Johan Vaaler
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Johan Vaaler (March 15, 1866–1910) was a Norwegian inventor who was granted the first known patents for a kind of paperclip in 1899. While he is often remembered as the inventor of the paperclip, in fact there were already paperclips in existence at the time his patents were processed.
Vaaler was born in Aurskog in Norway. Because Norway had limited patent protection at the time, he had his invention patented abroad, in Germany in 1899 and America in 1901. But his paperclip never came to market, because the more functional "Gem" paperclip was already in production by English Gem Manufacturing Ltd; the "Gem" paperclip was produced in the same dual-oval form that would later become the standard of the 20th century. Having never been patented, the Gem model's date of inception is difficult to surmise, but it is believed to have predated the Vaaler clip by several years.[1]
Nonetheless, Vaaler's association with the "invention" of the paperclip ultimately became a Norwegian nationalistic symbol. During the resistance to Nazi occupation in World War II, after badges bearing national symbols or the initials of exiled King Haakon VII were banned, many Norwegians were known to wear paperclips in lieu of overt national symbolism. The practice of wearing paperclips ostensibly evolved "because paperclips were a Norwegian invention whose original function was to bind together."[2]
Vaaler was not actually the first to invent the paperclip, but the intricacies of patent law and enforcement circa 1900 make for a convoluted history, often conflated into simply crediting Vaaler as the inventor.
A giant paperclip has been erected near Oslo in honour of Vaaler.
[edit] External links
- http://www.writeonoffice.com/info/his_paperclip.htm
- http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blpaperclip.htm
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