Hail to the handy, dandy invention of the binder clip

 You can never have too many binder clips…in the workplace or at home.

One of the greatest inventions of all time, the binder clip is a lightweight but heavy-duty clamp that underpins giant corporations as well as micro businesses.

 

Louis E. Baltzley of Washington, D.C., invented the binder clip in 1910. His nifty binder clip was capable of clamping together multiple sheets of paper. It was viewed as a solution to hold together business papers and manuscripts written by his father, Edwin Baltzley.

Prior to the binder clip, pages of a large document were punched with multiple holes and literally sewn or bound together using ribbon or yarn. Obviously, it was a tedious process to remove and revise a single sheet as well as to add or delete pages.

 

Clearly, binder clips are more durable than paper clips, which can easily be bent and lose their gripping ability. Binder clips are also superior to staples, which can be difficult to remove, if changes to a document are necessary. 

Made of metal with two stiff wire loops, the binder clip is formed in the shape of an isosceles triangle. Pressing the extended wire loops between one’s thumb and index finger creates an opening at the top of the triangle for the insertion of any number of sheets of paper. Releasing the pressure on the wire loops causes the jaws to clamp down, securing the document. Voilà. 

Louis Baltzley initially produced his invention through the L.E.B. Manufacturing Company, and the letters “L.E.B.” are stamped on one side of the sheet metal. Manufacturing rights were later licensed to other companies.

 

“Inventing stuff” was in Louis Baltzley’s genes. His maternal grandfather Elias Howe of Spencer, Mass., invented the sewing machine in 1845. Howe’s invention proved to be five times faster than the swiftest hand sewers working in American textile factories.

Howe eventually established the Howe Machine Company of Bridgeport, Conn., and his sewing machine won the gold medal at the Paris Exhibition of 1867. 

Louis Baltzley received about 30 patents during his career. Other items he invented or improved include: culinary beaters, smoking stand ashtrays, ping pong rackets, metallic trash receptacles, sifter tops, a fruit pitting device, a fish hook manufacturing device and adjustable wrenches. 

Freelance journalist Linda Hales commented that the only good invention to ever come out of Washington, D.C., is Louis Baltzley’s binder clip – the “springy steel clamp that has tamed mountains of documents.” 

“As Washingtonians know, the local industry is regulation, not invention, so we’ve never been a hotbed of industrial design. Still, genius has emerged from our midst,” Hales said. 

Even in an age of technology and social media, “papers still have to be brought under control. And office workers the world over are reaching for Washington’s humble masterpiece.”

 

Phaidon, a global publishing firm based in London, England, ranks the binder clip as Number 97 out of 999 all-time great inventions, Hales added. 

One wonders if the Phaidon folks considered all the “alternative uses” for binder clips?

 

One of the most celebrated uses for a binder clip occurred on April 30, 1996, during testing of the North American XB-70 Valkyrie research aircraft, capable of flying at Mach 3.08 speed (approximately 2,283 mph). 

Air Force Col. Joe Cotton was at the controls when the experimental jet’s landing gear jammed. He creatively used a binder clip to short-circuit the electrical system and activate the landing gear. Newspaper headlines exclaimed that a 39-cent binder clip “saved a $750 million aircraft.”

 

For the fascinating full story, access the Roadrunners Internationale website.