These stapler facts will staple all that information together.
- Staplers are machines that use thin staples, typically made from metal, to hold items, such as paper, together.
- ‘Staplers’ are also known as ‘staple binders’, ‘stapling machines’, ‘paper fasteners’, and ‘staple drivers’.
- Staplers can be manual, meaning they require force from one’s hand; or electric, which generally function automatically or with the press of a button, and are either battery operated or are plugged into an electrical power outlet.
- It is believed that a stapler was first invented in the 1700s for the French King Louis XV, in France and the staples were engraved with the royal insignia.
- Staplers usually hold a quantity of staples in a cartridge, that are pushed one at a time through the paper or other material to be stapled, and the staple is usually forced to bend behind the material as it hits the metal plate, an ‘anvil’, located at the base of the machine.
- The invention and modification of the stapler is evident in the later half of the 1800s, while the earliest known patent for a machine to use a staple and clinch it (bend the staple) is dated 1877, and was invented by American Henry Heyl, from Philadelphia.
- Staplers are most often made from a combination of metal and plastic, and come in a variety of colours, shapes and sizes, with each machine holding staples of a particular size.
- The first stapler to become a financial success in the commercial world, is said to be the one designed by American George McGill, in 1879 in New York, and the modern style hand operated machine was available from as early as the 1940s, the invention of which is commonly attributed to John Munford, from England.
- A stapler can have special features, like a long arm, to staple books; an anvil that can be moved so that the staple folds outwards like a pin, for a less permanent securing method; and variations like the machine with no anvil, called a ‘staple gun’, which can secure items without needing to access the back of the material.
- Staplers are most commonly used in work, school or home environments, as well as hospitals, where there are special surgical ones that can be used to staple skin together during surgery.
Bibliography:
Antique staplers & other paper fasteners, 2013, Early Office Museum, http://www.officemuseum.com/staplers.htm
The History of Staplers, 2004, Wayback Machine, http://web.archive.org/web/20070831072958/http://www.oldstaplers.com/stapler_history.html
Staplers, 2014, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stapler
Welcome, 2008, DIAO, http://www.stapler.cn/history.asp
