Who really invented the paper clip?

No one person can be named as the inventor of the paper clip. Many wire fasteners were patented in the second half of the 19th century, and the familiar looped shape known as the Gem clip emerged without any patent. The popular claim that the Norwegian Johan Vaaler invented it is not supported by the historical record. [1] [2]

People have joined sheets of paper since the Chinese invented it, using ribbon, string and pins. According to the Early Office Museum, as reported by Scientific American, the first bent wire clip was patented in 1867 by Samuel B. Fay. Snopes notes that Fay's patent was meant for attaching tags or tickets to fabrics. It mentioned paper only briefly and did not describe fastening several sheets together. [3] [1]

Engineer and historian Henry Petroski found a lot of experimentation in the late 19th century. One 1887 patent described a soft metal clip that could be bent into place. Petroski wrote that the modern form had to wait for suitable wire and for machines that could bend it fast enough to sell a box of clips for pennies. A National Archives blog adds that steel wire solved the problem of finding a metal that holds papers yet springs back. [4] [3] [5]

The sources agree that the Gem was never patented, but they give different dates. The Early Office Museum, cited by Snopes and Scientific American, places its origin around 1892, possibly March 1892. The National Archives blog says the Gem was introduced in Great Britain around 1907. Another account, from Lienhard, points to an 1899 patent by William Middlebrook for a machine that made clips of this shape for the Gem Company in England. That was a machine patent, not a clip patent. Snopes describes the Early Office Museum's research, which gives the 1892 date, as the authoritative report. [1] [3] [5] [4]

Vaaler was a Norwegian patent clerk. He applied for a German patent in November 1900, granted in June 1901, and for a US patent in January 1901, granted in June 1901. His clips were rectangular or triangular, and Wikipedia says the design was inferior to the Gem because it lacked two full wire loops. Other similar designs had been patented years earlier, according to the BBC. [2] [6] [4]

The BBC reports that his title as father of the paper clip was given to him after his death. During the Nazi occupation of Norway the paper clip was worn as a symbol of unity and resistance. After the war the Vaaler story spread into Norwegian encyclopaedias and merged with that symbolism. In 1989 a 7-metre paper clip was erected in his honour at the BI Business School, though it does not match the design he patented. [6]