According to the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, the pocket protector was invented by a Michigan engineer. Here are some snippets from the IEEE History Center Web page, ” Hurley Smith’s Pocket Shield .”
The original pocket protector was invented by Hurley Smith during the Second World War. He was born in Bellaire, Michigan in 1908 and spent his first few years there. Unable to formally attend school, he completed high school by mail. In his mid-twenties he had earned enough to return east and attend college. He enrolled at QueensUniversity in Kingston, Ontario. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering in 1933. His first job upon graduation was marketing newly invented Popsicles to retailers in Ontario. He said that his diet consisted mostly of Popsicles that first summer. 1933 was not a good time to be graduating from college.
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While working in Buffalo, Smith was concerned not only about the ink and pencil stains that would get on the white shirts that were the required costume for any engineer in those days, but with the fraying around the edges of the pocket that the pressure from items in the pocket produced. Back then, the traditional housewife purchased shirts with the expectation that would last for a long time even with constant washing, bleaching, and ironing.
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He constructed his first prototype in the attic of his house Buffalo, having modified his wife’s ironer to heat the plastic enough to bend it properly. He modified the equipment over the years and by the time he moved to New Hampshire, the production of pocket protectors promised to provide enough income to allow him to quit engineering. He wanted to move the family to a location that was more economically promising. In 1949 he packed up the family and moved to Lansing, Michigan.
NOTE: I still have a ton of nifty pocket protectors that I’m selling for $2 each. For more info, click here.
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