Pondering - Stapler

So I was trying to clean


up my desk at work today when I noticed my stapler, and since I was

trying to think of something for today’s “Are you pondering” segment

the question of who invented the stapler came to mind. (and yes I

realize that a lot of my “are you pondering”’s have to do with

questioning who invented things... maybe I’ll do a blog series on

inventions next time)



Anyway as I researched I found that a lot

of people like to claim that Samuel Slocum was the inventor of the

first stapler in 1841 with his invention named “Machine for Sticking

Pins into Paper” but this invention isn’t really a stapler at all if

you look at it. It was just an invention for packaging sewing pins, as

he worked as a manufacture of sewing pins. So if someone tells you that

Samuel invented the stapler, they are mistaken and didn’t actually do

their research.



I also found references saying that the first

stapler was invented for King Louis the XV of France in the 1700’s. If

this was true it would be the first stapler, but I couldn’t find any

solid evidence to back this up as the claims said that Louis the XV

didn’t share his cool new piece office equipment with anyone else. (of

course the rumors of gold staples may have been why he didn’t share)

However, since I didn’t find any solid facts to back this up I had to

keep looking.



So who did invent the first stapler? Henry R. Heyl in

1877 appears to be the inventor of the first thing that we would

recognize as a stapler. He titled his patent “Improvement in devices

for inserting metallic staples” Now I know your saying… wait a minute

that sounds like he was just improving upon something that had already

been invented, so he couldn’t be the first…



Well it appears that there were other devices for “stapling” things together… like an eyelet

machine that could punch a whole clamp a piece of metal into whatever

you wanted to fasten. However, that was a multi-step process and not

the one quick motion in which we think of a stapler. There was also a

machine patented in 1868 called the “Paper Clip” that basically stabbed

your papers through a needle… but it didn’t clamp the needle shut at

the same time like a stapler does.



So it appears the claim to stapler fame belongs to Henry R. Heyl, though the first successfully

marketed stapler was George W. McGill in 1879 with his Single Stroke

Staple Press.



Bonus fact:

William G. Pankonin of Chicago invented the staple remover in 1932