Today, scissors are an integral part of our lives. They first appeared about 3500 years ago in Ancient Rome. Unlike today's scissors, they were made from one piece of metal. And their purpose was completely different from what it is now. This item was used for shearing sheep. The scissors consisted of two sharp knives connected by a kind of tweezers with a curved and springy sheet.
Despite the fact that such an invention worked, it was not particularly successful, because the blades of such scissors could not rotate about the center, but were only squeezed by hand. Therefore, our ancestors used them only before the “warming worsted season.” However, despite the fact that such a mechanism was very inconvenient, it existed for more than two thousand years without any significant modifications.
Around the 8th century AD, an unknown artisan, originally from the Middle East, had the idea of combining two blades with a nail, and making their handles into rings. Then such handles began to be decorated with picturesque forging.
Scissors arrived on the European continent a little later. This happened around the 10th century. The most ancient scissors that were found on the Russian territory during the archaeological excavations of the Gnezdovo burial mounds, near the village of Gnezdovo, located 12 kilometers from Smolensk.
Unfortunately, history does not contain the name of the artisan who came up with the idea of combining two blades with a nail and making the handles in the shape of rings. After all, this is exactly what modern scissors look like.
The scissors were given their final form by none other than Leonardo da Vinci himself. In his manuscripts a certain drawing of a mechanism was discovered that is very similar to the scissors currently in use.
Then the scissors began to live their own lives: they were periodically improved, and in some cases they became a luxury item. This applies to those scissors that were made of expensive metal - silver and gold.
Scissors were also made of iron and steel. Products made from silver were covered with gold and lavishly decorated, which gave the instrument a certain luxury and sophistication. The imagination of master magicians had no limits - either they would get a bird of extraordinary beauty, whose beak cut the fabric into pieces, or amazing finger rings would intertwine exquisite clusters of grapes, or they would get scissors in the form of a fantastic dragon. It was so richly decorated that it made it difficult to use such scissors.
Gradually, great interest began to be attached to the shape and quality of the instrument. Since that time, scissors with thin and smooth blades, decorated with various patterns and notches, began to be produced. This was facilitated by the art of calligraphy, which spread throughout the Middle East.
Due to improvements, scissors have become more beautiful. They were given various shapes, which were draped with filigree carvings. But at the same time, the scissors continued to be functional and added a little aesthetics to the routine.
In the Middle Ages, scissors were proof that a man was interested in a lady. Thus, in the fourteenth century, a suitor who sent a gift to his beloved often included several scissors in it. It was in this century that scissors became a truly feminine attribute, as they remain today.
Then the British came up with scissors designed for lawns, and the French began to use them in cooking for cutting up geese carcasses. The Germans went further - they came up with huge iron scissors to provide assistance in case of road accidents. This device can also open a jammed door, break glass, or cut seat belts.
After some time, the man began to think even more globally and created scissors made of ceramics, which, as it turned out, turned out to be much stronger than steel ones and more resistant to wear, and they cut much thinner.
And after a certain period of time, they created scissors that were completely different from their progenitor. They were more like a knife from a meat grinder, thanks to which they could cut rubber.
Later, the inventor created modern scissors, to which he added an electronic mechanism that reproduces patterns of decoration of any model on the monitor screen. The cutting speed was one meter per second. During this operation, the edges of the tissues burn and do not unravel.
The Industrial Revolution has now returned scissors to their original status as a purely functional item. There is no decor on them now. Modern scissors can be used for any purpose. They, like several centuries ago, are irreplaceable.
Who invented scissors and when?
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History of the invention of scissors
Two ends, two rings, a stud.
