A large paper clip advantages and disadvantages. Workshop on problem solving (practical situations). From paper to paperclip

This stationery, introduced in 1899, has not changed shape in more than 100 years of its existence. A story about the history of an object with a perfect design, which has managed to become an integral part of our daily life.

A regular paper clip is a bit of a fetish for professional designers. Its industrial clarity and ubiquity have even earned it a place among the exhibits at the Humble Masterpieces at the New York Museum of Modern Art in 2004.

However, design critic Michael Bierut disagrees with this praise. "The classic paper clip can go to hell," he wrote in one of the articles. According to him, designers who tout the merits of objects of unknown authorship (for example, paper clips) do so in the first place to get around the dilemma: they do not want to advertise to their competitors or appear complacent by touting their own creations.

Perhaps they are right about the motives of their colleagues, but he is still mistaken about one thing: when it comes to paper clips, everything is far from simple.

Most of the items in our daily life, such as keys, books or phones, have been constantly changing over time. Especially during the twentieth century, which revolutionized, simplified, or made most of the things you use every day high tech.

However, if you could travel to 1985 and decide to walk into an office (after admiring the horse-drawn buses and wooden telephones), you would easily find shiny and almost unchanged paper clips on hand at any employee.

Paper clips were invented more than a century ago, but in most cases this once-innovative technology today performs the same function under the same conditions. So why was the paper clip able to take its final shape in such a short time? How can you explain its incredible longevity?

From paper to paperclip

Before the invention of the paper clip, ... paper appeared. In the 1st century AD, the Chinese made it from cotton and flax (these materials are still included in some types of paper - for example, bank notes). The production of such paper was very expensive, as a result of which it was used only for important records and bound in volumes.

Everyday records (Sumerian supplier lists, invitation to a friendly party in Pompeii ...) were made on clay or wax tablets that could be erased and reused.

In the 19th century, the invention of wood pulp and paper mills led to large quantities of cheap paper, while the flourishing of commerce, bureaucracy and literacy did everything to turn it into piles of sheets of ink, ready to fly in all directions.

Unknown employee

Among all those who have been tasked with creating and raking all this pulp, one figure stands out: the office clerk. As Adrian Forty writes in Objects of Desire: Design and Society since 1750, the average employee was an undefined person who was essentially middle-class, but rarely could he boast of the position and income inherent in this caste.

Take, for example, Bob Cratchit from Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol, who works like a damn on his ungrateful boss. These employees often literally drowned in sheets of paper, which they had to spread out to punks or take apart on bales of paper tied with twine. It was about a new form of work that was both urgent and pointless. (The fact that the obstinate scribe Bartleby Herman Melville tirelessly insisted that he did not want to obey his boss was by no means an accident).

In addition, the description of Mr. Snegsby's store at Dickens's Bleak House allows us to appreciate the many different gadgets that filled 19th century offices:
“Under the gloomy shade of Cook's Court, almost always submerged in twilight, Mr. Snegsby sells all kinds of forms necessary for legal proceedings, sheets and scrolls of parchment; paper - writing, postal, promissory note, wrapping paper, white, semi-white and blotting paper; brands; clerical quills, steel nibs, ink, rubber bands, carbon copying powder, pins, pencils; sealing wax and wafers; red braid and green bookmarks; notebooks, calendars, notebooks for diaries and lists of lawyers; twines, rulers, inkpots - glass and lead knives, pen knives, scissors, lacing needles and other small metal products required for office supplies - in a word, goods are so diverse that they cannot be listed (...) "

Adam Smith and his iron pins

It's easy to find the clip's immediate ancestor in Mr. Snegsby's store: the pin. In The Evolution of Useful Things, Henry Petroski notes that pin making was a lot like industrialization before mechanization.

In the first chapter, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith describes how pin makers used the division of labor: one worker unwound an iron cord from a reel, the second held him straight, the third cut him into pieces, etc. Smith notes that ten people, each assigned a specific stage of production, could make 48,000 pins a day, while one worker could make at most a couple of dozen.

