Editing Paper clip (section)

===Unsupported claims===
It has been claimed that the paper clip was invented by English intellectual [[Herbert Spencer]] (1820–1903).<ref>{{cite journal |first=G. W. |last=Trompf |jstor=3119625 |doi=10.2307/3119625 |title=Radical Conservatism in Herbert Spencer's Educational Thought |journal=British Journal of Educational Studies |volume=17 |number=3 |date=October 1969 |page=277 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Lloyd |first1=John |last2=Mitchinson |first2=John |title=QI: The Book of General Ignorance - The Noticeably Stouter Edition |date=7 October 2010 |publisher=Faber & Faber |isbn=978-0-571-27378-2 |page=249 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uCgRY6llQpYC&pg=PA249 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=O'Connell |first1=James F. |title=Christopher Raven: A Personal Appreciation |journal=Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology |date=1 July 1995 |volume=17 |issue=1 |page=10 |url=https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7sv171tz |access-date=30 September 2021 |language=en |issn=0191-3557 |quote=he often assured beginning graduate students that Herbert Spencer's greatest contribution to humanity had been the invention of the paper clip}}</ref> Spencer registered a "binding-pin" on 2 September 1846,<ref name="Spencer1904"/><ref>{{cite web |title=Useful Registered Design Number: 809 |url=https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C14032698 |website=BT 45 — Patents, Designs and Trade Marks Office: Non-ornamental ('Useful') Designs Act 1843 Representations |publisher=National Archives |access-date=30 September 2021 |location=London |language=English |date=2 September 1846 }}</ref> which was made and sold by Adolphus Ackermann for over a year,<ref>Son of [[Rudolph Ackermann]]; see Spencer (1904) p.354 "Mr. Ackermann who was a bad man of business, and who, failing not long afterwards, shot himself"; and {{cite web |title=Rudolph Ackermann |url=https://www.npg.org.uk/research/programmes/directory-of-suppliers/a |website=British artists' suppliers, 1650-1950 |publisher=National Portrait Gallery |access-date=29 September 2021 |quote=Adolphus Ackermann also set up business close by at 15 Beaufort Buildings but committed suicide in 1858 when faced with bankruptcy proceedings}}</ref> advertised as "for holding loose manuscripts, sermons, weekly papers, and all unstitched publications".<ref name="Spencer1904"/> Spencer's design, approximately {{Convert|15|cm|in|abbr=on}} unfolded, looked more like a modern [[Split pin|cotter pin]] than a modern paper clip.<ref name="Spencer1904">{{cite book |last1=Spencer |first1=Herbert |title=An Autobiography |date=1904 |publisher=D. Appleton |pages=[https://archive.org/details/anautobiography00spengoog/page/n392 352]–354; [https://archive.org/details/anautobiography00spengoog/page/n682 639]–640 |url=https://archive.org/details/anautobiography00spengoog/page/n374/mode/2up |language=English}}</ref>

====Norwegian claim====
{{Summary style section|date=September 2021}}
{{main|Johan Vaaler}}
[[File:Vaaler kopi.jpg|thumb|right|[[Johan Vaaler]] in 1887 as a student of the [[University of Oslo|Christiania University]]]]
[[File:Vaaler clip.svg|thumb|right|The paper clip patented by Johan Vaaler in 1899 and 1901]]

Norwegian [[Johan Vaaler]] (1866–1910) has been identified as the inventor of the paper clip. He was granted patents in [[Germany]]<ref>Application dated 12 November 1899, Patentschrift no. 121067, patent granted 6 June 1901.</ref> and in the United States<ref>US Patent No. 675,761 June 4, 1901.</ref> (1901) for a paper clip of similar design, but less functional and practical. Because it was more complicated to insert into the paper, Vaaler probably did not know that a better product was already on the market, although not yet in Norway. His version was never manufactured and never marketed because the superior ''Gem'' was already available.

Long after Vaaler's death, his countrymen created a national myth based on the false assumption that the paper clip was invented by an unrecognized Norwegian genius.  Norwegian dictionaries since the 1950s have mentioned Vaaler as the inventor of the paper clip,<ref>"Binders" ''Aschehougs konversasjonsleksikon'', Oslo 1975, vol. 2, p. 695.</ref> and that myth later found its way into international dictionaries and much of the international literature on paper clips.

Vaaler probably succeeded in having his design patented abroad, despite the previous existence of more useful paper clips, because patent authorities at that time were quite liberal and rewarded any marginal modification of existing inventions.<ref>Petroski, Henry "The Evolution of Artifacts", ''American Scientist'', Volume 80, 1992, pp. 416–20.</ref> Johan Vaaler began working for ''Alfred J. Bryns Patentkontor'' in [[Oslo|Kristiania]] in 1892 and was later promoted to office manager, a position he held until his death.<ref>Holst, Wilhelm: "Johan Vaaler", ''Studenterne fra 1887'', Kristiania 1912.</ref> As the employee of a patent office, he could easily have obtained a patent in Norway. His reasons for applying abroad are not known; it is possible that he wanted to secure the commercial rights internationally. Also, he may have been aware that a Norwegian manufacturer would find it difficult to introduce a new invention abroad, starting from the small home market.

