I’m on findagrave.com, the site where you can, well, find a grave. The photo of the tombstone on my screen is gray and rather tall and narrow, like a nail clipper. OK, maybe that’s a forced simile, but it fits this moment nicely.
The grave belongs to Eugene Heim (1863-1935) and except for the photo, it’s a pretty bare virtual grave. No one has placed any virtual flowers. Below the grave there is a prompt that reads, “What’s one thing you’ll always remember about Eugene?” I click a button and am brought to a page that asks me how I know Eugene. Am I a relative? A friend? Other?
I select “Other,” then choose my options and select the best one: fan.
Then another box opens and a flashing cursor invites me to invent some words to share with those who visit the grave after me.
I type, “Mr. Heim and his partner, Celestin Matz, are credited with inventing the modern-day nail clipper. See U.S. Patent No. 244,891, submitted July 1881.”
Then I go back to Eugene Heim’s central page and select the box to place a virtual flower. I find myself standing inside a virtual greenhouse. There are many flowers to choose from, so I decide, in honor of the great inventor, that my selection should hold some symbolism. I learn from Google AI that sunflowers represent “radiant creativity and the pursuit of light and knowledge. Their bold, sun-seeking nature symbolizes standing out, optimism and the drive to innovate — qualities often found in inventors.”
After placing the sunflower next to Eugene’s headstone, I step away and search for Celestin’s final resting place. To my surprise, I cannot find it. On the internet, at least, Celestin lies in an unmarked grave.
Truth be told, this essay was supposed to be about the history of nail clippers. I had ideas — preconceived notions, if you will — about the relationship between nail hygiene and the rise of human civilization that I wanted to contemplate. But a look at the literature on the topic soon shows me that, as with biographies of Lincoln, many historians have already contributed vast amounts of scholarship to this field of study.
What could I hope to add?
As one does when dejected and aimless, I start going down rabbit holes and burrow out of the ground in front of uspto.gov, the website of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. A random search leads me to U.S. Patent No. 4,648,415, “Nail Clipper and Retainer and Disposer of Nail Clippings,” invented by James Yuan in 1984.
Yuan’s description of his invention and its purpose is lengthy — 4,238 words. I begin reading and see that Mr. Yuan invented his nail clipper because he thought he could improve upon the work of those who came before him. About other nail clippers he observed, “While the efficiency of clipping can be increased upon emptying the clippings from the retainer, it is usually difficult to thoroughly clean the retainer of nail clippings, particularly when the nail clippings are not clean and the oil of the dirty nails causes the clippings to adhere to the retainer and clipper, and thereby adds to the build-up of nail clippings in a next succeeding clipping operation.”
Kudos to Mr. Yuan, who, while using a nail clipper, thought, “You know what? I can do better.” This “can do better” attitude continues to this day. Nail trimmer patents are regularly submitted. The latest one, U.S. Patent No. 12,239,201, was granted on March 4, 2025.
And then it occurs to me how I, too, can make a positive contribution to the field of nail trimmer tool anthropology. You’re reading it.
So kudos to you, too, if you have ever thought, “I can make this better,” and proceeded to do just that.
Our reward? Who knows? Maybe someday, someone will come along and lay a virtual sunflower alongside our digital graves, too.
