The paper clip is something of a fetish object in design circles. Its spare, machined aesthetic and its inexpensive ubiquity landed it a spot in MoMA’s 2004 show Humble Masterpieces. This was a ...

James Ward has an unusual attachment to paper clips. And when he sees one, he sees "a piece of art, but it's also a piece of useful art." And like any serious art appreciator, he is also a collector.

Your standard paperclip has a design so perfect and so simple that it seems inevitable–and obvious. It wasn’t. The Gem paperclip is actually the last clip standing in a war over paper clip design that ...

In the patent literature, the term "prior art" is virtually synonymous with "state of the art," the standard against which any claimed improvement is necessarily judged. Normally, "state of the art" ...

The paper clip might seem like an ordinary object in your stationery drawer, but its simplicity hides a surprisingly rich history and wide range of uses. Designed to hold sheets of paper together, ...

Adam Smith famously used a pin factory to illustrate the advantages of specialization, choosing this "very trifling manufacture" because the different tasks were performed under one roof: "One man ...