Gem paper clips have been around for a century and a quarter

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How did we fasten sheets of paper together before there were easy-to-use paper clips? We took a straight pin, poked a hole through them, arched the papers, and poked a second hole, as shown above. When handling those joined papers, you could easily puncture your skin with the pin point.    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That changed after about 1900 when the Gem paper clip (five of which are shown above) appeared. There is a 1992 book by Henry Petroski titled The Evolution of Useful Things: How everyday artifacts – from forks and pins to paper clips and zippers – came to be as they are. A Gem clip even is shown on the book cover. (There also is an archived free e-book). His Chapter 4, starting on page 46 is titled From Pins to Paper Clips. On page 69 he says:

 

“The Gem paper clip seems to have had its real origin in Great Britain, and the name is said by one international firm to have been ‘derived from the original parent company, Gem Limited.’ This is supported by the Army and Navy Co-operative society’s 1907 catalogue of the ‘very best English goods,’ which pictures only one style of modern paper clip – a perfectly proportioned Gem, which is described as the ‘slide on’ paper clip that ‘will hold securely your letters, documents or memoranda without perforation or mutilation until you wish to release them,’ As early as 1908, the clip was being advertised in America as the ‘most popular clip’ and ‘the only satisfactory device for temporary attachment of papers. The ad copy went on to warn paper clip users against the use of other existing devices, whose shortcomings the Gem naturally did not share. ‘Don’t mutilate your papers with pins or fasteners.’

 

Even though the Gem itself never seems to have been patented in its classic form, nor to have been so perfectly functioning a paper clip that inventors did not try to improve upon it, it does appear to have long ago won the hearts and minds of designers and critics as the epitome of possible solutions to the design problems of fastening papers together….”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A figure caption on page 69 says:

 

“Although the 1899 patent [636,272 and shown above] issued to William Middlebrook of Waterbury, Connecticut was for a machine for making wire clips rather than for the clip design itself, Middlebrook’s drawings showed clearly (especially in his Fig. 8) that what came to be known as a Gem was being formed. This style of paper clip, which seems never to have been explicitly patented, came to be the standard to be improved upon. While functionally deficient as myriad other styles, its aesthetic qualities appear to have raised it to the status of artifactual icon.”