It is difficult to say exactly when scissors were invented, but the earliest examples date back to the 4th century BC. e. Before this, everyone - from sheep farmers to barbers - got by with a pair of knives. Such knives, often depicted on the tombstones of ancient barbers, lasted for many centuries after scissors came into use - apparently, the conservatism of the profession affected them. The first scissors appeared in China, and soon in the Mediterranean. Were they borrowed from the Chinese or invented independently? The question is as insoluble as in the cases of gunpowder, money, sails and much more. Archaeologists have found scissors in layers of excavations from the 2nd century BC. e. The geographical spread is enormous - from Egypt to England. Scope of application: surgery, cloth production, manicure. Simultaneously with Rome, scissors appeared among the Germanic tribes. It is surprising that the ancients used to place them in the grave with the deceased. In the burials (and mostly male!), belonging not only to shepherds, but also to warriors, not only to doctors, but also to aristocrats, there are large and miniature, bronze, silver and inlaid specimens. Why did the deceased need them? To cut the hair of enemies who would be defeated by him in some otherworldly battles? Let’s say that the Germans had such a custom and could well have been transferred to the afterlife - but the Romans had nothing like that! Scissors are even found in the graves of children. A riddle that has no answer yet. Now it’s time to say the main thing: the scissors that have been discussed so far were built on a different principle than those that are known to us today. These were not two crossed blades with curved fingers and a hinge in the middle. Ancient scissors consisted of two parallel spring blades connected at one end by a semicircle or omega-shaped curve. They cut their hair without pressing a big one and index finger, and with the force of the bottom of the palm on one side - and four fingers on the other. A similar instrument existed until modern times (it is depicted in a miniature from the Utrecht Psalter of the 9th century). And such scissors are sometimes used to shear sheep today. Hinged scissors appeared in Rome, but were extremely rare there. They were used as a manicure device, and they were small in size - about 12 cm. Until the late Middle Ages, such scissors were extremely rare. But the rise of their popularity can be dated quite accurately. In the English town of Avebury, in ancient times, were erected megalithic structures, like the famous Stonehenge. At some point, local peasants, out of superstition, began to throw giant blocks onto the ground. Their efforts were observed by a certain poor fellow. A boulder suddenly collapsed and buried him. In 1938, archaeologists dug up the skeleton of the unfortunate man, which revealed several coins from 1320-1350, a whetstone and, most importantly, hinged scissors. They decided that the rotozey was a traveling barber who paid for his curiosity. Well, in the end, it’s his own fault - but we now have the earliest example of modern European scissors. In 1345, they are depicted on the tombstone of a certain Frau Agnes from Germany, and in 1350, scissors appear on a miniature from the manuscript of the Saxon Mirror. From the last third of the 15th century, images are already found very often. The difference between hinged scissors and spring scissors was not only in the principle of connection. The blades of the former widened in the middle and became sharper towards the end; in the latter they usually had a constant width and the ends were rounded, like a straight razor. Over the next two centuries, both types of scissors coexist and clearly compete: in the pictures in the handwritten charter of the Nuremberg tailors' guild, both appear.
A machine for irrigating fields, systems of levers and cables for lifting large weights, military throwing machines - these and many other inventions and discoveries of the Syracuse sage Archimedes made such an impression on his contemporaries that the name of the greatest mathematician and mechanic Ancient Greece began to acquire legends. One told how, using a system of blocks, with a calm movement of his hand, he forced a large loaded ship pulled onto land to move. Another told how he burned the enemy Roman fleet with the help of mirrors. It was also said that, having discovered the action of the lever, Archimedes said: “Give me a lever and a fulcrum, and I will turn the world upside down.”
Vintage scissors.
The lever as a simple tool has been used since time immemorial, and you yourself use it every day. Take a closer look at the most ordinary scissors. How do we cut paper? All the time only at one point. This is the meaning of scissors - to concentrate all the applied force at one point. And the force, it turns out, is so great that we can easily cut not only paper or fabric, but also cardboard, plastic and even metal. And one more thing: we always try to act not with the ends of the scissors, but, on the contrary, with the very beginning of the blades, closer to the screw. Moreover, the harder the material, the closer to the beginning of the blades we move it. This is where the law of leverage, discovered by Archimedes, “works”: the shorter we make the blades of the scissors, and the handles longer, the more we gain in strength.
