Floyd Paxton
Encyclopedia
Floyd G. Paxton is the inventor of the bread clip
, a notched plastic tag used for sealing bags of bread worldwide. It is manufactured by the Kwik Lok corporation, and part of the proceeds for each clip go to the John Birch Society
, of which Paxton was a director and past President.
Floyd Paxton was known for repeatedly telling the story about how he came up with the idea of the bread clip. As he told it, he was on an airline and opened a bag of peanuts and then realized he had no way to close up the bag. He rummaged through his wallet and found an expired credit card and hand-carved his first bag clip with his small pen knife. Of course, this was many decades ago when one could carry a pen knife onto an airplane. When a fruit packer, Pacific Fruit, wanted a to replace rubber bands with a better bag closure for it new plastic bags, Paxton remembered his bag of peanuts. He hand-whittled another clip from a small sheet of plexiglass. With an order in hand for a million clips, Paxton designed a die-cut machine to produce the clips at high speed. Despite repeated attempts, Paxton never won a U.S. Patent for his clips. He did win numerous patents for the high-speed "bag closing apparatus" that made the clips, inserted bread into bags and applied the clips for the finished product.
In Washington State, Paxton was best known for his very conservative political views. During the 1960s he was national president of the John Birch Society. He made four unsuccessful runs for Congress. He founded a right-wing conservative newspaper, The Yakima Eagle, which did not attract a subscriber base and soon folded. Floyd Paxton, and his wife Grace, had a running battle with the Internal Revenue Service over a family trust set up to avoid taxation, resulting in years of litigation and appeals with the IRS—with the Paxtons ultimately losing.
Bread clip
A bread clip is a device used to hold plastic bags closed. They are also commonly called bread tags, bread tabs, bread ties, bread crimps, bread-bag clips, or bread climps...
, a notched plastic tag used for sealing bags of bread worldwide. It is manufactured by the Kwik Lok corporation, and part of the proceeds for each clip go to the John Birch Society
John Birch Society
The John Birch Society is an American political advocacy group that supports anti-communism, limited government, a Constitutional Republic and personal freedom. It has been described as radical right-wing....
, of which Paxton was a director and past President.
Floyd Paxton was known for repeatedly telling the story about how he came up with the idea of the bread clip. As he told it, he was on an airline and opened a bag of peanuts and then realized he had no way to close up the bag. He rummaged through his wallet and found an expired credit card and hand-carved his first bag clip with his small pen knife. Of course, this was many decades ago when one could carry a pen knife onto an airplane. When a fruit packer, Pacific Fruit, wanted a to replace rubber bands with a better bag closure for it new plastic bags, Paxton remembered his bag of peanuts. He hand-whittled another clip from a small sheet of plexiglass. With an order in hand for a million clips, Paxton designed a die-cut machine to produce the clips at high speed. Despite repeated attempts, Paxton never won a U.S. Patent for his clips. He did win numerous patents for the high-speed "bag closing apparatus" that made the clips, inserted bread into bags and applied the clips for the finished product.
In Washington State, Paxton was best known for his very conservative political views. During the 1960s he was national president of the John Birch Society. He made four unsuccessful runs for Congress. He founded a right-wing conservative newspaper, The Yakima Eagle, which did not attract a subscriber base and soon folded. Floyd Paxton, and his wife Grace, had a running battle with the Internal Revenue Service over a family trust set up to avoid taxation, resulting in years of litigation and appeals with the IRS—with the Paxtons ultimately losing.