Loose Leaf - History

History

Looseleaf service is a form of publishing invented by Richard Prentice Ettinger in 1913, founder of Prentice Hall. As a 19-year-old assistant to his Princeton University tax professor he was awarded with the then lucrative task of publishing the professor's book at his own risk. The first print run sold well and he ordered a second print run from an outside printing company. On the very day that this second print run arrived the United States Congress changed the tax law enough that the book was outdated. Faced with this challenge Ettinger came up with the idea of cutting the pages (leaves) loose, replacing the few pages where changes in the tax code had occurred, drilling holes through the pages and putting them into a ring-binder. Even though it was more costly it did have the added benefit that all future changes of the tax code could easily be accommodated by simply exchanging a single leaf.