Who invented plastic bag closing thingies?

This question was received yesterday (5/3/09), and was actually a multi-part question:

"who invented plastic bag closing thingies...are they a millionaire...and did anyone ever lose an eye from someone breaking em in half and flicking em across room....."

The first thing I noticed about this question is that it did not begin with a capital letter, nor did it end with a question mark. It actually ended with an extended elipse, which seems very unusual. Being the pseudo-sleuth that I am, combined with my uncanny psychotic powers, I have deduced that this question must either be from; a) an eleven year old girl, b) a teenager of either gender, or c) a retired housewife living in Bulgaria.

I believe the original twisty-tie was patented in 1939 by a John Lane. The first manufactured twisty-sort-of-thing was registered under the trade name "Twist-Ems," by T & T Industries, Inc. It appears Lane did get quite rich, and was probably a millionaire, although I am unable to verify exactly how wealthy he was. I am nearly certain that it was he who once paid cash for a used red wheelbarrow that was in excellent condition.

By the way, unrelated to your question but worthy of note -- there is a man currently living in the world, who has more money than anyone else does. He is considered the RICHEST MAN IN THE WHOLE WORLD.

The last part of your question confuses me for a number of reasons. Why would someone ever want to break a twist-tie in half? Generally, they are designed slightly shorter than they should be. This unusual manufacturing defect can be easily explained. I also wonder if you really meant to say "lose an eye" or if you simply meant "caused the wire to penetrate someone's eyeball which resulted in a serious infection and loss of eyesight?" That would certainly make more sense, as the little wire would not contain enough force, even with a hyper-vigorous flick, to actually cause the eyeball to become dislodged with enough force to fly so far that someone could not eventually find it -- especially if it was in a room, which would consist of walls that would contain the eye. Even in a grand ballroom, loose eyeballs are pretty easy to spot.

The answer to the second part of your question is, nope. There was a case in West Bend, Indiana, where a person did actually accidentally dislodge his wisdom tooth with a twist-tie, but it was not broken in half. It was a full length twist-tie. It's an interesting story. He was rushed to a dentist on the fourth floor of the Lowrey Medical Center, downtown West Bend, but by the time he got there, the tooth had become lodged in his throat. Fortunately, there was an ear, nose and throat doctor one floor down. But, by the time he got into see the doctor, as you might have guessed, it had passed on into his stomach. There was a gastro-intestinal doctor on the second floor and he quickly went down to see him, but that doctor was unable to fish the poor tooth out. He made him an appointment for the next morning at the proctologist, who was on the first floor.

The following day, he went to the proctologist and the doctor used a special scope to peer up inside his colon. Quite surprised with what he discovered, he told the fellow he was suffering from a broken wisdom tooth that had become quite impacted and needed to be removed immediately, and he rushed him to the dentist on the fouth floor. There is more to this story, but no sense going on and on.