Travel Meme

I think I saw this a while back, but I didn't do it...

Seeon on and burrowed from nephew1983 as I was passing through.

( Where in the world have you been? )

Travel Meme

I think I saw this a while back, but I didn't do it...

Seeon on and burrowed from nephew1983 as I was passing through.

( Where in the world have you been? )

Paperclips

Recently, the Economist decided to send me a book. They have sent me a few things recently, presumably because I am a subscriber and hence a generally good guy. And also, I suppose, because they have excess stuff that they can’t sell, so they decided to give it away.

Anyhow, the book is called “Business Miscellany”, full of fairly random facts that I have enjoyed flicking through over the past couple of days. (My wife asked if I read the encyclopaedia when I was a child; I said yes. She replied, “Yes, a lot of little boys do that.”)

There is a very entertaining section on inventions and patents.

Something that has bothered me for a long while is the question of who invented the paperclip? Something so simple – a piece of twisted metal – so banal, so everyday… and so essential. But there must have been a time when paper clips didn’t exist, before someone (who?!) actually thought of attaching two pieces of paper together with a little bit of wire.

(OK, it didn’t bother me so much that I researched the subject or anything. I haven’t even seen if there is an entry on “paperclips” in wikipedia. I have now, of course, because I just thought of it. There is!)

Well, the Business Miscellany tells me that Johan Vaaler patented the paperclip in 1899 – not very long ago. But… But it goes on to say that his design “never really caught on” because the design most commonly in use today was already in production.

So someone had already invented it! The Business Miscellany hasn’t answered my question at all.

Wikipedia has nearly come to my rescue, though: ‘The most common type of wire paper clip was never patented, but it was probably in production in Britain as early as 1890 by "The Gem Manufacturing Company"’. But still, before 1890, what did they do? Why had no one had the idea?

Paperclips

Recently, the Economist decided to send me a book. They have sent me a few things recently, presumably because I am a subscriber and hence a generally good guy. And also, I suppose, because they have excess stuff that they can’t sell, so they decided to give it away.

Anyhow, the book is called “Business Miscellany”, full of fairly random facts that I have enjoyed flicking through over the past couple of days. (My wife asked if I read the encyclopaedia when I was a child; I said yes. She replied, “Yes, a lot of little boys do that.”)

There is a very entertaining section on inventions and patents.

Something that has bothered me for a long while is the question of who invented the paperclip? Something so simple – a piece of twisted metal – so banal, so everyday… and so essential. But there must have been a time when paper clips didn’t exist, before someone (who?!) actually thought of attaching two pieces of paper together with a little bit of wire.

(OK, it didn’t bother me so much that I researched the subject or anything. I haven’t even seen if there is an entry on “paperclips” in wikipedia. I have now, of course, because I just thought of it. There is!)

Well, the Business Miscellany tells me that Johan Vaaler patented the paperclip in 1899 – not very long ago. But… But it goes on to say that his design “never really caught on” because the design most commonly in use today was already in production.

So someone had already invented it! The Business Miscellany hasn’t answered my question at all.

Wikipedia has nearly come to my rescue, though: ‘The most common type of wire paper clip was never patented, but it was probably in production in Britain as early as 1890 by "The Gem Manufacturing Company"’. But still, before 1890, what did they do? Why had no one had the idea?