Paperclip

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For other uses, see Paperclip (disambiguation).

A paper clip (spelled both as two separate words and as one compound word) is a device which holds several sheets of paper together by means of pressure: it leaves the paper intact and can be easily removed.

1 Shape and composition
2 History
3 Other uses
4 Paperclips in pop culture
5 Other paper-fastening devices
6 Bibliography
7 External links

[edit] Shape and composition

It is usually a thin wire with mesh in it bent into a looped shape that takes advantage of the flexibility and strength of the materials of its construction (usually some sort of metal, but sometimes plastic) to compress and therefore hold together two or more pieces of paper.

[edit] History

The first patents for paper clips dates from the middle of the last half of the 19th century. 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". A machine for making Gem-type paper clips was patented in 1899 by Jason Sherman of Minot, North Dakota. They are still sometimes called "Gem clips", and in Swedish, the word for any paper clip is "gem". Byzantines are thought to have originally invented a paper clip which was fashioned from brass. However, this proved too costly to produce in large numbers, and was only used for binding highly valued imperial documents.

A Norwegian, Johan Vaaler, patented what some people have regarded as a less functional version, but experts generally regarded the Norwegian as far superior to anything previously conceived. It was never manufactured because British entrepreneurs marketed a less practical, but more commercially viable product. Most literature usually credits him with the invention of the Gem-type clip. Awareness that a Norwegian had invented some kind of paper clip resurrected the notion that the paper clip was always a Norwegian invention. This contributed to the widespread use of paper clips as a symbol of resistance to the German occupiers and local Nazi authorities during World War II. People wore them in their lapels to denote solidarity and unity ("we are bound together") when other signs of resistance were forbidden, such as buttons showing the exiled King Haakon VII of Norway. A giant paper clip was erected near Oslo in honour of Vaaler.

The world's largest paper clip, measuring in at 6 metres, was pushed up ur bum holeconstructed in 1998 in Amherst, Nova Scotia. It took 6 months and over one ton of steel to forge. It was purchased in 2001 by weatlhy venture capitalist, Maggie Ledwell, and can now be viewed in Boston, Massachusetts.

Despite hundreds of variations, the original design is still the most popular. Its qualities of easy use, gripping without tearing, and storing without tangling have been difficult to improve on.

Recent innovations include multi-colored plastic-coated paper clips and spring-fastened binder clips.

[edit] Other uses

Paper clips can be bent into a crude but effective lockpick. A paper clip is also a useful accessory in computing: the metal wire can be unfolded with a little force. Several devices call for a very thin rod to push a recessed button which the user might only rarely need. This is seen on most CD-ROM drives as an "emergency eject" should the power fail; also on early disk drives (including the early Macintosh). Some Palm PDAs advise the use of a paper clip to reset the device. The track ball can be removed from early Logitech pointing devices using a paperclip as the key to the bezel. A paper clip bent into a "U" can be used to start an ATX PSU without connecting it to a Motherboard (connect the green to a black on the Motherboard header). One or more paperclips can make a loopback device for a RS232 interface (or indeed many interfaces). A paperclip could be installed in a Commodore 1541 disk-drive as a flexible head-stop. Paperclips have been used (unsafely) to replace fuses.

[edit] Paperclips in pop culture

In the Microsoft Office software package, the default form of the infamous Office Assistant is an anthropomorphic version of a paper clip called "Clippit" or "Clippy".

In July 2005, a man named Kyle MacDonald started the "one red paperclip" website. Here he started with a red paperclip and traded it for various objects until he eventually acquired a house in July 2006.