great American reptile. Alligator clips are handy for safely forming electrical connections that can be detached on a whim. An inventor named John H. Williams designed the clips for the company Mueller so that electricians could draw power to a lightbulb from the same wires they were working on. Obviously, this was a niche use case; I'll bet Mueller thanked their stars when automobiles began using electric starters.

Ever since, the alligator clip has been synonymous with jumper cables. To this day, Mueller are still the world's largest manufacturer of alligator clips and jumper cables.

Why, you may be asking, would the humble bread clip have a name as convoluted as "occlupanid"? You, my friend, are unfamiliar with the work of HORG, the Holotypic Occlupanid Research Group. Occlupanids are "generally found as parasitoids in supermarkets, hardware stores, and other large commercial establishments." HORG maintains a rigorous systematic classification of these tags. More than two dozen families are described, primarily differentiated by the shape of their "oral grooves." The specimen shown in this photo belongs to the extremely large family Toxodentidae.

Is there any point to this tomfoolery? Actually yes: apparently HORG has genuine use for doctors when dealing with the ingestion of bread ties in the digestive tract. They also advocate for the use of biodegradable cardboard ties over plastic ones. Read all about it at HORG.com.

How is a wingnut like a tennis racket? First let me bore you with the overview: a wingnut is a loose-fitting nut, with wings that act as levers to allow the nut to be tightened around a bolt by hand. But did you notice they have the same shape as a tennis racket? In space, if you spin a wingnut around its wings, it will flip every few seconds, swapping the direction of the center bore, as though invisible fingers were flicking it. You can see the same effect with a tennis racket on earth: if you toss a tennis racket straight up in the air, whatever side was facing you when you threw it will have "flipped" by the time you catch it. Try it out! Both phenomena are eerily consistent.

This is called the Dzhanibekov effect, and it has to do with the objects having three axes of rotation with three widely disparate degrees of stability.

Unlike the big rivets that hold together bridges and boats, these so-called pop rivets are used for many smaller applications. They have use in gutters, auto body repairs, ductwork, and some parts of aircraft and watercraft. Rivets like these can be installed with a handheld, spring-powered rivet gun. Bigger rivets need something like an air gun to lodge the rivets into the material, and requires two people standing on both sides of the installation. ("Pop," like "rawlplug," is a former trademark now considered a genericized brand name.)