Sheep shearing shears. Garden shears.
There are scissors that are called lever scissors. They are manual and mechanical and are used for cutting sheets of metal, wire, etc. The lower horizontal knife is fixedly fixed, and the upper one is a lever.
About 1000 years ago, some craftsman came up with the idea to connect two knives using a nail, and bend their handles into rings - and that’s what scissors turned out to be. True, much earlier, about 3.5 thousand years ago, “sheep” shears were invented (they were used to shear sheep, that’s why they are called that). Imagine two blades connected like tweezers by an arched steel spring plate. The operating principle of such scissors is different - their blades do not rotate relative to the center, but are simply squeezed by hand.
As time has shown, the device from the children's riddle “Two ends, two rings, and a carnation in the middle” turned out to be the most convenient. The oldest scissors in Eastern Europe found near Smolensk, in Gnezdovo. They were made in the 10th century.
They made scissors from iron, steel, silver, and richly decorated them. The most expensive ones were even covered with gold. The imagination of the craftsmen had no limits: sometimes a strange bird appeared, its beak cutting fabric, then vines with bunches of grapes curled around the finger rings, and sometimes they suddenly turned out not as scissors, but as a fairy-tale dragon. Sometimes there were so many decorations that they interfered with the use of this simple tool.
Modern scissors.
In Russia, scissors were made mainly by handicraftsmen, and mainly in those provinces where knives were made - in Nizhny Novgorod and Vladimir. Usually only one blade was hardened, and both blades must be hardened together so that the hardness was the same. The ears were hardened only on expensive specimens, since then they were better polished. Quite a long time ago, scissors developed their own “specialties”: some were intended for craftsmen working with leather, others for hairdressers, and others for doctors. There were even special scissors for cutting coin blanks from a metal rod (they were large, durable and attached to a wooden stand). Today there are scissors with which they cut bushes on lawns, butcher poultry, cut fabrics, cut loops, cut a cake and even... a car. These giant steel scissors were invented in Germany and are used in road accidents. This device can also break glass in a car, open a jammed door, or cut seat belts.
New materials for making scissors are also appearing, such as special ceramics. Scissors made from it are three times stronger than steel ones, more wear-resistant, and cut much thinner! Electric scissors have been created; their operating principle is the same as that of electric hair clippers. They operate on two batteries of one and a half volts each. Scissors have been invented that don’t look like scissors at all, but rather resemble a knife from a meat grinder: a disk with three teeth is attached to an ordinary electric drill. They can cut rubber, thick leather, linoleum, and plastics at a speed of 20 meters per minute.
Some of the most advanced “scissors” are used in sewing factories. An electronic computer compiles and displays on the screen clothing patterns of any style invented by fashion designers. The cutting operator makes final changes to these patterns using a light pencil. Then, at the commands of the computer, laser “scissors” automatically cut the fabric according to these patterns. Cutting speed - almost a meter per second! Moreover, during this operation, the edges of the fabric or knitted fabric are burned, melted, and therefore do not unravel or crumble - they are, as it were, hemmed.
And yet, despite all the new products, ordinary scissors will serve us faithfully for a long time. Of course this one the simplest tool also requires attention. The dad from A.P. Chekhov’s story “Boys” threw the scissors on the floor, angry that they were dull, instead of sharpening them. Today, a special case for scissors with a sharpening device made of pobedite will help the matter. Sharpening occurs every time the instrument is put into the case... and your faithful assistant is ready for use again.
Take note
Scissors often become dull. To sharpen them again, take left hand a needle, and to the right - scissors and start “cutting” the needle. Hold the needle perpendicular to the blades and as close to the middle of the widely spread scissors as possible. As you squeeze, bring the needle to the end of the blades. You need to do this 10-20 times, and the scissors will become sharp again. You can also cut the new sandpaper several times.
