- I found two possible origins for the word "thimble". One is the old English word thymel, meaning thumbstall. The other is the term used by the first thimble manufacturer in England in the 17th century - the "thumb-bell," which evolved into the word we use today.
- Early man used pieces of bone to help push needles, as early as 30,000 years ago. By Roman times, thimbles existed - the oldest thimble ever discovered dates back to the first century and was found in Pompeii.
- Early thimbles were made from whale bone, horn, or ivory. Today, they are made from metal, leather, rubber, wood, glass, or china. Silver thimbles were popular in the 19th century but there was a problem with them. Silver is a soft metal and so it wasn't unknown for a needle to pierce the metal. A manufacturer called Charles Horner solved this problem by using a steel core which was covered inside and out by silver. His Dorcas thimbles are now collectors items.
- A collector of thimbles is called a digitabulilst. This hobby first became popular after special thimbles were made for the Great Exhibition held in the Crystal Palace in Hyde Park in the 1800s.
- The largest thimble collection in the world belongs to Robert Harper of Canada, and contains more than 8,000 thimbles.
- The most expensive one ever is believed to have belonged to Queen Elizabeth I and is made from Gold. It was probably a gift from Mughal Court in India, and Elizabeth gave it to one of her ladies in waiting. It was sold at auction in 1992 for $31,180.00.
- Protecting fingers from needle pricks isn't the only use thimbles have been put to. In the 1800s they were used to measure spirits (hence the phrase "just a thimbleful"). They could also be used by prostitutes to tap on windows to let their customers know they were there, and Victorian schoolteachers would use them to tap the heads of naughty children.
- Thimbles have been used as love-tokens and to commemorate important events. At one time they were seen as ideal gifts for ladies, but not always a welcome one, given that there is a superstition which says if a woman has three thimbles given to her as gifts she will never marry.
- During the First World War silver thimbles were collected from "those who had nothing to give" by the British government and melted down to buy hospital equipment.
- A thimble is one of the tokens in the game of Monopoly. There's also a children's game called Hunt the Thimble. The rules of this game can be found at https://www.activityvillage.co.uk/hunt-the-thimble.
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