Smooth Stapling *

(* posted before but lost during a server facility power outage)

Problem - Staples, the kind you use to staple together sheets of paper, don't feed correctly when there are only 15 or so staples left in the stapler. The staples jam up in the stapler, and you have to pry them out with a knife. Or they come out all twisted, and the twisted staples are very difficult to remove with a staple remover.

Adding another brick of staples doesn't solve it, because the old brick of staples is too short to be stable. It just pops up or goes crooked. The only thing to do is pop them out and throw them away, or put them back in the staple box in the hopes that they will magically mend themselves onto all the other 15-stable nubs in there.

Solution - Manufacture staple bricks with a stabilizer affixed to one end. The stabilizer has the exact shape and size of a brick of 15 staples. It makes the brick the size and shape of a brick that is 15 staples longer. The stablizing extension could be made of plastic or metal. The stabilized brick is loaded into any normal stapler, with the stabilizer-end toward the back of the stapler. As you use up the brick, the stabilizer keeps the staples stable right down to the last staple. No staples are wasted! When you use the last staple in the brick, the stapler will no longer press down all the way (since it is hitting the stabilizer) and you know it is time to reload.

Camera film comes with a "Leader" to make it easier to load. So does reel-to-reel tape. So why shouldn't staples have a "Follower?"