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The paper clip: forever young The paper clip celebrates its 100th birthday - SAX made this classic product popular and manufactures 250 million pieces every year. It never goes out of fashion. Its outstanding combination of form and function make the paper clip a classic surviving all trends and changes. Even the age of the internet keeps a prominent space for it. It brings order to chaos and holds things together that belong together. The designer Paul Goldberger describes the paper clip’s function as follows: “Could there be anything better than a paper clip to carry out a paper clip”’’s function?” The clip classic by SAX The Norwegian Johan Vaaler is said to be the inventor of the paper clip. He had it patented on November 12th 1899. But the paper clip dates back as far as 3000 B.C. to the Sumerian culture. Vaaler”’’s prototype was still much rounder than the paper clip as we know it today. In 1919 Heinrich Sachs and his company began producing letter clips as they were then called in Austria. He gave the clip its current form and made it part of every office”’’s standard stationary supply. Sachs, already experienced in the field of product innovation as the inventor of the drawing pin, gave the paper clip its pointed tip. That optimized it for its basic use: clipping paper together. The industrial revolution modernized the production of wire which soon made the paper clip a product distributed worldwide. It became an everyday commodity and turned out to be indispensable in every office with the growing use of paper during the years of economic boom. Over the years the paper clip kept changing its appearance, shape and colour. Sometimes it was made of copper wire, then it was round and sometimes it had a coloured plastic coating. Even designers dedicated their time to the paper clip. Peter Krauß turned it into an unconventional oversized object holder following the tradition of Pop Art. But the clip in its purest, most classic form is still the most popular variety and is being sold 250 million times a year by SAX: pure silvery wire with a V-shaped tip – a perfect match of form and function.