A History of the Divisive Paperclip

"Paperclip"
About.com

"The fastening of papers has been historical referenced to as early as the 13th century, when people put ribbon through parallel incisions in the upper left hand corner of pages. Later people started to wax the ribbons to make them stronger and easier to undo and redo. This was the way people clipped papers together for the next six hundred years...."

About.com left quite a bit out: like the Fay Paper Clip (1867). The article does a fast-forward through:

• John Ireland (1835)
  • New York physician
  • Inventor of machine to make straight pins
  • Which held papers together until - - -
• Johan Vaaler (1899)
  • Norwegian inventor - - -
  • Of a paperclip

All of which doesn't seem very "divisive." Johan Vaaler patented his invention in Germany: which wasn't particularly divisive, either. Norway didn't have patent laws in 1899, according to the About.com article.

The paperclip wasn't divisive in 1923, either, the year in which no paperclips were found in King Tutankhamen's tomb.

Somewhere between 1940 and 1945, though, the paperclip was downright divisive. In Norway:

"...During World War II, Norwegians were prohibited from wearing any buttons with the likeness or initials of their king on them. In protest they started wearing paperclips, because paperclips were a Norwegian invention whose original function was to bind together. This was a protest against the Nazi occupation and wearing a paperclip could have gotten you arrested."

There's more to the history of the paperclip. Like Cornelius J. Brosnan, an American, who filed a patent in 1900 for the sort of paperclip he called the Konaclip. Funny: It's really hard to find a Konaclip these days.

That may have something to do with with Gem Manufacturing Ltd., of the U.K. - the company that designed and marketed the 'trombone' paperclip that we're familiar with today.

If this account seems overly-simple: you're right. There's quite a lot that can be written about the history of paperclips. And has been:

More:

• "History of the Paper Clip"
  Early Office Museum

What do Edmonton, Alberta; and The Netherlands have In Common?

"Edmonton veterans mark liberation of Netherlands"
Edmonton Journal (May 5, 2010)

" 'We cannot thank you enough,' Mandel tells soldiers

"The city marked the 65th anniversary of the liberation of the Netherlands during the Second World War with a parade of veterans in downtown Edmonton on Wednesday.

"At 11:30, both past and present members of the Canadian Forces, with vehicles both new and antique, marched from 103rd Street, along Jasper Avenue, to Churchill Square.

"Veterans were awarded medallions in recognition of their service...."

My guess is that the Edmonton Journal is talking about Edmonton, Alberta. The references to Jasper Avenue and Churchill Square seem to make more sense that way. There's another Edmonton in Ontario, though - but that isn't really the point of the article, I think.

Canada, along with quite a few other nations, was very involved in World War II. I'm glad to read that soldiers who fought in that war are still recognized: and that The Netherlands seems to be still, on the whole, glad that the Allies won.

Churchill and the British Bomb Shelter That Wasn't

"Churchill bunker 'not bomb-proof' "
BBC (July 20, 2009)

"Winston Churchill complained he had been 'sold a pup' when he discovered his underground wartime headquarters in Whitehall were not bomb-proof.

"A letter showing Churchill's annoyance when he discovered this security flaw is on display at the Cabinet War Rooms.

"Despite his protests, the prime minister continued to work from this bunker during the Blitz.

"The letter, written in September 1940, says the war rooms 'cannot be made bomb-proof in any sense'.

"The Cabinet War Rooms, now open to the public, were used as an underground command centre throughout World War II...."

This BBC article gives a pretty good look at an example of why I don't get nostalgic about 'the good old days,' when things were so much better. It appears that the British government, in an effort to deal with the unpleasantness of bombs falling on London, devised a shelter for key leaders which combined the discomfort of a real bomb shelter with the vulnerability of a surface structure.

Perhaps I'm being unkind.

I suggest reading this article. It's a good glimpse at the way it was, about a half-century back.

Kudos to Churchill and company, for staying at their post: knowing that it wasn't 'as described.'

High-Speed Stealth Bomber: Built in 1940s

" 'Hitler's Stealth Fighter' Re-created"
National Geographic News (June 25, 2009)

"ON TV Hitler's Stealth Fighter airs Sunday, June 28, at 9 p.m. ET/PT on the National Geographic Channel.

"Top stealth-plane experts have re-created a radical, nearly forgotten Nazi aircraft: the Horten 2-29, a retro-futuristic fighter that arrived too late in World War II to make it into mass production...."

The article gives a pretty good overview of a working military jet, made mostly of wood, that was designed to be virtually invisible on radar.

I could be wrong, but I detect some NIH (Not Invented Here) in one statement: "...Some experts, like the Garber facility's Lee, question the Hortens' postwar claims that their plane had been intended as a stealth plane...."

The National Geographic News article is, of course, intended to encourage people to watch the company's program this Sunday, June 28. It also is a pretty good look at one facet of recent history.

If contemporary tests show that the Horten design was 'stealthy, Germany came very close to having a fleet of stealth bombers in WWII. This could have changed the course of the war - at least for a short time, until countermeasures were developed.

