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Paperclip: This tiny useful thing
This month we would like to offer to our readers an old patent whose object is never lacking in our offices: the paperclip.
The origins of the fastening of papers can be traced back to the 13th century, where people put together papers by using ribbons on the corner of the pages. Later, these ribbons were waxed to increase their consistency and flexibility, and they were used until straight pins replaced them by the1830s. As pins left holes, they were only a temporary solution and by the end of the century a small "device" turned up.
There is no unanimity on which was the first paperclip design; but the first person who obtained a patent for a paperclip was Norwegian inventor Johan Vaaler, in Germany, 1899.
Vaaler presented a set of small, triangular, square and oval pieces designed for gathering papers.
The patent description shows that those small pieces were made with "spring material, such as a piece of wire, (...) whose end parts form(ed) members or tongues lying side by side in contrary directions".
Some of these pieces looked like the paperclips used today.
Although paperclips may be a collector's piece due, for example, to the hundred of forms and colours they may have, their real value is their utility. This tiny invention found its way to commercial success because of its usefulness and easy utilisation. Nowadays, it is difficult to imagine single office without them.
The patent (in German):
l2.espacenet.com
Further information:
inventors.about.com
freespace.virgin.net
www.csmonitor.com
www.uh.edu
www.ideafinder.com
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