In the late 19th century, the process became so efficient that a half-pound box of pins could be bought for as little as 40 cents. In other words, pins were cheap, easy to use, and available in huge quantities. Nevertheless, they also had one disadvantage, not too obvious at first glance. They rusted and punctured the paper, leaving stains and holes on the stacks of documents.

The introduction of cheap industrial steel (1855) played a key role in replacing pins with paper clips, as it offered a good balance between resilience and flexibility (it found use in rails, pipes, electrical wires and virtually all metal infrastructure of the 20th century).

Since then, manufacturers have had flexible metal wires that breathe life into their designs: sturdy and stainless steel staples, safety pins, hangers ... and paper clips. By the last quarter of the 19th, all forms of steel wire that could prove useful had already been patented.

Ease of production

When we think of a paperclip, we usually think of a graceful double loop of flexible steel wire.

In 1899, William Middlebrook received one very important patent: it did not concern the paper clip itself, but the machine that made it possible to ensure its production. He sold his patent to the American stationery manufacturer Cushman & Denison, who introduced the product to the market in 1904 under the name Gem clip. The drawings from the Middlebrook patent (admittedly pretty pretty) indicate that the paperclip was not an invention, but a derivative of another invention, that is, the best solution to a long-standing problem using a new material and manufacturing process.

The twisted steel wire proved to be flexible enough to open and hold the sheets of paper between the two hinges, but elastic enough to provide a secure grip. When the hinges are pulled too far apart and the metal reaches its elastic limit, the paper clip breaks. This property was common to all the numerous forms and types of paper clips developed in that era.

The Museum of Early Stationery displays a huge number of paper clips. Simple and angular Flay, which undoubtedly became the very first patented paper clip (1867). The Wright paperclip, which was patented in 1877 and is shaped like an intestine.

Patented in 1897 by Niagara with its unusual shape: it looks like two paper clips holding hands. Paper clips with the more tradeable names Common-Sens and Hold-Fast appeared in the 1900s.

Some varieties, such as Ideal (a knot-shaped paperclip) and Owl (with two owl-eyes), can still be found in stationery drawers in some offices. Some types of staples have been specifically designed for stapling large piles of documents. Others used less wire and therefore were cheaper. Still others were less clinging to each other in their boxes.

However, Gem's success was due to the fact that it was first patented as a mechanism: its shape, which required only three folds and one cut, was inexpensive and easy to automate. And the end result was lightweight, easy to use and did not threaten to tear the paper (the sharp ends of the wire should have been pulled apart).

Gem is the queen of paper clips

Paper clips drove pins from the scene, which very quickly became associated only with tailors and hatters. In those days, their role in the office was undergoing dramatic changes. In his book, Forti writes that at the end of the 19th century, employees' desks were packed with filing cabinets:

“When the clerk sat at his desk in a high chair, he saw all his paperwork and could spy on what was happening to the left and right, but his field of vision was limited only by his desk, and someone could see what he was doing only looking over his shoulder. It was believed that the employee himself was responsible for his work and what he wrote. It was a small personal space, on which a screen was sometimes also installed to hide the contents from prying eyes.

With the advent of the scientific organization of the work process, in which the concept of the division of labor (it existed in factories for the production of pins) was applied to office workers, archiving was transferred to another service. And paper clips could handle the rest. The filing cabinets were no longer needed, and a free table, which allowed the clerk to breathe freely and see the sunlight, but at the same time partially deprived him of his privacy, became the norm.

In those days, Gem took a stand against its competitors by offering sans serifs, knots and sharp ends, and topped the sales list for a long time. Many staples improved certain qualities of Gem, but these innovations often presented new challenges.

For example, a fluted paper clip patented in 1921 holds paper better, but at the same time can tear it much easier. Bent paper clips glide more easily on the paper, but also make the stacks of documents thicker. Other competitors tried to solve problems that by and large did not exist.

So, for example, the "high-speed" paper clip patented in 1992 consists of two loops on both sides: according to the idea, this should save you from having to think about which side to use it ... Only this so-called drawback of an ordinary paper clip did not bother anyone. As for the patented Gothic paperclip in 1933, its inner loop is sharper and the outer loop is more elongated than the Gem model, which reduces the risk of paper wrinkling and tears.

