The Paperclip Has No Inventor — And It Became a Weapon Against the Nazis

The Hidden History Podcast · Jun 18, 2026 · 15m

The modern paperclip is everywhere. On every desk, in every drawer, in every office on earth. And yet — nobody knows who invented it.

The Gem paperclip, the design that became the global standard, emerged from an anonymous British factory in the 1870s with no patent, no name, and no recorded origin. The man Norway credits with the invention — Johan Vaaler — patented a completely different design that was never manufactured or sold. The monuments they built to honor him depict the wrong paperclip. The myth persisted for over a century. But in Nazi-occupied Oslo, the paperclip became a secret…