American Scientist

There are countless situations in which it is desirable to gather things together into a compact package, and a classic means of doing so is to use a piece of string or rope whose ends are united by means of a knot. Secure knot tying is an ancient art, but it is one not easily mastered—nor always easily reversed. As a result, many an inventor has proposed an alternative to the knot as a "binding tie." According to Clifford W. Ashley, who wrote a definitive book on knots, "binding ties serve two purposes. They either confine and constrict a single object, or else they hold two or more objects snugly together." Similarly, this essay seeks to gather together the stories of a few clever fasteners into a single package.