It is generally accepted that the homeland of the stationery is Norway, in which they even erected a monument to a local native. We checked whether the stationery really was born in this northern country.

Here is what information can be found on the Internet: “In Norway, in Oslo, there is a three -meter ridge monument. For the inhabitants of Norway, the clip generally has a deep symbolic significance, which is associated with the heroic history of the Second World War. In 1940, when the Nazis came to power in the country, local residents were forbidden to wear buttons and badges with the initials of the expelled Norwegian King of Hocon VII. Then the Norwegians, seeing the outlines of the usual office clip, began to wear them on clothes as a symbol of the unity of the nation and resistance. The feat of citizens was not forgotten, as well as the merits of the inventor of the paper clip - the Norwegian Johan Voller (invented the paper clip in 1899). So in Oslo appeared a figure of a giant paper clip with the inscription: "You hold up to 30 sheets. Keep it up!" "

This text is distributed by resources such as "Tourist", "Your sport", "Multier", "Russian Norway". The fact that it was the war in 1899 that a patent received a patent for the invention of a modern paper clip, according to Stephen Fry in his "Book of universal delusions".

Let's start with the monument. Indeed, the most famous (but not the largest - in the Urals There is and larger) in the world, a monument of stationery is located on the territory of the campus of the management school in Oslowhere he moved after installation in 1989 in Sandwick, a suburbs of the capital:

Indeed, during the Second World War residents of Norway in a sign of silent protest Started To wear ordinary stationery on their clothes - however, they had nothing to do with the initials of King Hocon VII and symbolized unity, the cohesion of the nation. This was mainly done by young and desperate people, namely students. Hence the installation of a giant paper clip in the campus.

There is no doubt the personality of Johan Voller. From 1892 until his death in 1920, the war worked The clerk is not somewhere, but in the patent bureau. Indeed, once the war, patented the stationery. But there are several important circumstances.

1. Back in 1867, American Samuel B. Fei Patented The early version of the paper clip is the same, originally conceived for attaching labels and tags to clothes, but still now considered the first prototype of a modern office clip:

It can also be distinguished patent Erlman Wright, decorated in 1877. In total, it is believed that until 1899, about 50 patents were issued for various constructions of the paper clip, which, to one degree or another, differed from the modern model. Images of many of them Saved.

2. Patent legislation in Norway was still limping, so the war turned to Germany and the USA. Application for American Patent #675761 It was issued, according to the database, only on January 2, 1901 and approved in June. The warfare turned to the German bureau a little earlier, on November 12, 1899, however patent Everything was issued in the same June 1901.

3. The wrestling of the Volga, as can be seen from the illustration to the patent, differed from the familiar classic version of the paper clip, which is depicted on the monument in Norway. And the point is not so much in a strictly rectangular form as in the absence of a second loop, almost around the entire perimeter a duplicate external contour. It is thanks to it that the modern clip does not fly off paper, does not deform and does not break it off. And the Vollerovskie invention was impractical. If we consider it a prototype of a modern paper clip, then with equal success this can be done in relation to many other options invented and described earlier.

4. The warner did not know and, perhaps, could not know that for some time the British company Gem Manoufacturing Ltd. A limited circulation was produced by a clerical paper clip well familiar to us. In 1892 They started to produce And in the USA, as evidenced by the advertising that appeared 30 years later. Also pay attention to advertising in newspapers from 1893 and 1894, long before the Vollerovsk invention:

Finally, in 1899, American William Middlebru Patented A machine for making clips of the GEM type, and in 1904, Cushman & Denison registered the same trademark. It should be noted that both the application of Middlebruck (April 27) and its design (November 7) took place earlier than Yukhan the war filed the first of its two applications. It should also be noted that the design of the GEM paperwork, judging by the drawings, has not changed in any way for more than 100 years:

5. The wiring was never seriously produced. In the 1920s in German archives discovered His application for a patent. When the information reached the Norwegians, this was the beginning of the birth of a local myth about the inventor of the paper clip. During the rise in national self -awareness (after the Second World War), this story was well coffee with the famous saga of wearing by local students of the scrapers on clothes. Information about the wave as an inventor of the office clip fell into the local encyclopedia and scattered through it in the light.

Thus, Johan the Waver was only one of the many people who made a patent for stationery. However, he did not get ahead of his colleagues, and his design of his paper clips does not correspond to the most popular design perpetuated on the monument in Oslo. But on the memorable stone dedicated to the Volga, we can see the very original design: