I’m a big fan of listening to podcasts, especially those covering history, technology and other topics of interest. I was listening to TechStuff from HowStuffWorks.com today and they were discussing some of the most important inventions ever created over the last 200 years. One of those inventions just happened to be a piece of office equipment.

Any guesses what it was? Drum roll please. It was the stapler. Surprised? I’m not. Staplers are one of the most common pieces of office equipment found today. They are literally in just about every home, desk, school and business. The very concept of binding pieces of paper together using a small piece of metal was pretty revolutionary.

Staplers are now available in dozens of formats. You have your desktop stapler, saddle staplers, heavy-duty staplers, box staplers and much more. Staples are even used in modern-day surgery.

While book binding, and binderies, have been around for centuries, staplers truly became the predecessor to the modern-day do-it-yourself binding machine.

Here is a brief history of the stapler:

Samuel Slocum of Poughkeepsie, NY is credited with having invented the stapler in 1841 according to the guys at TechsStuff. Samuel’s machine technically inserted pins into paper.

The first machine that actually inserted a staple into paper and clinched it shut was a machine made by Henry R. Heyl in 1877.  Just two years later, in 1879, George W. McGill won the patent for the first commercially successful stapler. You can read more about the history of staplers here.

Anyway, I found this all to be very interesting and hope you do as well.  Staplers sure have come a long way over the last 100+ years. At ABC Office we carry a huge selection of modern-day paper staplers found here.

Have questions or comments about staplers? Post them here!

Related posts:

1. Top 5 Best Long Reach Staplers
2. Top Three Best Saddle Staplers
3. ISP Rapid 106 Electric Saddle Stapler Review
4. Best Rated Saddle Staplers (Electric & Manual)
5. Lassco Wizer W-115 Skrebba Heavy Duty Stapler Review

Tags: Staplers

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 1st, 2010 at 2:52 pm and is filed under Binding Machines, Paper Handling, Tips & Advice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.