Scissors came into our lives from ancient times. The first scissors were created more than three and a half thousand years ago, and they did not serve for hairdressing needs or cutting paper and fabric, their purpose was to shear sheep. The first scissors in history were similar to tweezers, consisting of two blades. The oldest example of such scissors was found by archaeologists in Egypt and dates back to the 16th century BC.
Around the 8th century AD, one of the artisans in the Middle East came up with the idea of using a nail to connect two knives, and bend their handles into rings for convenience. This design turned out to be convenient and took root. Later, artistic forging began to be used to decorate the handle of scissors.
The history of scissors in Europe and Russia began in the 10th century, as evidenced by relevant archaeological finds. In particular, the oldest Russian scissors were discovered during archaeological excavations in the Gnezdovo mounds near the village of Gnezdovo, not far from Smolensk.
Unfortunately, history has not preserved the name of the person who came up with the first semblance of scissors, when two separate blades were connected with a nail and the handles were rounded. But modern scissors, which are used to cut paper, do manicures, and cut hair, are presented in exactly this form.
Leonardo da Vinci gave this instrument its completed form. A drawing of an instrument resembling modern scissors was found in his manuscripts.
The history of scissors did not stand still, and over time they began to be adapted to various types activities (medicine, hair cutting, manicure, etc.). Make working versions from iron and steel and create them as luxury items using gold and silver.
The imagination of the craftsmen knew no bounds - either the scissors looked like a strange bird cutting fabric with its beak, then the vines on which clusters of grapes hung were wrapped around finger rings, then suddenly instead of the scissors they turned out to be a fairy-tale dragon with its intricate decorations, because of all this, sometimes When using this functional device, inconveniences arose.
Since scissors began to be decorated in the Middle Ages, they began to be considered a good and functional gift for women. Scissors in special leather cases were readily given to ladies, attached to the main gift. That is why, over time, scissors become a women's accessory, except for rare exceptions, and they remain so in our time.
Since history does not stand still, the areas of application for scissors became more and more and over time, the British created scissors for mowing lawns, the French invented scissors for cutting up geese carcasses, and the Germans invented steel scissors that helped in car accidents. After the creation of ceramic knives, this technology was transferred to scissors. Ceramic scissors turned out to be three times stronger than steel ones and more wear-resistant. This list can be continued for a long time, because there are scissors for cutting metal, for cigars, thinning scissors for cutting hair, and so on, the main thing is that scissors are necessary for humanity, just as they were hundreds of years ago.
What do you think scissors were originally invented for? Cutting fabric, paper, cutting hair? No! They appeared in ancient times - more than 3000 years ago - and were used for shearing sheep!
At the very beginning of their existence, scissors resembled tweezers with two blades. The oldest scissors discovered by archaeologists were found in Egypt and date back to the 16th century BC.
Scissors got their shape, which is close to our usual one, in the 13th century AD, when one of the artisans who lived in the Middle East decided to connect two knives with a nail, and bent the handles into rings to make it easier to hold. It is this design, as we know, that has taken root since then. Over time, only the handles of the scissors changed, which were decorated in any way, including with the help of artistic forging. 
According to archaeological finds, scissors came to Europe and Russia in the 10th century. The oldest scissors discovered in the area modern Russia, were found near Smolensk, on the Gnezdovo mounds near the village of Gnezdovo.
Over time, scissors began to be adapted for use in different types human activity: in medicine, hairdressing, manicure, etc. In addition, both “working” scissors (made of steel and iron) and scissors as luxury items (made of silver and gold) were created. 
Since scissors began to represent not only a working tool, but also a luxurious accessory, they began to be considered an excellent functional gift for a woman. Therefore, they gradually became a women's accessory, with rare exceptions, which they remain to this day.
The history of scissors developed differently in each country. The French, for example, invented scissors for butchering geese, the British - for mowing lawns, the Germans - steel scissors, which were used during car accidents. Scissors for cigars, for cutting metal, thinning scissors and others were invented. In short, this useful tool continues to be indispensable for humans, just as it was several centuries ago. 