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Invention

Stapler

Mechanical Engineering

A stapler is a mechanical device that fastens sheets of paper or similar material together by driving a thin metal staple through them and folding its ends over. Rising paper use in the 19th century created demand for a fast fastening method, and while the American inventor George McGill is often credited with developing the modern stapler, patenting a brass paper fastener in 1866 and a press to insert it in 1867, the American Henry R. Heyl filed the first patent, in 1877, for a machine that could both insert and clinch a staple in a single stroke, and it was McGill's Single-Stroke Staple Press of 1879 that became the first commercially successful stapler.

Facts
Patent or First-Use DateSourced to the subject's own account
1879-02-18 1
YearSourced to the subject's own account
1879 1
SignificanceSourced to the subject's own account
The four-way paper stapler, the type most common in use today, was developed in 1941, decades after McGill's single-stroke press established the stapler as a commercially viable office machine. 1
Connections

In Field

Source Stapler (Wikipedia)
Sources
1. Stapler (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia
  • History section, McGill Single-Stroke Staple Press paragraph, Wikipedia article Stapler
    On February 18, 1879, George McGill received patent 212,316 for the McGill Single-Stroke Staple Press, the first commercially successful stapler.
  • History section, 1941 paragraph, Wikipedia article Stapler
    In 1941, the type of paper stapler that is the most common in use was developed: the four-way paper stapler.
  • In Field: Mechanical Engineering, Categories
    Fasteners
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