Fun Facts About Paper Clips

Credit: Kessler McLaughlin

They hold papers together without damaging them. They are fun to bend and play with in meetings that seem to drag on forever. They even come in different shapes, sizes and colors. Few things are as ubiquitous in one's desk as a paper clip. But where did it come from, who invented it and why did they do it?

Thankfully, our crack team of researchers scoured our sources and found some answers.

The University of Houston says that the earliest patent for something resembling a paperclip was filed in 1887, though there are various experimental versions of paperclip patents that we found in the 1860s.

The industrial revolution was in full swing around the mid 1800s. That means transportation was improving and manufacturing steel was getting easier and cheaper each year. With all that cheap steel, there were a lot of ideas floating around about what to do with it. Also around that time, business was done on paper. Lots of paper, no smart technology. Can you imagine?

Slate says that before the paperclip, pins were used to keep papers together. Pins ultimately weren’t ideal since they poked holes through documents and had a tendency to rust. There’s also the small matter that reaching into a box of them will earn you a mini stab wound.

Society needed to keep papers together in a way that wouldn’t destroy them or give folks a rusty flesh wound.

Many sources, though, give credit to Johan Vaaler as the inventor of the modern paperclip. He had a patent in Germany for it in 1899. That was the same year William Middlebrook was awarded a patent for the machinery that produced the paperclip. 

The University of Houston says Middlebrook developed his machine for a company in England called the Gem Company, so the familiar design we see today is called the Gem paperclip. They go on to say that Vaaler’s first patent was in Germany in 1899, he was from Norway. That country didn’t have a patent office at the time so he filed his paperclip patent in the United States in 1901 for clips that were shaped a bit differently.

Though we see them as innocent office tools, according to the Harris County Law Library, paperclips have seen courtroom drama, mainly as weapons.

That the shape hasn’t changed much since those days says a lot about how effectively the paperclip is designed. It doesn’t rust under normal circumstances, stick together with other clips in the box, or destroy papers. And we can thank Middlebrook and Vaaler for likely less tetanus as we try to keep things together. 

So here's how you can relay this to your friends at the watercooler: the gem paperclip we recognize today was invented in the late 1800s as the industrial revolution was picking up. The machine was designed by William Middlebrook and Johann Vaaler gets credit for the bendy metal contraption. While you’re at it, you can tell your friends and co-workers to check out The Things Around Us for their next trailhead to knowledge.

Sources:

Bellis, Mary. (2020, August 25). The History and Invention of the Paperclip. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/history-of-the-paper-clip-4072863 

Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia (2024, February 8). Industrial Revolution. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/event/Industrial-Revolution 

Emery, Katy Meyers. (2012, July 25). An Unexpectedly Old Artifact: The Paperclip. https://campusarch.msu.edu/?p=1503

Goldsmith, Sara. (2012, May 22). The Perfection of the Paper Clip. Slate. https://slate.com/human-interest/2012/05/the-history-of-the-paper-clip-it-was-invented-in-1899-it-hasnt-been-improved-upon-since.html 

Harris County Robert W. Hainsworth Law Library. (2020, May 29th). Holding It Together. https://www.harriscountylawlibrary.org/ex-libris-juris/2020/5/28/7jaaawvax0n9wtavluh3atqu69hgp4

Lienhard, John H. (2024, February 22). The Paper Clip. The University of Houston. https://engines.egr.uh.edu/episode/769#:~:text=The%20Norwegian%20Johan%20Vaaler%20is,the%20first%20paper%20clip%20patent

Vaaler, J. (1901). Paper Clip or Holder (Patent No. 675761). U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. https://ppubs.uspto.gov/dirsearch-public/print/downloadPdf/0675761

Who Invented the Paper Clip?. Who Invented It. (2021, October 25). Retrieved from https://www.whoinventedit.net/who-invented-the-paper-clip/