7 News

5 of 24 Credit: Lisa Clarke

1902: notepad

You know those ideas that seem small but, when you think about it, had enormous repercussions? A J.A. Birchall of Tasmanian stationery company Birchall was the first person to take loose sheets of paper, cut them in half, back them with cardboard and glue the top edge. He sold them as the Silvercity Writing Tablets, and the idea went on to give rise to none other than the humble paperback book binding, enabling the booming new genre of pulp novels.