Did you know? Guillotine

The paper cutter or stack cutter, was invented by American Milton Bradley (1836-1911), no doubt with the infamous guillotine made famous during the French Revolution in mind. Milton started his career in lithography, but was later credited by many with launching the board game industry in North America. In action, the paper cutter guillotine resembles the execution device, the primary difference being the blade, or knife. The blade on the execution device fell vertically, and was angled for a clean cut through the victim’s neck. The stack paper cutting blade is straight across, but as the handle is depressed to cut the paper block, the blade moves slightly from right to left while moving down through the block, thus performing the same physical action as the execution device.

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Did you know?
Paper Fastener

The first paper fastener was patented on 1841 by Samuel Slocum. This crude device stuck pins on paper to fasten them, but actually was not a fastener at all. It simply stuck pins to paper to package them. In 1866 George McGill patented a small, bendable brass paper fastener, the precursor to the modern staple, and in 1867 he patented a press to insert the fastener into paper. In 1879 the McGill Single-Stroke Staple Press was patented – it weighed over two and a half pounds and was able to load a single ½ inch wide wire staple and drive it through several sheets of paper. Since the late 1800s devices were developed that punched or folded paper to fix sheets together without a physical clip. One 1880 example was the Clipless Stand Machine that created a tongue in the paper that was folded back around to hold the paper together .

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