Ring Binder - History

History

German Friedrich Soennecken invented ring binders in 1886 in Bonn, Germany. He also registered a patent on November 14, 1886, for his Papierlocher für Sammelmappen (hole punch). German Louis Leitz, founder of Leitz later made some important changes in development of ring binders in Stuttgart-Feuerbach. Leitz introduced the hole in the side of the file.

The two holes are 80 mm apart, according to ISO 838. The four-hole version has no ISO standard. The distances are 80 mm, 80 mm and 80 mm (3x8).

Another design for ring binders was invented in 1889 by Andreas Tengwall in Helsingborg, Sweden, and patented in 1890 under the name 'Trio binder', named after a business consortium of Tengwall and two associates. Tengwall's design uses four rings, two coming from each side in a forking fashion. The hole placement of Tengwall's Trio binder is still used as a de facto standard for hole punching in Sweden under the name triohålning. These holes are 21 mm, 70 mm and 21 mm apart. (In this article, it makes mention that, according to the curator of the Early Office Museum in London, the first patent for ring binders was filed in 1859 for a two-ring binder. A few years later three-ring binders became the standard in the United States, and the "D" ring binders did not come on the market there until the 1940s or 1950s.)