Making the transition from straight pins to paper clips:

Soon after straight pins began rolling off the assembly line in the mid-1830s at Dr. John Howe’s manufacturing plant in New York City, a whole new market – in addition to the apparel industry – opened up.

 

U.S. business office managers immediately found another use for the simple straight pin. It could be used to fasten together sheets of paper, eliminating the need to poke holes in paper and literally sew pages together with ribbon or yarn.

 

An essay by Encyclopedia.com reported: “Business people bought boxes of loose pins, sold by the pound to use in offices.”

 

It was a definite improvement. Yet, “if pages needed to be unpinned and repinned many times, the pinned corner was subject to a lot of wear, leading to the drooping ‘dog ear.’” 

“Straight pins also had the disadvantage of being sharp enough to prick fingers”…leaving a bloody mess. 

Rachel Bartgis of the U.S. National Archives office in College Park, Md., said a variant to the business pin transformed the pin head into the shape of a “T.”

 

She said this helped reduce the physical pain of inserting pins into documents, but the fact remained – it’s difficult to stick a pin through more than a few pieces of paper.” 

The solution came in the form of the invention of the paper clip, Bartgis said. 

Its shape resembles a slide trombone (that doesn’t slide). Curiously enough, there is uncertainty about who invented the paper clip, she stated.

 

“It’s still unclear,” wrote the late Dr. Henry Petroski, a professor of civil engineering at Duke University in Durham, N.C. He enjoyed writing about the engineering aspects of many everyday items, including pencils, zippers and paper clips.

 

Dr. Petroski said Samuel B. Fay of Hamble-le-Rice, England, is cited as the recipient of the first U.S. patent of the paper clip in 1867, “but Fay’s invention was intended to replace the pins used to attach paper tags to clothing, especially the most delicate fabrics such as silk, lace and all the finer class of goods, without injury or leaving the slightest trace upon the goods when removed.”

 

However, the patent application’s description did mention that Fay’s clip “could also be used to attach papers together.” 

In 1899, a patent was awarded to William Middlebrook of Waterbury, Conn., who invented a machine to make paper clips. He sold his patent to Cushman & Denison, an office supply company based in New York City.

 

That same year, Cushman & Denison trademarked the name “GEM” for its new paper clip. The design was perfected further by rounding the sharp points of the wire so they wouldn’t catch, scratch or tear the papers. 

This message appeared in print advertising by Cushman & Denison in 1904: “Don’t mutilate your papers with pins or fasteners.” The company sold its paper clips for 25 cents a box. 

By 1907, Cushman & Denison was advertising its GEM brand as “the perfect paper clip that will hold securely your letters, documents or memoranda without perforation or mutilation until you wish to release them.”

 

Since then, literally zillions of paper clips have been sold.

 

StrawPoll is an online platform based in Hamburg, Germany, and the organization recently announced it is seeking to determine the “most unsung contribution to humanity.” It is asking the general public to respond: “What is the most underrated invention of all time?” 

In early voting results, the paper clip is ranked as Number 2, trailing only the wheelbarrow. 

The world’s largest red paper clip – more than 45 feet long – is proudly displayed in Kipling, Saskatchewan, Canada.