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A paper cutter, also known as a paper guillotine or simply a guillotine, is a tool often found in offices and classrooms, designed to administer straight cuts to single sheets or large stacks of paper at once.
A paper cutter, also known as a paper guillotine or simply a guillotine, is a tool often found in offices and classrooms, designed to administer straight cuts to single sheets or large stacks of paper at once.
History
Paper cutters were developed and patented in 1844 by French inventor Guillaume Massiquot. Later, Milton Bradley went on to patent his own version of the paper cutter in 1879. Since the middle of the 19th century, considerable improvements to the paper cutter have been made by Fomm and Krause of Germany, Furnival in England, and Oswego and Seybold in the United States.Description
Paper cutters vary in size, usually from about in length on each side for office work to (an edge of A1 paper) in design workshops. The surface will typically have a grid either painted or inscribed on it and may have aruler
A ruler, sometimes called a rule, line gauge, or scale, is a device used in geometry and technical drawing, as well as the engineering and construction industries, to measure distances or draw straight lines.
Variants
Rulers have long ...
across the top. At the very least, it must have a flat edge against which the user may line up the paper at right angles before passing it under the blade. It is typically relatively heavy so that it will remain steady while in use.
On the right-hand edge is a long, curved steel blade, often referred to as a knife, attached to the base at one corner. Larger versions have a strong compression coil spring
A selection of conical coil springs
The most common type of spring is the coil spring, which is made out of a long piece of metal that is wound around itself.
Coil springs were in use in Roman times, evidence of this can be found in bronze Fi ...
as part of the attachment mechanism that pulls the knife against the stationary edge as the knife is drawn down to cut the paper. The other end of the knife unit is a handle. The stationary right edge of the base is also steel, with an exposed, finely-ground edge. When the knife is pulled down to cut paper, the action resembles that of a pair of scissors; only instead of two knives moving against each other, one is stationary. The combination of a blade mounted to a steady base produces clean and straight cuts, the likes of which would have otherwise required a ruler and razor blade to achieve on a single page. Paper cutters are also used for cutting thin sheet metal, cardboard, and plastic. The bla