The History of the Pocket Protector

The IEEE History website has an article on the History of the Pocket Protector: bq. There was no such thing as a nerd back in 1947, when Erich Klein opened a small factory on Chicago's North Side and became one of the first manufacturers to make plastic pocket protectors. bq. �It slipped into a shirt pocket and was useful to anyone who carried a fountain pen or a ballpoint pen, which had ink leakage problems," said Randy Silton, Mr. Klein's grandson and president of the company, Erell Manufacturing. "We still make hundreds of thousands a year, but most others have dropped them from their lines. I guess pocket protectors aren't so popular anymore." bq. That's a polite way to put it. Made possible by the same heat-sealing process used to make World War II flak jackets, the pocket protector was intended as an advertising giveaway, emblazoned with a company logo. But this simple polyvinyl chloride product evolved into something far more culturally symbolic: it became the ultimate emblem of nerdiness. bq. "My first computer course in college was taught by a guy with so many pocket protectors he seemed to be some son of animatronic device with a bad haircut, said Alan Robbins, an associate professor of design at Kean University in New Jersey. "Pocket protectors organize tools on the wearer's body, turning the user into a kind of rudimentary cyborg - part human, part toolbox.� For reference, the IEEE (Eye-triple-E) stands for the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. These people are Geeks. Nerds spend all their time in front of computer screens. Geeks blow shit up with electricity. I like both...