Did you know? – A short history of office supplies
1558
Pencil
A resourceful Englishman, whose name is unrecorded, invents the pencil. The eraser followed shortly after and has accompanied the pencil until today.
1806
Carbon paper
In this year carbon paper was invented. Where and by who is not recorded either. The first patent, however, was filed by the English Ralph Wedgwood in the same year.
1841
Files and paper clips
We owe files and paper clips in the shape we know them today to the America Sam Slocum. He constructed his patent based on previous models which already appeared around 1700.
1871
Highlighter
Did you think that the highlighter was this old? The German Adolf von Baeyer invented it in this year – initially as a toy for his children.
1886
Lever arch files, hole puncher, and punched paper
This year, the hole puncher, punched paper and the matching lever arch files came to be. This was made possible by Friedrich von Soennecken from Bonn, whose name is essential to every modern office. Today you can store even more punched sheets of paper thanks to the flat files from AKTIV TRADING.
1890
Paper clips
Paper clips have already been keeping sheets of paper together for over 100 years. This is thanks to an unknown Englishman, who presumably was frequently annoyed about his messy sheets of paper.
1912
Wire binding
Wire binding has already been accompanying us for over 100 years as well. The invention is ascribed to the American Clarence D. Trussel. His status as the inventor is, however, not completely undisputed. “MyBind” from AKTIV TRADING is a further development of this type of binding. With this innovative system you can add single sheets of paper later, without having to change the entire binding.
1938
Ballpoint pen
In this year one of the most common office supplies was invented: the ballpoint pen. We have to thank the Hungarian László József Bíró for this smart pen.
1951
Correcting fluid
With the rising popularity of the typewriter it was now time for a small correction tool. The clever Texan Bette Nesmith Graham thus invented correcting fluid in her kitchen.
1974
Post-It / Sticky notes
The American Spencer Silver originally intended to invent a super glue. But even paper could be detached from it again easily. While Silver gave up in frustration, his countryman Art Fry developed a now very common office utensil from it: the Post-It sticky note.
1987
Flat files
In Japan, space is scarce. Maybe this is the reason the flat file was invented in the country of the rising sun. It was developed there by Max Ltd. Company. AKTIV TRADING is one of the first suppliers in Switzerland to offer this clever invention.
2014
Lead-free Ballpoint pen
Environmental friendliness is an important topic today. Therefore AKTIV TRADING invented the first lead-free ballpoint pen, to help the environment.