Small, wonderful things

Inventors of those devices which required research, experimentation, years of trial and error, multiple resources and components, such as the electric lightbulb, internal combustion engine, computer - these people are lauded and remembered.  But it's those simpler inventions, so uncomplicated and familiar as to be almost invisible, that I want to take a moment to applaud.

Take the humble paper clip, for example.  Its design is perfect for its intended use. So simple, so elegant, so common an item as to be easy to take for granted.  Someone had to think of it, of using flexible wire and bending it in such a shape as to allow it to hold sheaves of paper together in a way that doesn't mar or puncture them, as staples do.

Fold down diaper-changing tables in public restrooms.  That's a more recent invention, but one which evokes in me the reaction "Of course!  Why didn't I think of that?"  It fulfills such an obvious need.  I can only imagine how difficult it must have been for mothers to change their babies when out and about before these simple, wonderful drop-down shelves where installed.  Obvious, yes, but someone had to think of it.

Thumb tacks.  Aglets.  Seat belts.  Chip clips.  Golf tees.  Bobby pins.  Matches.  Of course the list is much longer than this, but because the sorts of inventions I'm celebrating are so familiar, I'm probably looking at a dozen of them right now without even seeing them.

I have to say, an inventor or engineer I especially appreciate is whomever found a way to keep the doors in public bathrooms from closing completely when a stall is not in use.  It save us from the embarrassment of yanking a door open to find someone mid-pee, and also from that terribly undignified crouch.  Whoever you are, thank you.  My thanks to all of you.