Paper clip

The paper clip's history is entangled in a myth almost more interesting than the invention itself. Johan Vaaler, a Norwegian patent clerk, has been celebrated for over a century as the paper clip's inventor—commemorative stamps and a 7-meter monument near Oslo honor him. But Vaaler's 1901 patent described an inferior design that lacked the characteristic double loops of the modern clip. The familiar Gem clip was already in production in Britain when Vaaler filed his application in Germany, and he apparently didn't know it existed. His design didn't grip papers as effectively as what was already on the market.

The modern paper clip emerged from an evolutionary process rather than a single eureka moment. Several wire fasteners for papers had been patented in the United States since 1867, each attempting to solve the same problem differently. What we now call the Gem clip—the double-looped design that grips pages firmly without puncturing them—appeared in an 1899 patent, but not for the clip itself. William Middlebrook patented a machine for manufacturing wire paper clips for the Gem Manufacturing Company in England. The clip design that machine produced was remarkably never patented; it simply worked better than all alternatives and became the universal standard through market dominance rather than legal protection.

The prerequisites for mass paper clip production were specific: steel wire that could be bent reliably into tight curves without breaking, mass manufacturing capability to produce millions of identical clips at minimal cost, and the explosion of paper-based bureaucracy in the late 19th century that created unprecedented demand for temporary fastening solutions. Growing government agencies, corporations, and legal systems generated mountains of documents. Offices needed a way to attach papers without permanent damage—letters that might need reorganizing, pages that would be filed separately later, contracts that would be reviewed by multiple parties. Pins punctured and left holes; string was slow to tie and untie; glue was permanent. The simple wire clip solved a mundane but ubiquitous problem with elegant efficiency.

The Norwegian myth gained unexpected power during World War II. Under German occupation, Norwegians wore paper clips in their lapels as symbols of resistance and unity—'we are bound together.' The gesture preceded any belief in Norwegian invention; wearers simply used an available metal object to signal solidarity when wearing the exiled King Haakon's cipher or the Norwegian flag was forbidden. But after the war, when a Norwegian patent official visiting Germany discovered Vaaler's 1901 filing and mistook it for the common design he saw everywhere, the invention story crystallized into national pride. Norwegian encyclopedias spread the error; the 7-meter monument rose in 1989 depicting a Gem clip, not Vaaler's actual patented design; the 1999 commemorative stamp made the identical mistake.

The paper clip's design has proven remarkably stable. The Gem shape solved the gripping problem so completely that despite over a century of attempted improvements—plastic clips, hinged clips, magnetic solutions, elaborate spring mechanisms—the simple bent wire loop remains dominant. Billions are manufactured annually. Most are never used for their intended purpose; the paper clip has become universal office fidget device, emergency tool, lock-pick substitute, and symbol that ordinary objects can carry extraordinary meaning.