| The popularity of paper shredders has grown | | | | the length of the paper, just like pasta. |
| in recent years due to the rise in identity | | | | It wasn't until 1959 that Ehinger's company |
| theft, as reports show that these crimes are | | | | introduced the first Cross Cut Paper |
| most often committed by people who use stolen | | | | Shredder, which cuts the paper both |
| bank statements and other personal documents | | | | horizontally and vertically, creating small |
| to gain access to other people's bank | | | | confetti-type particles. And it apparently |
| accounts, credit cards, etc. | | | | wasn't until 1979 that the American |
| | | | government realized the value of the |
| But the paper shredder itself has been around | | | | cross-cut shredder. |
| for almost a century. | | | | |
| | | | During the Iranian Revolution of 1979, |
| The first patent for a paper shredder was | | | | personnel in the American Embassy in Tehran |
| issued to A.A. Low in 1908. Low was a | | | | apparently used a strip cut shredder to |
| prolific inventor, and the only person to | | | | destroy some top-secret documents. But after |
| receive more patents during his lifetime than | | | | Iranian militants took over the embassy, the |
| Low was Thomas Edison. Low's "waste paper | | | | militants used skilled carpet weavers to put |
| receptacle" consisted of a paper feeder and | | | | the pieces back together. Since then, the |
| blades on rollers. The device could be | | | | Department of Defense has set increasingly |
| powered by a hand crank or an electric motor. | | | | strict standards for shredders that are sold |
| But Low was apparently too busy inventing | | | | to the U.S. government. |
| things to market his paper shredder. | | | | |
| | | | The event that probably first brought the |
| In 1936, Adolf Ehinger, a German, patented | | | | paper shredder to the public's attention was |
| his own paper shredder design, which was | | | | the Watergate scandal of 1972, when news |
| inspired by the common pasta maker, a | | | | reports revealed that one of the people |
| hand-cranked device for cutting sheets of | | | | involved in the break-in of the Democratic |
| dough into strips. Ehinger built a company, | | | | National Committee Headquarters had used a |
| EBA Maschinenfabrik, to market his invention. | | | | paper shredder to destroy incriminating |
| By 1956 he had customers in several | | | | evidence. In recent years, several other |
| countries. Most of his customers were | | | | news items have revealed the alleged use of |
| governments and financial institutions, which | | | | paper shredders to destroy evidence or cover |
| used the shredders to destroy their old or | | | | up crimes. The most recent incident was in |
| unwanted classified documents to prevent the | | | | July of 2005, when news reports alleged that |
| documents from falling into the wrong hands. | | | | United Nations President Kofi Annan's cabinet |
| | | | chief had shredded large quantities of |
| The first paper shredders were "strip cut" | | | | documents related to the corruption in the |
| paper shredders, which cut narrow strips down | | | | UN's Oil-for-Food program in Iraq. |