News about Paper shredders
[25/05/2010] History of the paper shredder
The first ever paper shredder was patented by the New Yorker A. A. Low in 1909, under the name “Waste Paper Receptacle.” Low’s shredder had a feeder and blades and could be powered either manually or by a motor; however, A. A. Low was an inventor with hundreds of ideas and even though designed and patented his shredder, it was never manufactured.
In 1935, the German Adolf Ehinger produced his own design, which was based on a hand-crank pasta machine, and was created after anti-Nazi propaganda documents were found in his garbage bin and he was questioned. This motivated him to create a device, which destroys documents in a way that they cannot be easily restored. His first model was hand-cranked, sat in a wooden frame, and had a receptacle large enough to take most sizes of documents; a few years later Adolf Ehinger manufactured a motor-powered version and it was his company that manufactured the first cross-cutter shredder in 1959.
From the time of the first shredder up until the eighties of the twentieth century, the shredders were mostly used by government and financial organizations; the Cold War provoked the need of securely destroying all kinds of documents in order to prevent them from falling in the wrong hands and during this time the market for paper shredders grew dramatically.
Paper shredders have also been associated with many political scandals or cover-up operations; the most infamous case in the United States was the Watergate scandal, where shredders were used by the Nixon re-election committee to destroy incriminating papers. In more recent years, the United Nations chief was accused of shredding documents, allegedly revealing large scale corruption in the Food-For-Oil UN program.
The home use of paper shredders grew drastically in the United States in the 80s of the last century, when the US Supreme Court declared that seizure and search of garbage, found outside one’s home is perfectly legal. This led to the rise in shredder sales and more and more people are using them today to destroy bank statements, credit card reports, tax documents, utility bills, and other sensitive documents.
Other articles from this category:
[25/05/2010] Shredder innovations
[25/05/2010] Types of shredders
[25/05/2010] Unshredding
[25/05/2010] What is paper shredder?
