Stapler
Encyclopedia
A stapler is a mechanical device that joins sheets of paper
Paper
Paper is a thin material mainly used for writing upon, printing upon, drawing or for packaging. It is produced by pressing together moist fibers, typically cellulose pulp derived from wood, rags or grasses, and drying them into flexible sheets....

 or similar material by driving a thin metal staple
Staple (fastener)
A staple is a type of two-pronged fastener, usually metal, used for joining or binding materials together. Large staples might be used with a hammer or staple gun for masonry, roofing, corrugated boxes and other heavy-duty uses...

 through the sheets and folding the ends. Staplers are widely used in government, business, office
Office
An office is generally a room or other area in which people work, but may also denote a position within an organization with specific duties attached to it ; the latter is in fact an earlier usage, office as place originally referring to the location of one's duty. When used as an adjective, the...

s, and school
School
A school is an institution designed for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is commonly compulsory. In these systems, students progress through a series of schools...

s.

The word "stapler" can actually refer to a number of different devices of varying uses. In addition to joining paper sheets together, staplers can also be used in a surgical setting to join tissue together with surgical staples to close a surgical wound (much in the same way as stitches
Stitches
Stitches is a Canadian retailer and a division of YM Inc. The first Stitches store was founded in Toronto in 1975 along with YM Inc. by entrepreneur Michael Gold. Stitches currently has over 170 locations across Canada...

 or sutures).

Typically, most staplers are used to join multiple sheets of paper. Paper staplers come in two distinct types: manual and electric. Manual staplers are normally hand-held, although models that are used while set on a desk or other surface are not uncommon. Electric staplers exist in a variety of different designs and models. Their primary operating function is to join large amounts of paper sheets together in rapid succession. Some electric staplers can join up to 20 sheets at a time.

History

The first known stapler was handmade in the 18th century in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 for King Louis XV. Each staple was inscribed with the insignia of the royal court, as required.
The growing uses of paper in the 19th century created a demand for an efficient paper fastener.

In 1866, George McGill received U.S. patent 56,587 for a small, bendable brass paper fastener that was a precursor to the modern staple. In 1867, he received U.S. patent 67,665 for a press to insert the fastener into paper. He showed his invention at the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and continued to work on these and other various paper fasteners through the 1880s. In 1868 a patent was also taken out for a stapler in England by C.H.Gould. As well, also in 1868, Albert Kletzker of St Louis, MO patented a device to staple paper.

In 1877 Henry R. Heyl filed patent number 195603 for the first machines to both insert and clinch a staple in one step, and for this reason some consider him the inventor of the modern stapler. In 1876 and 1877 Heyl also filed patents for the Novelty Paper Box Manufacturing Co of Philadelphia,PA, However, the N. P. B. Manufacturing Co.'s inventions were to be used to staple boxes and books.

The first machine to hold a magazine of many preformed staples came out in 1878.

On February 18, 1879, George McGill received patent 212,316 for the McGill Single-Stroke Staple Press, the first commercially successful stapler. This device weighed over two and a half pounds and loaded a single 1/2 inch wide wire staple, which it could drive through several sheets of paper.

The first published use of the word "stapler" to indicate a machine for fastening papers with a thin metal wire was in an advertisement in the American Munsey's Magazine in 1901.

In the early 1900s, several devices were developed and patented that punched and folded papers to attach them to each other without a metallic clip. The Clipless Stand Machine (made in North Berwick
North Berwick
The Royal Burgh of North Berwick is a seaside town in East Lothian, Scotland. It is situated on the south shore of the Firth of Forth, approximately 25 miles east of Edinburgh. North Berwick became a fashionable holiday resort in the 19th century because of its two sandy bays, the East Bay and the...

) sold from 1909 into the 1920s. It cut a tongue in the paper that it folded back and tucked in. Bump's New Model Paper Fastener used a similar cutting and weaving technology.

