F ive G reatest L ittle O ffice H elpers
Idea 58 Clipping the oppressed
It is generally believed that the first known fastening of papers started in the thir-teenth century when a short length of ribbon was placed through parallel incisions in the upper left hand corner of pages. This was followed by a seal-method, the act of connecting papers with wax and textile ribbons. Almost 600 years passed before any serious attempt was made to improve the ribbon fastener.
In 1835 a New York physician named John Ireland Howe designed and built the first truly practical machine for mass-producing solid head straight pins. In a relatively short time, straight pins were being sold by the half pound for the explicit purpose of temporarily fastening papers together.
On 15 March 1866 Johan Vaaler was born in Aurskog, Norway, north of Oslo.
Even as a young man he was known as an innovator and inventor, and he graduated with a degree in electronics, science, and mathematics. He was employed by the
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101owner of a local invention office where he invented the paper clip in 1899. Because Norway had no patent law at that time, it had to be approved in Germany to secure patent rights. Vaaler presented a number of designs.
It appears that his interest waned in following up on the German patent. Histo-rians surmise that perhaps financial considerations kept him from doing more with his idea.
Across the ocean in the USA, a patent for the paper clip was awarded to Cornelius J. Brosnan of Springfield, Massachusetts in 1900. It was called the Konaclip. Gem Manufacturing Ltd of England followed with the first double-oval shaped standard clip. This familiar shape is still known as the Gem clip.
Several designs have followed these originals. Most failed to last, but some have remained. Those still manufactured today, beside the Gem, include the Non-Skid, which has small incisions cut along the length of the parallels, the Ideal pattern for holding a thick bundle of paper, and the Owl, named for its two eye-shaped circles.
Owl clips did not get tangled with other clips, nor did they snatch at stray papers that didn’t belong with the clipped stack.
There have been many unusual applications of the paper clip. During World War II, Norwegians were prohibited from wearing buttons imprinted with the Nor-wegian king’s initials. Hence they fastened paper clips to show patriotism and irri-tate the Germans. Wearing a paper clip was often reason enough for arrest. They were a Norwegian invention whose original function was to bind together. They symbolised solidarity and opposition against the occupation.
Today a variety of uses exist, ranging from bookmark, money clip, and staple remover to the item that holds a hem that needs sewing or serves as a hanger for curtains, lights and pictures. Because of its price and availability, it is easy to see why the paper clip is one of the most versatile of inventions.
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The 100 Greatest Business Ideas of All TimeIdea 59 – From keeping your place to keeping your appointments (Post-It®)
Art Fry’s inspiration for Post-it® Notes dates back to when he sang in his church choir in the early 1970s. He used scraps of paper to mark selections in his hymnal.
Unfortunately, they kept falling out and he’d often lose his place. ‘I needed a book-mark that would stay put, yet could easily be removed without damaging my hym-nal’, Fry says.
Around the time that Art Fry was thinking about how to make more co-opera-tive bookmarks, his colleague, Dr Spencer Silver, was doing basic research on adhesives in 3M’s Central Research Department. Spencer had created a low-tack adhesive that stuck lightly to many surfaces, yet remained sticky even after you repositioned it. Fry soon realised Spencer’s adhesive was perfect for his needs. One morning, Fry applied some of the adhesive to the edge of a piece of paper. ‘Now I had a bookmark that could stick to the page while exposing a part that wasn’t sticky,’ he says.
A short time later, Art Fry realised his invention’s full potential, when he wrote a note on one of his new ‘bookmarks’ and attached it to a report he was forwarding to a colleague. ‘That’s when I came to the very exciting realisation that my sticky bookmark was actually a new way to communi-cate and organise information,’ Fry says. Indeed, soon co-workers were at Art Fry’s desk demanding more samples of his invention. The Post-it®
Note, as we know it, was born.
It is not just little, yellow and square. If you look around your work area or home, you’ve probably got one, two (or ten!) Post-it® Notes stuck in various places to remind you to do something. Whether it’s an ultra-coloured Post-it® Pop Up Note, handy Post-it® Fax Notes or decorative Post-it® Memo Cubes in a tropical Art Fry realised
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103fish design, you’re sure to find the right note to suit your style. With over 29 differ-ent colours, 56 shapes, and 27 sizes, Post-it® Notes have certainly changed over the years, but one thing remains constant – they’re great for reminding yourself, com-municating and organising your thoughts, to-do lists and ideas.
Post-its have had detractors, people who when they first saw them were mysti-fied, thought them profoundly stupid, unnecessary and expensive; in a word a scam.
They probably buy them now in blocks of 64.
Idea 60 – E-mail
I know a sales director who watched, at first calmly, a reasonably heated discussion between two of his people who had a difference of opinion on the way forward for a part of their business. He watched through his e-mail, as each and every salvo that they fired at each other was copied to him. After a few days of this he took them both metaphorically by the ear and put them in a conference room with an instruc-tion not to come out until the issue was resolved. Their desks were about twenty metres apart.
This downside of mail should not mask the glorious potential of global e-mail. Apart from the possibilities it raises for making money on the Internet [see Four Greatest Ways (So Far) to Become a Millionaire on the Internet], it is just possible that the political impact of e-mail will be as great if not greater than radio and television in terms of everyone having access to everyone all over the world. Dicta-tors cannot like e-mail.
E-mail allows everything to happen simultaneously. As Oliver Freeman puts it,
‘E-mail provides a sporting chance that globalisation will not be imperialism under a different name.’
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The 100 Greatest Business Ideas of All TimeHere comes the twist
When you come back to the office from holidays and find 1149 e-mails in your in-tray, don’t just rave and delete them all knowing that the important ones will be followed up. Think through how you and your company are using e-mail and how it could be improved.