It has found application in libraries and archives and is superior to Gem in many respects, but for most of us, an accidental break or dented edge on top of a pile of accounts does not matter at all. In some cases, the best design is the one that does the job satisfactorily, no more and no less. The Gem paperclip falls into this category.

Sisyphean threat

Minimalism, a completely ordinary look and indisputable recognition for the modern observer (even in an advertising poster of 1894) - the longevity of the paper clip made it something like the quintessence of a disposable and impersonal mass-produced item. They are used by secretaries, assistants, subordinates and other office workers.

The paper clip became truly useful only when the world was filled with millions of paper sheets: you need it to collect them and then disassemble them again. The danger of injury is much higher when working with a stapler, but a paper clip carries a different, Sisyphean threat: as soon as you collect the sheets, you will immediately need to disassemble them, and then collect others and disassemble again. And so on until retirement ... or a breakthrough in the world of show business.

If Microsoft hadn’t opted for a subject that has long become a symbol of the most thankless job, Clippy's enthusiasm (hated by many in Office programs) might not seem so crazy and worthy of the worst jokes. This unconscious association between the shape of a paper clip and the pressure of infinity can be seen in some of Sarah Morris's works.

Office worker toy

In addition, although a paper clip can serve as a symbol of endless work, it can also be bent, broken, used as a tool. In these cases, the actions for which it is best suited are the exact opposite of productive, hygienic, but also devoid of any sense of binding multiple sheets of paper.

Paper clips can be used to pick locks, clean nails, and hack phones. Office workers often straighten them in order to somehow distract from their usual monotonous use. Nearly everyone who read Joshua Ferris' novel Then We Came to the End became part of his collective storyteller when they came across this phrase: “If we came across a forgotten paper clip , we often bent it in different ways. "
In addition, all office clerks will no doubt see themselves in the description of their professional life in David Foster Wallace's novel The Pale King:

“In general, hard office work usually moves forward with stops and jerks, short periods of concentration, followed by frequent trips to the toilet, drinking fountain or vending machine, constant sharpening of pencils, urgent calls, as you think, exciting experiments on that how else can you bend a paperclip, etc. "

Durable item

The paper clip, which stands out for its cheapness, interchangeability and longevity, can also be used as a symbol of the multitude: a school in Tennessee once collected six million paper clips to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust. In 2004, Miramax studio filmed a documentary about this project.

The availability of a paperclip may also serve as a symbol of a humble beginning: in 2005, Canadian Kyle McDonald made a red paperclip the starting point for a long series of online deals that eventually brought him home (not including a blog, a book, and many public appearances) ...

There is even a whole philosophical concept according to which artificial intelligence, programmed by a person to produce the maximum number of paper clips, eventually captures the Earth and all large outer spaces in an endless search for raw materials, leaving behind trillions of unnecessary paper clips.
Finally, the paperclip's simplicity has allowed it to become a graphic symbol on the digital desktop. Many 21st century office workers see it as an "attachment" icon in an email message rather than its physical bent steel wire incarnation.

As our society moves towards a paperless future, these little loops will increasingly occur in 2D rather than 3D. Nevertheless, this semiotic double, like the colored plastic paper clip or its new forms, will most likely only accompany the original, and will not come to replace it.

Despite air travel and email, office life is not that different from what it was 100 years old and is unlikely to change much in another 100 years. And a paperclip that just does its job well, no more and no less, seems to go all the way.

InoSMI materials contain assessments exclusively by foreign media and do not reflect the position of the Inosmi editorial board.

Clip - a subject for the office. It consists of a bent metal wire approximately 3 cm long and serves to temporarily fasten the sheets of paper by pressure. The paper clip is one of the most versatile office tools. It is used for dozens of different tasks: like a screwdriver, a poker chip, a toothpick or a master key ... An unbent paper clip is about 140 millimeters long.

