Consider the Paper Clip

I caught myself sitting in my office the other day contemplating the paper clip I was holding in my fingers. Just a bent piece of wire. Yet how many times have I used it not only for its intended purpose but, as a tool for other purposes? Then I remembered back to that class twenty years ago.

It does not seem as if it has been twenty years. Yet, it has been that. It was while sitting in a class the instructor assigned us the task of identifying how many possible uses there are for a paper clip. We were given one week to complete our task. An interesting assignment. While many of the other students may not have taken the assignment very seriously, I did. I was able to identify over 100 possible uses for the bent piece of wire (See my list later).

The exercise also made me think "how did the paper clip came about". Today, this simple little tool so basic in every office around the world. Where did it come from? And although there is the basic paper clip we all know and love today, they also come in different shapes and sizes.

So let us explore a little to find out more about our little versatile piece of necessary office equipment.

The fastening of papers has been historically traced to as early as the 13th century, when people put ribbon through parallel incisions in the upper left hand corner of pages. Later people started to wax the ribbons to make them stronger and easier to undo and redo. This was the way people clipped papers together for the next six hundred years.

In 1835, a New York physician named John Ireland Howe invented a machine for mass producing straight pins. Straight pins then became a popular way to fasten papers together, although they were not originally designed for that purpose. Straight pins were designed to be used in sewing and tailoring, to temporally fasten cloth together. Even so, companies would order them by the pound to be used to fasten papers together.

Seeing that steel wire was available for the production of straight pins it would only seem natural that some form of a paper clip would be developed. But our little friend had to wait for the invention of steel wire, which was "elastic" enough to be stretched, bent and twisted.

The first bent-wire paper clip was patented by Samuel B. Fay in 1867. The patent (#64,088) was issued on April 23, 1867 for a Ticket Fastener. This clip was originally intended primarily for attaching tickets to fabric, although the patent recognized that it could also be used to attach papers together.

In 1899 a Norwegian inventor with a degree in electronics, science and mathematics, invented the paperclip. Johan Vaaler (see the image) was an employee at a local invention office in Oslo when he invented the paper clip. Since Norway had no patent laws at that time he traveled to Germany to received a patent for his design. He received an American patent in 1901. The patent abstract reads in part, "It consists of forming same of a spring material, such as a piece of wire, that is bent to a rectangular, triangular, or otherwise shaped hoop, the end parts of which wire piece form members or tongues lying side by side in contrary directions." Johan Vaaler was the first person to patent a design specifically for the purpose of clipping a number of papers together without damage.

It appears that his interest waned in following up on the German patent. Historians surmise that perhaps financial considerations kept him from doing more with his idea.

But it was a company called the Gem Manufacturing Ltd. of England who first designed the double oval shaped standard looking paper clip. This familiar and famous paper clip was and still is referred to as the "Gem" clip.

The Gem paper clip, which was never patented, but which eventually became by far the best selling paper clip in the U.S., has been advertised since 1894.

William D. Middlebrook of Waterbury, Connecticut patented a machine for making paper clips of the Gem design in 1899.

People have been re-inventing the paper clip over and over again. Most failed to last, but some have remained. The designs that have been the most successful are the "Gem" with its double oval shape, the "Non-Skid" which has small incisions cut along the length of the parallels, the "Ideal" used for thick wads of paper, and the "Owl" the paper clip that did not get tangled up with other paperclips, nor did they snatch at stray papers that didn't belong with the clipped stack.

One clear challenge to the Gem was patented (#1,985,866) in 1934 and has come to be known as the Gothic clip; because its loops are pointed more to resemble Gothic arches than the rounded Romanesque ones of the Gem.

Although colorful plastic materials and new shapes have challenged the double-oval steel-wire paper clip over the years, none has proven superior. The traditional paper clip is the essence of form follows function. After a century, it still works.

The Gem clip is often held up as a paragon of modern design. It is simple, elegant, and surpassingly functional. Yet leaving the iconic shape aside, a paper clip designer must consider a host of mechanical and engineering questions.

The material used to make a paper clip must possess certain properties. The wire needs to be stiff enough to hold its shape in use, but not so stiff that it is difficult to open.

Engineers also consider a quality called "yield stress" when designing a paper clip. Yield stress is the amount of stress needed to permanently reshape the wire. If the wire has too low yield stress, it will stay bent open and not hold the papers tightly.

Engineers also must consider the cost effectiveness of the material used. Using a cheaper, thinner wire may save the manufacturer money. Yet the material must also perform well in the manufacturing process, not leaving sharp burrs at the cut ends and resisting cracking or breaking. The material used also should be non-corrosive.

The finished appearance of the clip is also a design consideration. The paper clip can have various finishes, smooth or slightly serrated, shiny or dull, and it can be made in many different sizes.

So even though the basic Gem design has survived primarily unchanged for over one hundred years, manufacturers still confront design and materials options when making new paper clips.

Quality control is not a particularly important issue in paper clip manufacturing. Visual inspection of the product is enough to identify a problem with the process. No special tests are needed.

The manufacturing equipment must be maintained in order to work properly. Some machines still in use today in the United States were built in the 1930s or even earlier. Trained workers check the equipment for wear and defects that might affect the quality of the finished paper clips.

Despite the fact that Norway holds a rather dubious claim as the birthplace of the paperclip, it played an important historical role there. During World War II, Norwegians were prohibited from wearing any buttons with the likeness or initials of their king on them. Hence they fastened paper clips to show patriotism and irritate the Germans. Also, because paperclips were a Norwegian invention whose original function was to "bind together". They symbolized solidarity and opposition to the Nazi occupation. Wearing a paper clip was often reason enough to get the wearer arrested.

Norwegians have proudly embraced their countryman, Johan Vaaler, as the true inventor of the paper clip. There is a 23 ft (7 m) high statue of a paper clip in Oslo, Norway. It was set up to commemorate Johan Vaaler and the solidarity the Norwegians represented against the Nazis by pinning paper clips on their lapels.

Most paper clips in the United States are made domestically by a few firms that specialize in their manufacture. These manufacturers put out roughly 20 million pounds of paper clips every year.

One paper clip industry study estimated that the vast percentage of paper clips were never used as intended-to hold paper-but were bent and destroyed by people, used as cleaning or prying instruments, etc.

The process of manufacturing paperclips has not changed much since the 1930s. Some of the machines used to manufacture paper clips today have been around since the 1930's and before.

I have been able to come up with over 100 uses of a paper clip. The most common uses I have seen are as a paper clip (of course), a book mark, a page marker, a key ring and a picture hanger just to name a few. How many ways have you see or used a paper clip? What does your list look like?