Vaaler's patents expired quietly, while the "Gem" was used worldwide, including his own country. The failure of his design was its impracticality. Without the two full loops of the fully developed paper clip, it was difficult to insert sheets of paper into his clip. One could manipulate the end of the inner wire so that it could receive the sheet, but the outer wire was a dead end because it could not exploit the torsion principle. The clip would instead stand out like a keel, perpendicular to the sheet of paper. The impracticality of Vaaler's design may easily be demonstrated by cutting off the last outer loop and one long side from a regular Gem clip.

====National symbol====
The originator of the Norwegian paper clip myth was an engineer of the Norwegian national patent agency who visited Germany in the 1920s to register Norwegian patents in that country. He came across Vaaler's patent but failed to detect that it was not the same as the then-common Gem-type clip.<ref>Vaaler's forgotten German patent was found by patent engineer ''Halvard Foss'' of The Norwegian Industrial Property Office (Patentstyret) while looking for patents granted to Norwegians in the German patent office. "I made this discovery known to my colleagues", Foss stated in an interview with the weekly ''[[A-magasinet]]'' no. 52, 1988.</ref> In the report of the first fifty years of the patent agency, he wrote an article in which he proclaimed Vaaler to be the inventor of the common paper clip.<ref>Foss, Halvard: "Den frittstående oppfinner", ''Styret for det industrielle rettsvern 50 år'', Oslo 1961, p. 190.</ref> This piece of information found its way into some Norwegian encyclopedias after [[World War II]].

Events of that war contributed greatly to the mythical status of the paper clip. Patriots wore them in their lapels as a symbol of [[Norwegian resistance movement|resistance]] to the [[Germany|German]] [[Military occupation|occupiers]] and local [[Nazism|Nazi]] authorities when other signs of resistance, such as flag pins or pins showing the cipher of the exiled [[Haakon VII of Norway|King Haakon VII of Norway]], were forbidden. Those wearing them did not yet see them as national symbols, as the myth of their Norwegian origin was not commonly known at the time.
The clips were meant to denote solidarity and unity ("we are bound together"). The wearing of paper clips was soon prohibited, and people wearing them could risk severe punishment.<ref name="Finn 1945">Bø, Finn: ''Forbuden frukt'' (First edition 1945), Oslo 1995, {{ISBN|82-509-3249-8}}.</ref>

The leading Norwegian encyclopedia mentioned the role of the paper clip as a symbol of resistance in a supplementary volume in 1952 but did not yet proclaim it a Norwegian invention.<ref>''Aschehougs konversasjonsleksikon'', supplementsbind, Oslo 1952.</ref> That information was added in later editions. According to the 1974 edition, the idea of using the paper clip to denote resistance originated in [[France]]. A clip worn on a lapel or front pocket could be seen as "deux gaules" (two posts or poles) and be interpreted as a reference to the leader of the French [[Resistance during World War II|Resistance]], General [[Charles de Gaulle]].<ref>''Aschehougs konversasjonsleksikon'', Oslo 1974, Vol. 2, p. 695.</ref>

The post-war years saw a widespread consolidation of the paper clip as a national symbol. Authors of books and articles on the history of Norwegian technology eagerly seized it to make a thin story more substantial. They chose to overlook the fact that Vaaler's clip was not the same as the fully developed Gem-type clip.<ref>Hesstvedt, Ola: "Den lille norske hjelperen fyller 90 år", ''[[A-magasinet]]'' nr. 52, 1988.</ref> In 1989, a giant paper clip, almost {{convert|7|m|abbr=on}} high, was erected on the campus of a commercial college near [[Oslo]] in honor of Vaaler, ninety years after his invention was patented. But this monument shows a Gem-type clip, not the one patented by Vaaler. The celebration of the alleged Norwegian origin of the paper clip culminated in 1999, one hundred years after Vaaler submitted his application for a German patent. A commemorative stamp was issued that year, the first in a series to draw attention to Norwegian inventiveness. The background shows a facsimile of the German "Patentschrift". However, the figure in the foreground is not the paper clip depicted on that document, but the much better known "Gem". In 2005, the national biographical encyclopedia of Norway (''Norsk biografisk leksikon'') published the biography of Johan Vaaler, stating he was the inventor of the paper clip.<ref>"Vaaler, Johan", ''Norsk biografisk leksikon'', Kunnskapsforlaget, Oslo 2005. Vol. 9, p. 411, {{ISBN|82-573-1011-5}}.</ref>

<gallery widths="200px" heights="200px">
File:BI-binders.jpg|The giant paper clip in [[Sandvika]], Norway. It shows the Gem, not the one patented by Vaaler.
File:Paper clip stamp 1999.jpg|Postage stamp issued in 1999 to commemorate Vaaler's paper clip. In the background his German "Patenschrift". 1901. The depicted paper clip is not the one he invented, but the successful Gem clip.
</gallery>