It is difficult to imagine that such an elementary construction could not have come to people's minds earlier. Of course she could. Only there was no special need for a paper clip. Prior to its invention, pedantic clerks bound papers in piles or rolls with ribbons, or simply stitched them with thread. In the upper left corner of each sheet, a slot was made for the ribbon. However, it took a lot of time to remove from such a bundle a single document that was suddenly needed. Therefore, in the middle of the XIX century. to facilitate the process of finding the paper, they began to split the corners with tailor pins. But alas, failure again. The documents from the pins were torn and spoiled.

We tried to do the same with a tin plate that connected the sheets around the corner. It was proposed in 1895 by the German F. Hessenbruch. But this device did not become popular either. The rapid development of economic sectors in the 19th century led to a sharp increase in the volume of office work. Bureaucratic institutions began to proliferate at an incredible rate. A simple and safe fastening tool was urgently needed. At least somehow ordering the piles of business papers - that's what has become the primary task.

In 1887 a resident of Philadelphia Ethelbert Middleton invented steel wire. It was the perfect material that both held tight and did not cling tightly. Despite the fact that he did it for larger purposes, the wire found a place for itself in the office, and a very noticeable one.

There were 12 years left before the invention of the paper clip. The idea to bend the wire several times and try to fasten several papers with the device obtained came to three people at once. But only one person went down in history as the inventor of the paper clip. This is a Norwegian mathematician

Johann Wahler.

A native of Aurskog, he was renowned for his innovativeness from his youth, with degrees in electronics, natural sciences and mathematics. In 1899 (Valer was 33 years old) he made sketches of his main invention - "paleoskrepki" - and in 1901 received a patent for it. Only for him he had to go to Germany, because in Norway there was no corresponding law. By that time, several similar inventions had already been registered.

William Middlebrook of Waterbury, Connecticut, patented his paperclip design in 1899. Cornelius Brosnan of Springfield, Massachusetts patented his Konaclip in 1900. But Valera's design was the most successful. It was very similar to the modern one, differing from it only in the number of knees. Almost immediately, Valera sold the patent to a stationery dealer. And in 1900, Gem Manufacturing began mass production of paper clips.

As good as the paper clip invented by Valera was, it had two flaws. Firstly, it crumpled the paper, because it pressed on it in a too small area, and secondly, it broke very quickly. The first drawback was quickly eliminated by thinking of making the wire in the form of various openwork patterns in order to distribute the load over a larger area. And so that the paper clip does not break, special bows were welded to its ends. As they say, there is no limit to perfection. This principle was adhered to by the successors of Valera's case. Among them is a simple German citizen E. Liebing. In 1902, she proposed about ten options for paper clips. One of them - a paper clip with many beautiful curlicues - fell in love with the Stral company, which started its production. Over time, improvements to the paper clip only gained momentum. This is how chrome-plated corrugated smooth, colored vinyl-coated plastic, triangular, round square staples appeared.

In 1999, the paper clip celebrated its 100th anniversary. Since its inception, it has hardly changed. Only a variety of models were offered, but four main ones have survived to this day. First, Gem is the most common form of paperclip. This is what you find among the office supplies in most offices. The clip was named after the British company Gem Manufacturing Ltd in 1900, which first launched its mass production.

The second form of paper clip - Ideal ("Ideal)" was specially designed for binding a large number of papers. The Owl Paperclip got its name from the shape that resembles two round eyes. The non-skid paper clip has special cuts on the sides.

For many years in Russia, the situation with the production of fasteners was very deplorable. Before the revolution, the domestic industry producing stationery was completely absent. Everything necessary for paper work had to be imported from abroad. Only in 1925 was organized the state unitary enterprise Union "- the first in Russia for the production of school supplies and stationery. The authorities purchased equipment and materials for production in Germany. At the same time, the production of paper clips and buttons began. Until the 1990s, Soyuz was a monopolist in the stationery market.