"...But by early 1945, aviation historian George Cully said, 'The Germans had run out of pilots, petroleum, and time.' "

Sea Forts of the English Channel

"the sea forts"
Tim Mitchard, The UTATAN

"About a year ago I was going through some old negatives and came across some that I had taken 15 or so years ago. These were of the Sea Forts located in The Thames Estuary off the North Kent coast...."

The rest is an interesting (to me, anyway) account of these relics of WWII. It's a bit lacking in documentation - that's the boring stuff about where information comes from, that lets the reader know that the author didn't make up the facts.

But that's nit-picking. It's a good read: and a pretty good start for someone who is seriously interested in researching these strange structures.

The Lemming Gets Serious: Holocaust Survivors' Website

"Holocaust Survivors"

"Why have this web site? Because history is not just about events, it is about human lives. Here we present history with a human face. Read the stories of the survivors. Hear them speak. Look at their family photographs. Consult our encyclopedia. Read a historical introduction to the Holocaust. Leave your thoughts or ask your questions on our discussion page."

The people who survived places like Auschwitz and Dachau are have grown old. Soon there will be no living voices to remind us of what happened during World War II, under the Nazi regime.

"Nazi" has become an epithet, used to describe someone the speaker doesn't like, or approve of: something like "commie" in America, back in the fifties.

I don't recommend wallowing in unpleasant details of the past.

On the other hand, a very great many people suffered and died because of Dr. Josef Mengele, Heinrich Himmler, Martin Weiss, and the ideals they promoted.

It might be just as well to remember what happened, and learn a lesson or two.

Churchillisms

"Witty quotes and insults from Winston Churchill"
Talking in Circles (June 2, 2008)

From "History will be kind to me, for I intend to write it."

To "Churchill: Madam, would you sleep with me for five million pounds?
Woman: My goodness, Mr. Churchill… Well, I suppose… we would have to discuss terms, of course…
Churchill: Would you sleep with me for five pounds?
Woman: Mr. Churchill, what kind of woman do you think I am?!
Churchill: Madam, we’ve already established that. Now we are haggling about the price."

The blogger is careful to say that these are "quotes and anecdotes attributed to him:" I appreciate that sort of awareness.

The list includes one of my own favorites: "Democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time." (I've run into this idea, attributed to Churchill, with a slightly different phrasing - and don't have time to look it up right now.)

Code Talkers of WWII

"Code Talkers: The Secret Heroes of World War II" (February 18, 2008)

Some Navajo and other Native American Marines in WWII were Code Talkers: a remarkable team of communications specialists whose code was never broken by the Japanese.

The Code Talker program wasn't declassified until 1968.

They used a comparatively simple set of substitution codes, where the word "turtle," for example, would stand for "tank." Or, more accurately, "wakaree'e" - the Navajo word for "turtle."

"Code Talkers" is a pretty good description of the program, and the people who made it work.

I heard and read about this program when it stopped being a closely-guarded secret,f an remember a detail that didn't appear in the "Code Talkers" article. After forty years, I can't verify this, but the Code Talkers may have done more than simply use their relatively undocumented language and substitution codes to keep military messages secret.

According to one source, many of the Code Talkers knew each other's families and communities, or were related. When they weren't transmitting military messages, they'd talk about the folks back home, or anything else that came to mind.

Normally, I suspect that use of military channels for personal communications is frowned on. In this case, it meant that Japanese intelligence had hours of talk in an unknown language, which might, or might not, be

• Extremely detailed battle plans
• A discussion of somebody's cousin's family, hunting plans for post-war life, with a few brief official messages mixed in
• Nothing but reminiscing about the winter of '33
• Or something else

There was no way to tell. No wonder the 'code' remained unbroken: and was kept secret for so long.

What the Swiss General Said to the German General WWII Quote

"Great Quotations of World War II - Anonymous" What the German General said to the Swiss General, and the Swiss General's reply.

WWII: Wisdom of an Admiral: Three Quotes

"Great Quotations of World War II - Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto"

The Case of the Kissing Sailor: Solved

"Kissing Sailor - Found at Last"

Remember that famous photo of a young couple kissing, right after he came of the ship at the end of WWII? The sailor is, most likely, Glenn Edward McDuffie. He know more about the other people shown in the photo that others who have said 'that's me.' And, Houston police detectives, polygraph sessions, and biometrics show that the young man in the photo is Mr.McDuffie.

Private Art, GI in WWII

"Private Art:" A Collection of WWII Letters To and From The Home Front.

Private Arthur "Art" Primer was a "boy, raised in a religious family whose devout mother saw to it that he attended Sunday Mass and the sacraments." Japan attacked Pearl Harbor when he was 16. By 1943, he was another GI in the 86th Chemical Mortar Battalion.

Here's an excerpt from one of Private Art's letters home: "P.S. I'm sending the good conduct medal home. It's not doing me any good over here."