Document destruction is an important part of every company’s document management tasks. And since sensitive information falling into the wrong hands can have far-reaching consequences, proper document destruction policies are critically important as you will see from the interesting and entertaining facts in this article.

Did you know…

… that it was Abbot Augusts Low, inventor from Brooklyn, New York, who patented the prototype of the first document destruction device in the year 1909? He named his invention the ‘waste-paper receptacle’ and had big plans for his machine. Abbot August also invented a way to preserve maple sugar, an exhaust system and on his property he developed two dams which generated electricity. But back to the document destruction device; the poor old man passed away three years later, before he even had the chance to manufacture the first functional document shredder.

Did you know…

… that the second paper shredder was based on a hand-cranked pasta maker? It was developed by Adolph Ehinger in Germany in 1935 to destroy thousands of documents with anti-Nazi propaganda before Hitler came into power. Later, Ehinger converted his hand-crank version into a machine powered by an electric motor in order to sell the machines to financial institutions and government agencies. Ehinger’s documents shredders are still manufactured today by EBA Krug & Priester GmbH & Co. in Balingen.

Did you know…

… that in August 1974, President Richard Nixon, forced to resign because of the Watergate Scandal, shredded vast quantities of incriminating documents in order to cover up the scandal? On his last day in office at the White house, there were several ‘burn sessions’ happening in fireplaces in different rooms to destroy ‘potentially troublesome documents’, while his office was overflowing with plastic bag upon plastic bag full of shredded documents…

Did you know…

… that in 1979 Iranian revolutionaries seized the American embassy in Teheran and got hold of vast numbers of classified U.S. government documents? Many of these documents containing intelligence information had been shredded but were ‘easily’ pieced back together to reveal the information which they then proceeded to publish. From that moment, cross-cut shredders became the norm across government operations and most businesses worldwide.

Words of caution

Remember that rubbish is public property. Once your rubbish ‘gets out’, anyone, whether with good or bad intentions, has the right to sift through it and there’s nothing you can do about it. That should make you paranoid enough about protecting your sensitive information. Our advice: every document, whether personal or business related, that has sensitive information should be shredded before it is tossed. Add this important task to your document management procedures.

Famous last words

You’ll probably never look at your office shredder the same way ever again after reading these interesting stories. From destroying secret information to keeping your identity safe today; the document shredder is one of the unsung heroes of our modern times.