Perhaps, today there is no more inconspicuous and more necessary stationery than a paper clip. The fact that she was born in Norway is a matter of special pride for the inhabitants of this country.During the Second World War, when the German occupiers prohibited Norwegians from wearing buttons with the initials of their monarch, they began attaching paper clips to their clothes to emphasize their adherence to national traditions. The paper clip has become a symbol of resistance, embodying the motto "We will be together." Moreover, in February 1990, a five-meter paper clip monument was erected in the Norwegian capital Oslo. Its author, Yar Eris Paulson, decided in this way to celebrate the centenary of the mass use of the double flat wire. He said that many people underestimate the significance of this invention, and maybe after the installation of the monument, people will begin to appreciate what they have.

1. Economic development, basic patterns and trends.

2. Types of innovations, their structure and characteristics.

3. Features of the modern innovation market.

4. The essence of innovation management.

5. Formation of the goals of innovation management.

6. Goals and objectives of innovation management.

7. Functions of innovation management.

8. Planning for innovation.

9. Organization of innovations.

10. Control in innovation management.

11. Types of enterprises depending on the implemented innovation strategy.

12. Delegation in innovation.

13. Motivation in innovative management.

14. Communication in innovation management.

15. Decisions and their types in innovative management.

16. Marketing in the innovation field.

17. Strategic innovative marketing.

18. Tactical innovative marketing.

19. Composition and structure of innovation costs.

20. Sources of financing for innovative activities.

21. Conditions for the expediency of financing innovation.

22. Innovative project: tasks, content and types.

23. Business plan of an innovative project.

24. The effectiveness of an innovative project.

25. Methods for assessing the effectiveness of an innovative project.

26. Sources of innovative opportunities for the firm, their monitoring.

27. Factors affecting the value of innovation costs.

28. Algorithm for drawing up a business plan for an innovative project.

29. Models of decision making in conditions of uncertainty. Extreme pessimism criterion.

30. Factors affecting the value of innovation costs.

31. Indicators for assessing the effectiveness of an innovative project.

32. Types of innovations in instrument making.

8.2. Practical tasks

The purpose of solving problems is teaching students to work on their own, a deeper study of this discipline based on lecture notes and defense of abstracts, to orient students to the ability to apply theoretical knowledge in practice.

TASKS

1. Suggest activities to improve the performance of the enterprise or organization where you work. Or, if the enterprise is in crisis, consider what measures need to be taken to ensure positive change in the enterprise.

2. Suggest an innovation to improve the educational process in a higher education institution. This can be computer technology, the procedure for scheduling classes, organizing practical classes, creating a database, etc. Justify the expediency of implementing the innovation. Justification is given in the table.


3. A paper clip as a simple device for connecting several sheets of paper appeared back in the 19th century. Nowadays, a stapler, a spring clip can be used for these purposes of steel, and the paper clip itself has several options (a large clip; a clip made of plastic). Transparent bags are widespread - multiphores, in which several sheets of paper can be placed without fastening anything.

Based on the analysis, make a prediction: is there any reason for the near completion of the life cycle of a paper clip?

4. Study the Patent Law of the Russian Federation (from 1992 as amended and supplemented in 2003) and complete the following tasks.

It is hard to imagine that such an elementary construction could not have come to people's minds earlier. Of course she could. Only there was no special need for a paper clip.

Prior to its invention, pedantic clerks bound papers in piles or rolls with ribbons, or simply stitched them with thread. In the upper left corner of each sheet, a slot was made for the ribbon. However, it took a lot of time to remove from such a bundle a single document that was suddenly needed.

Therefore, in the middle of the XIX century. to facilitate the process of finding the paper, they began to split the corners with tailor pins. But, alas, failure again. The documents from the pins were torn and spoiled. We tried to do the same with a tin plate that connected the sheets around the corner. It was proposed in 1895 by the German F. Hessenbruch.

But this device did not become popular either. The rapid development of economic sectors in the 19th century led to a sharp increase in the volume of office work. Bureaucratic institutions began to proliferate at an incredible rate. A simple and safe fastening tool was urgently needed. At least somehow ordering the piles of business papers - that's what has become the primary task.

In 1887, Philadelphia resident Ethelbert Middleton invented steel wire. It was the perfect material that both held tight and did not cling tightly. Despite the fact that he did it for larger purposes, the wire found a place for itself in the office, and a very noticeable one. There were 12 years left before the invention of the paper clip.

