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•100 The 100 Greatest Business Ideas of All Time

The US market was the real competitive battleground, with two companies,
Reynolds and Eversharp, vying for dominance. On this occasion the war hurt both
combatants due to quality problems and huge numbers of returns. Neither firm
survived the price war, which saw prices going down from $12.50 to 50 cents. Parker
Pens eventually sold 3.5 million ‘jotters’ in one year.

In the end BIC bought Watermans and sold pens at 29–69 cents. This highly
popular version of Laszlo Biro’s pen has daily sales of 14 million pens. It is hard to
conceive of an office without this great little helper.

‘No man was more foolish when he had not a pen in his hand, or more wise when
he had.’

Samuel Johnson

Idea 58 – Clipping the oppressed

It is generally believed that the first known fastening of papers started in the thir-
teenth century when a short length of ribbon was placed through parallel incisions
in the upper left hand corner of pages. This was followed by a seal-method, the act
of connecting papers with wax and textile ribbons. Almost 600 years passed before
any serious attempt was made to improve the ribbon fastener.

In 1835 a New York physician named John Ireland Howe designed and built
the first truly practical machine for mass-producing solid head straight pins. In a
relatively short time, straight pins were being sold by the half pound for the explicit
purpose of temporarily fastening papers together.

On 15 March 1866 Johan Vaaler was born in Aurskog, Norway, north of Oslo.
Even as a young man he was known as an innovator and inventor, and he graduated
with a degree in electronics, science, and mathematics. He was employed by the