The photo is of the stapler I use. I have been using it a lot lately because I have an elderly friend who doesn’t live in the Dallas area or use a computer but wants to read my blog. So, I print out a copy and mail to her each day. Staplers are one of those inventions that are extremely practical and have become ubiquitous in everyday living — like sliced bread or bagged salad. I used electric staplers when I was working to keep thick packets of paper together. It really is a genius creation when you think about it — a tiny piece of wire binds together multiple pages. Astonishing! They can also be used for craft or construction projects. Instead of nailing floors or roofs, sometimes they are stapled instead. And what about staples used for medical purposes? No longer do surgeons or veterinarians have to worry about their skill in stitching people or animals back together, they just use staples. Staplers are popular, well-used tools that makes everyone’s lives easier. Let’s learn more about them.
A stapler is a mechanical device that joins pages of paper or similar material by driving a thin metal staple through the sheets and folding the ends. Staplers are widely used in government, business, offices, work places, homes and schools.
The word "stapler" can actually refer to a number of different devices of varying uses. In addition to joining paper sheets together, staplers can also be used in a surgical setting to join tissue together with surgical staples to close a surgical wound, much in the same way as sutures.
Most staplers are used to join multiple sheets of paper. Paper staplers come in two distinct types: manual and electric. Manual staplers are normally hand-held, although models that are used while set on a desk or other surface are not uncommon. Electric staplers exist in a variety of different designs and models. Their primary operating function is to join large numbers of paper sheets together in rapid succession. Some electric staplers can join up to 20 sheets at a time. Typical staplers are a third-class lever.
History
The growing uses of paper in the 19th century created a demand for an efficient paper fastener.
In 1866, George McGill received U.S. patent 56,587 for a small, bendable brass paper fastener that was a precursor to the modern staple. In 1867, he received U.S. patent 67,665 for a press to insert the fastener into paper. He showed his invention at the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and continued to work on these and other various paper fasteners throughout the 1880s. In 1868 an English patent for a stapler was awarded to C. H. Gould, and in the U.S, Albert Kletzker of St. Louis, Missouri also patented a device.
In 1877 Henry R. Heyl filed patent number 195,603 for the first machines to both insert and clinch a staple in one step, and for this reason some consider him the inventor of the modern stapler. In 1876 and 1877 Heyl also filed patents for the Novelty Paper Box Manufacturing Co. of Philadelphia, PA, However, the N. P. B. Manufacturing Co.'s inventions were to be used to staple boxes and books.
The first machine to hold a magazine of many pre-formed staples came out in 1878.
On February 18, 1879, George McGill received patent 212,316 for the McGill Single-Stroke Staple Press, the first commercially successful stapler. This device weighed over two and a half pounds and loaded a single ½-inch wide wire staple, which it could drive through several sheets of paper.
The first published use of the word "stapler" to indicate a machine for fastening papers with a thin metal wire was in an advertisement in the American Munsey's Magazine in 1901.
In the early 1900s, several devices were developed and patented that punched and folded papers to attach them to each other without a metallic clip. The Clipless Stand Machine made in North Berwick, Scotland sold from 1909 into the 1920s. It cut a tongue in the paper that it folded back and tucked in. Bump's New Model Paper Fastener used a similar cutting and weaving technology.
According to the article “The History of Staplers” by Chuck H at stapleslinger.com, it wouldn’t be until 1895 that the first stapler that we would recognize as a “modern” stapler came about. It was invented by the E.H. Hotchkiss Co., and it used a long strip of bendable staples that were wired together. It was such a popular invention, in fact, that people referred to a stapler as a Hotchkiss.
In Japanese, the word for “stapler” is actually “hochikisu.”
Bostitch
According to Gary Hanington’s February 29, 2020 article “Professor Hanington’s Speaking of Science: The history of the simple stapler,” as the economy boomed again after World War I, schools, offices, homes and factories gobbled up staplers as fast as they could be made. Attaching stacks of paper and filing them became standard business practice due to the introduction of the Sixteenth Amendment making federal income tax reporting mandatory in 1913. By 1924 the book stitching company from Massachusetts, Bostitch, came out with the Model B-1 Desk Stapler that featured a compact handheld design with simplified loading. It had an affordable stamped steel frame and was the first to use a coiled pusher spring that pressed on a strip of easy-to-load “cemented” staples. Production was in East Greenwich, Rhode Island and employed 80 workers.
Swingline
According to the article “The History of Staplers” by Chuck H at stapleslinger.com, as with many inventions in the late 1800s and early 1900s, the competition to improve the product was intense. Many inventors were receiving patents for their own variations of stapling technology. One of those updates came from a company that was a side business effort from a stationery wholesale agent. Jack Linksy would create the Swingline product.
What made the Swingline Speed Stapler #3 such a revolutionary invention? It was the first top-loading stapler; a row of staples could be easily inserted into the machine. Past staplers required much more manual effort, with some descriptions stating that a screwdriver and a hammer were necessary to make older staplers work. This design was so revolutionary, in fact, that it hasn’t really been improved upon since 1937.
Methods
Permanent fastening binds items by driving the staple through the material and into an anvil, a small metal plate that bends the ends, usually inward. On most modern staplers, the anvil rotates or slides to change between bending the staple ends inward for permanent stapling or outward for pinning (see below). Clinches can be standard, squiggled, flat or rounded completely adjacent to the paper to facilitate neater document stacking.
Pinning temporarily binds documents or other items. To pin, the anvil slides or rotates so that the staple bends outwards instead of inwards. Some staplers pin by bending one leg of the staple inwards and the other outwards. The staple binds the item with relative security but is easily removed.
Tacking fastens objects to surfaces, such as bulletin boards or walls. A stapler that can tack has a base that folds back out of the way, so staples drive directly into an object rather than fold against the anvil. In this position the staples are driven similar to the way a staple gun works, but with less force driving the staple.
Saddle staplers have an inverted V-shaped saddle for stapling pre-fold sheets to make booklets.
Stapleless staplers, invented in 1910, are a means of stapling that punches out a small flap of paper and weaves it through a notch. A more recent alternative method avoids the resulting hole by crimping the pages together with serrated metal teeth instead.
Surgical staplers
Surgeons can use surgical staplers in place of sutures to close the skin or during surgical anastomosis, a surgical technique used to make a new connection between two body structures that carry fluid, such as blood vessels or bowel. A skin stapler does not resemble a standard stapler, as it has no anvil. Skin staples are commonly preshaped into an "M." Pressing the stapler into the skin and applying pressure onto the handle bends the staple through the skin and into the fascia until the two ends almost meet in the middle to form a rectangle.
Staplers are commonly used intra-operatively during bowel resections in colorectal surgery. Often these staplers have an integral knife which, as the staples deploy, cuts through the bowel and maintains the aseptic field. The staples, made from surgical steel, are typically supplied in disposable sterilized cartridges.
Staple Singers
The Staple Singers were an American gospel, soul and R&B singing group. Roebuck "Pops" Staples (December 28, 1914 – December 19, 2000), the patriarch of the family, formed the group with his children Cleotha (April 11, 1934 – February 21, 2013), Pervis (November 18, 1935 – May 6, 2021) and Mavis (b. 1939). Yvonne (October 23, 1937 – April 10, 2018) replaced her brother when he was drafted into the U.S. Army and again in 1970. They are best known for their 1970s hits "Respect Yourself," "I'll Take You There," "If You're Ready (Come Go with Me)" and "Let's Do It Again." While the family name is Staples, the group used "Staple" commercially.
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