Pivoted scissors
Tijeras de pivote
- Date
- c. 100 CE · confidence medium
- Place
- Rome, Lazio, Italy
- Credited to
- Craftsmen of the Roman Empire
- Field
- Tools
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
Scissors with two crossed blades turning on a central pivot, instead of the spring-joined double blade of earlier shears. They multiplied cutting force and served for shearing, cutting cloth and precise work.
Spring shears appear much earlier (Mesopotamia and Egypt, c. 1500 BC). The pivoted model is associated with the Roman Empire around AD 100, with possible parallel developments in Han China; the exact place cannot be fixed.
What it led to
- clean cutting of cloth, basis of the tailor's trade
- tailor's, pruning and surgical scissors
- standard patterning, since curves could now be cut precisely