Over the past few
decades there has been a continuous advancement in technology. It seems that with some electronics you have
barely been able to purchase the item before a “new and improved” model has
been put on the shelf. And often there
are not many improvements to the new model.
Of course, you many times have to deal with the “bugs” in the
advancements. Until there has been time
to get these “fixed” you almost wish that you could go back to your previous
product or at least you regret making the switch as quickly as you did.
Yet some of the “greatest”
or most “useful” productions have been very simple creations. They have withstood the test of time and
continue to be great tools for many personal and business projects. One of these items that I have been thinking
about is the simple paper clip. Let’s
look at its’ history.
A paper clip (or sometimes paperclip)
is an instrument used to hold sheets of paper together, usually made of steel wire bent to a looped shape.
Most paper clips are variations of the Gem type introduced in the 1890s
or earlier, characterized by the almost two full loops made by the wire. When a
moderate number of sheets are inserted between the two "tongues" of
the clip, the tongues will be forced apart and cause torsion in the bend of the
wire to grip the sheets together. Paper clips usually have an oblong shape with
straight sides, but may also be triangular or circular, or have more elaborate
shapes.
According
to the Early Office Museum, the first patent for a bent wire paper clip was
awarded in the United States to Samuel B. Fay, in 1867. This clip was
originally intended primarily for attaching tickets to fabric, although the
patent recognized that it could be used to attach papers together. Fay received U.S. patent 64,088 on April 23,
1867. Although functional and practical, Fay's design along with the 50 other
designs patented prior to 1899 are not considered reminiscent of the modern
paperclip design known today. Another
notable paper clip design was also patented in the United States by Erlman J.
Wright in 1877. This clip was advertised at that time for use in fastening
newspapers.
The
most common type of wire paper clip still in use,
the Gem paper clip, was never patented, but it was most likely in production in
Britain in the early 1870s by "The Gem Manufacturing Company",
according to the American expert on technological innovations, Professor Henry J. Petroski. He refers to an 1883 article about "Gem
Paper-Fasteners", praising them for being "better than ordinary
pins" for "binding together papers on the same subject, a bundle of
letters, or pages of a manuscript".
Since the 1883 article had no
illustration of this early "Gem", it may have been different from
modern paper clips of that name. The earliest documentation of its existence is
an 1894 advertisement for "Gem Paper Clips". In
1904 Cushman & Denison registered a trade mark for the "Gem" name
in connection with paper clips. The announcement stated that it had been used
since March 1, 1892, which may have been the time of its introduction in the
United States. Paper clips are still sometimes called
"Gem clips", and in Swedish the word for any paper clip is "gem".
Definite
proof that the modern type of paper clip was well known in 1899 at the latest,
is the patent granted to William Middlebrook of Waterbury, Connecticut on April 27 of that year for a "Machine for making wire paper
clips." The drawing clearly shows that the product is a perfect clip of
the Gem type. The fact that Middlebrook
did not mention it by name, suggests that it was already well known at the
time. Since then countless variations on the same theme have been patented.
Some have pointed instead of rounded ends, some have the end of one loop bent
slightly to make it easier to insert sheets of paper, and some have wires with
undulations or barbs to get a better grip. In addition, purely aesthetic
variants have been patented, clips with triangular or round shapes. But,
the original Gem type has for more than a hundred years proved to be the most
practical, and consequently by far the most popular. Its qualities—ease of use,
gripping without tearing, and storing without tangling—have been difficult to
improve upon.
It
has been claimed, though apparently without evidence, that Herbert Spencer, the originator of the term "survival
of the fittest", invented the paper clip. Spencer
claimed in his autobiography to have invented a "binding-pin" that
was distributed by Ackermann & Company, and he shows a drawing of the pin
in his Appendix I (following Appendix H). This pin looked more like a modern cotter pin than a modern paper clip, but it was designed to hold sheets of paper
together. It is approximately 15 cm unfolded.
A Norwegian, Johan Vaaler (1866–1910), has erroneously been identified as the inventor of the
paper clip. He was granted patents in Germany and in the United
States (1901) for a paper clip of similar design, but less functional and
practical, because it lacked the last turn of the wire. Vaaler probably did not
know that a better product was already on the market, although not yet in
Norway. His version was never manufactured and never marketed, because the
superior Gem was already available.
Long
after Vaaler's death his countrymen created a national myth based on the false
assumption that the paper clip was invented by an unrecognized Norwegian
genius. Norwegian dictionaries since the 1950s have mentioned Vaaler as the
inventor of the paper clip, and that myth later found its way into
international dictionaries and much of the international literature on paper
clips.
Vaaler's
patents expired quietly, while the "Gem" was used worldwide,
including his own country. The failure of his design was its impracticality.
Without the two full loops of the fully developed paper clip, it was difficult
to insert sheets of paper into his clip. One could manipulate the end of the
inner wire so that it could receive the sheet, but the outer wire was a dead
end because it could not exploit the torsion principle. The clip would instead
stand out like a keel, perpendicular to the sheet of paper. The impracticality
of Vaaler's design may easily be demonstrated by cutting off the last outer
loop and one long side from a regular Gem clip.
Wire
is versatile in its nature. Thus a paper clip is a useful accessory in many
kinds of mechanical work including computer work: the metal wire can be
unfolded with a little force. Several devices call for a very thin rod to push
a recessed button which the user might only rarely need. This is seen on most CD-ROM drives as an "emergency eject" should the power fail; also on
early floppy disk drives (including the early Macintosh). Various smartphones require the use of a long thin object such as a paper clip to eject the
SIM
card and some Palm PDAs advise the use of a paper clip to reset the device. The track ball
can be removed from early Logitech pointing devices using a paper clip as the key to the bezel. A paper
clip bent into a "U" can be used to start an ATX
PSU without connecting it to a motherboard (connect the green to a black on the motherboard header). One or more
paper clips can make a loopback device for a RS232 interface (or indeed many
interfaces). A paper clip could be installed in a Commodore 1541 disk-drive as a flexible head-stop. A paper clip can be used (unsafely)
to temporarily bridge a blown fuse. The steel wire from a paperclip can be used
in dentistry to form a dental post. Paper clips can be bent into a crude but sometimes effective lock picking device. Some types of handcuffs can be unfastened using paper clips.
As
you can see this seemingly simple item can be used for various purposes. There’s no complicated design to the paper
clip, but where would we be without it being around? I can’t speak for everyone but I would be
lost without this unbelievable necessary product!
THOUGHTFUL GEM
"Always keep the MAIN thing
the MAIN thing!"
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