In 1941 the type of paper stapler that is the most common in use today was developed: the four way paper stapler. With the four way, the operator could either use the stapler to staple papers to wood or card board, or used to staple like pliers for bags, or the normal way with two options, one the standard with the staples going inward or turning the plate and the staples going outward.

Methods

Permanent fastening binds items by driving the staple through the material and into an anvil, a small metal plate that bends the ends, usually inward. On most modern staplers, the anvil rotates or slides to change between bending the staple ends inward for permanent stapling or outward for pinning (see below). Clinches can be standard, squiggled, flat, or rounded completely adjacent to the paper to facilitate neater document stacking.

A staple remover
Staple remover
A staple remover is a device that allows for the quick removal of a staple from a material without causing damage...

 is a device that removes permanent staples with a pair of interlocking curved claws that slide under the staple's bent-over ends and bend them back out.

Pinning temporarily binds documents or other items, often cloth or clothing for sewing
Sewing
Sewing is the craft of fastening or attaching objects using stitches made with a needle and thread. Sewing is one of the oldest of the textile arts, arising in the Paleolithic era...

. To pin, the anvil slides or rotates so that the staple bends outwards instead of inwards. Some staplers pin by bending one leg of the staple inwards and the other outwards. The staple binds the item with relative security, but is easily removed.

Tacking fastens objects to surfaces, such as bulletin board
Bulletin board
A bulletin board is a surface intended for the posting of public messages, for example, to advertise things to buy or sell, announce events, or provide information...

s or walls. A stapler that can tack has a base that folds back out of the way so staples drive directly into an object rather than fold against the anvil. A dedicated tacking device, with no base or anvil, is called a staple gun
Staple gun
A staple gun or powered stapler is a hand-held machine used to drive heavy metal staples into wood, plastic, or masonry. Staple guns are used for many different applications and to affix a variety of materials, including insulation, house wrap, roofing, wiring, carpeting, upholstery, and hobby and...

.

Saddle staplers have an inverted "V"-shaped saddle for stapling pre-fold sheets to make booklets.

Stapleless staplers, invented in 1910, are a means of stapling that punches out a small flap of paper and weaves it through a notch.

Surgical staplers

Surgeons can use surgical staplers in place of sutures to close the skin, or during surgical anastomosis
Surgical anastomosis
In surgical jargon, to create an anastomosis is to join together two hollow organs , usually to restore continuity after resection, or to bypass an unresectable disease process. Historically such procedures were performed with suture material, but increasingly mechanical staplers and biological...

. A surgical stapler doesn't resemble a standard stapler, as it has no anvil. Surgical staples are commonly preshaped into a "M". Pressing the stapler into the skin and applying pressure onto the handle bends the staple through the skin and into the fascia
Fascia
A fascia is a layer of fibrous tissue that permeates the human body. A fascia is a connective tissue that surrounds muscles, groups of muscles, blood vessels, and nerves, binding those structures together in much the same manner as plastic wrap can be used to hold the contents of sandwiches...

, until the two ends almost meet in the middle to form a rectangle.

Staplers are commonly used intra-operatively during bowel resections in colorectal surgery
Colorectal cancer
Colorectal cancer, commonly known as bowel cancer, is a cancer caused by uncontrolled cell growth , in the colon, rectum, or vermiform appendix. Colorectal cancer is clinically distinct from anal cancer, which affects the anus....

. Often these staplers have an integral knife which, as the staples deploy, cuts through the bowel and maintains the aseptic
Aseptic technique
Aseptic technique refers to a procedure that is performed under sterile conditions. This includes medical and laboratory techniques, such as with microbiological cultures. It includes techniques like flame sterilization...

 field. The staples, made from surgical steel
Surgical stainless steel
Surgical stainless steel is a specific type of stainless steel, used in medical applications, made out of several components: chromium, nickel and molybdenum....

, are typically supplied in disposable sterilized cartridges.
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