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Let’s Talk Trash! MARCH/APRIL 2018
©2018 The Keenan Group, Inc
Push Pins
The push pin was created in 1900 by Edwin Moore. He started out with only $112.60 and he described the push pin as a “a pin with a needle.” He rented out a room and every evening he would devote his time to go work on the push pins. Whatever Edwin would make that night he would sell the following day.
Inventions of useful items we use everyday!
by Brianna Team Jumping Unicorns
paper clips
Johan Vaaler, a Norwegian inventor with a degree in electronics, science, and mathematics, invented the paperclip in 1899. He received a patent for his design from Germany in 1899 since Norway had no patent laws at that time. He received an American patent in 1901. The patent abstract says, “It consists of forming same of a spring material, such as a piece of wire, that is bent to a rectangular, triangular, or otherwise shaped hoop, the end parts of which wire piece form members or tongues lying side by side in contrary directions.” Vaaler was the first person to patent a paperclip design, although other unpatented designs might have existed first. But it was a company called the Gem Manufacturing Ltd. of England who first designed the double oval shaped standard looking paperclip. This familiar and famous paperclip was, and still is, referred to as the “Gem” clip. William Middlebrook, of Waterbury, Connecticut, patented a machine for making paper clips of the Gem design in 1899. The Gem paperclip, itself, was never patented. https://www.thoughtco.com/history-of-the-paper-clip-4072863 envelopes together. Rubber bands are made by extruding the rubber into a long tube to provide its general shape, putting the tubes on mandrels, curing the rubber with heat, and then slicing it across the width of the tube into little bands. This causes the tube to split into multiple sections, creating a rubber band. Source: https://patentyogi.com/this-day-in-patent-history/this-day-in- patent-history-on-march-17-1845-stephen-perry-received-a-patent-for- the-first-rubber-band/ manner, the pencil could be sharpened on both ends to refresh either the graphite core or eraser. As it turns out, there were countering claims from another inventor who developed the use of a ferrule to attach an eraser. Faber claimed these were not patentable innovations since pencil and erasers previously existed. The combination did not change the basic function of these two items.
Scotch tape was invented by a college dropout named Richard Drew from Minnesota who worked for a small sandpaper company founded in 1902 called Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing, later known as 3M. Born Richard Gurley Drew in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1899, Drew spent a year at the University of Minnesota in the Mechanical Engineering program before dropping out. He paid for that time at school and his
correspondence school course in machine design by playing banjo, and he included all of that information in his application to the open position of lab technician with 3M. He got the job and was set on the path to make history.
First Safety Pin by Walter Hunt
safety pins
Walter Hunt, of New York, NY, received patent #6,281 for the safety pin on April 10, 1849. Hunt’s pin was made from one piece of wire, which was coiled into a spring at one end and a separate clasp and point at the other end, allowing the point of the wire to be forced by the spring into the clasp. Walter Hunt was extremely creative, and in 1834 he built America’s first sewing machine, which also used the first eye-pointed needle. Hunt did not patent his invention because he thought it would put hand sewers out of work. Nearly 20 years later, Elias Howe reinvented and patented an eye-pointed needle sewing machine. Hunt’s patent, as well as the more than six million patents issued since the first in 1790 and the 2.3 million trademarks
by Matthew Team Envy
registered since 1870, can be seen on the Department of Commerce’s U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Web site at www.uspto.gov
There have been many innovations in pencil design or methods of production through the last several hundred years. March 30th, 2008 marked the 150th anniversary of a famous patent which was the first patent to address the installation of a rubber eraser at the end of a wood-cased pencil. The patent filed by Hymen Lipman of Philadelphia, PA was granted on March 30th 1858. An interesting feature of this design was that the eraser was actually installed within the wood of the pencil opposite from the writing core end. In this On March 17, 1845, Stephen Perry (a British inventor and businessman) received a patent for the first rubber band. The rubber band has been holding things together for the past 170 years. Cheap, reliable, and strong, the rubber band is one of the world’s most ubiquitous products. Perry came up with the invention after Charles Goodyear introduced rubber to the world in 1839. Perry invented the rubber band to hold papers or
rubber bands
Erasers
source: pencils.com
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