The idea to bend the wire several times and try to fasten several papers with the device obtained came to three people at once. But only one person went down in history as the inventor of the paper clip. This is the Norwegian mathematician Johann Wahler. A native of Aurskog, he was renowned for his innovativeness from his youth, with degrees in electronics, natural sciences and mathematics.

In 1899 (Valer was 33 years old) he made sketches of his main invention - "paleoskrepki" - and in 1901 received a patent for it. Only for him he had to go to Germany, because in Norway there was no corresponding law. By that time, several similar inventions had already been registered.

William Middlebrook of Waterbury, Connecticut, patented his paperclip design in 1899. Cornelius Brosnan of Springfield, Massachusetts patented his Konaclip in 1900. But Valera's design was the most successful. It was very similar to the modern one, differing from it only in the number of knees. Almost immediately, Valera sold the patent to a stationery dealer. And in 1900, Gem Manufacturing began mass production of paper clips.

As good as the paper clip invented by Valera was, it had two flaws. Firstly, it crumpled the paper, because it pressed on it in a too small area, and secondly, it broke very quickly. The first drawback was quickly eliminated by thinking of making the wire in the form of various openwork patterns in order to distribute the load over a larger area. And so that the paper clip does not break, special bows were welded to its ends. As they say, there is no limit to perfection.

This principle was adhered to by the successors of Valera's case. Among them is a simple German citizen E. Liebing. In 1902, she proposed about ten options for paper clips. One of them - a paperclip with many beautiful curlicues - fell in love with the Stral company, which began its production. Over time, improvements to the paper clip only gained momentum. This is how chrome-plated corrugated smooth, colored vinyl-coated plastic, triangular, round square staples appeared.

In 1999, the paper clip celebrated its 100th anniversary. Since its inception, it has practically not changed, only a variety of models were offered.

The paper clip is one of the most underrated and useful household items. A piece of flexible, moderately brittle metal can be used in a dozen unusual ways. In addition, the paper clip can even act as a symbol of freedom - this is how the citizens of Norway who fought the Nazi regime could use it.

But that's not all. Absolutely real and authentic is the story of the enterprising Canadian Kyle MacDonald, who managed to get a real two-story house in exchange for an ordinary paper clip. We, of course, cannot teach you such clever practices. But, we can quite show as many as 10 ways of interesting and useful application in life of the most ordinary paper clip.

Make a compass

Of course, you can't make a compass with just a paper clip - you need a magnet as well. However, if you have the latter, you can easily determine the direction using a paperclip as a compass arrow.

Hook

Of course, it's better to use a regular hook for fishing. But, if it is not at hand, and you want to mercilessly fish, try to do with a paper clip.

Clean the connector

Small connectors, such as those used for headphones, often collect dust and fine lint from clothing. Over time, this debris starts to get in the way and can even lead to breakage. Simply unfold a regular paperclip, wrap a piece of duct tape around the tip, and gently clean the connector.

Phone stand

It is very convenient to place the phone on a small stand made of an ordinary paper clip. This saves you the trouble of holding your smartphone while eating, for example.

Suspension

A few paper clips may well serve as an impromptu hook. Light clothes, a bag and other not heavy, but voluminous little things, will no longer take up extra space.

Lightning

A windy or rainy day makes a broken zipper a real problem. It is not that difficult to fix it if you have a paper clip at hand. Just insert a paperclip into the eyelet of the lock - not very aesthetically pleasing, but quite practical.

Bookmark

You don't need to invent anything: put the paperclip on the page as it is. It will not fall out or be lost, and you can stop starting Moby Dick anew every time.

A tube of glue

A lost glue cap can turn the useful contents of the tube into unpleasant and unnecessary dry flakes. Plug the tube with a paper clip and glue your favorite models further.

Duct tape

A common problem: Once unrolled, a roll of duct tape will do its best to prevent you from finding the end of the tape. Next time, attach a paperclip to it - convenient and simple.

 

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