L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2026 www.italoamericano.org 12 L'Italo-Americano T here is a partic- ular sound to a Z e n i t h s t a - p l e r : a f i r m m e t a l l i c c l i c k , f o l l o w e d b y t w o o r t h r e e sheets of paper becoming one. Anyone who worked in an Italian school or office is likely to know the instru- ment that makes it: a com- p a c t , h e a v y p a i r o f m e t a l jaws with a painted body and a polished mechanism. Even today, it looks much as it did when the Zenith 548 appeared in 1948, and in an age when office equip- ment is replaced almost as quickly as it is bought, that takes some explaining. The company behind it, Balma, Capoduri & C., w a s f o u n d e d i n V o g h e r a , Lombardy, in 1924. It began making staplers and staples under the Zenith name in 1926, and also developed another Italian stationery classic, Coccoina glue. By the late 1930s, it had pro- duced a plier-style stapler, the 507, whose shape antici- pated the more famous 548. During its early years, the c o m p a n y a l s o l o o k e d beyond Italy, developing an export business that would eventually reach Germany, Switzerland, Britain, Cana- da and the United States. The war interrupted Italian industry, but in 1948 the firm introduced the model that would become its sig- nature, designed by Aldo Balma. T h e 5 4 8 w a s d i f f e r e n t because it put the mecha- nism directly into the user's hand: a desk stapler needs a surface beneath it, but the Zenith's plier design could be lifted, pointed at a stack o f p a p e r s a n d s q u e e z e d , with the lever driving a sta- ple through the sheets and b e n d i n g i t s l e g s u n d e r - neath. The painted metal b o d y a n d n i c k e l - p l a t e d brass parts gave it reassur- ing weight, while the nar- row jaws allowed the user t o s e e w h e r e t h e s t a p l e would land. It was useful at a counter, in a classroom, or anywhere that paper had to be fastened without first clearing a desk. Its shape has even been compared to a little whale, with the long u p p e r l e v e r f o r m i n g i t s back. The staples themselves are loaded in a removable c a r r i e r , a n d t h e d e s i g n incorporates a device for d e a l i n g w i t h j a m s . I n i t s current form, the 548 takes a hundred staples at a time and, depending on the sta- ples used, fastens up to fif- teen or thirty sheets. It can also make either a closed fastening, whose legs turn i n w a r d t o h o l d p a p e r s securely, or an open one, e a s i e r t o r e m o v e w h e n a bundle needs separating. Its reputation was estab- lished early: in 1954, at the first edition of the Com- passo d'Oro awards, the 548 received an honorable mention, recognition that g o o d i n d u s t r i a l d e s i g n could belong to everyday working tools as well as to f u r n i t u r e a n d h o u s e h o l d appliances. Indeed, the ADI d e s i g n a r c h i v e i d e n t i f i e s Aldo Balma as its designer and records a patent from 1949. A stapler, after all, h a s l i t t l e o p p o r t u n i t y t o i m p r e s s t h r o u g h n o v e l t y alone: the real accomplish- ment is making thousands of repetitions of the same s m a l l a c t i o n r e l i a b l e a n d c o m f o r t a b l e , s o m e t h i n g Balma's ingenious design allowed. Zenith continued devel- oping other models, includ- ing the 580 staple remover in 1958 and later desk and e l e c t r i c s t a p l e r s , b u t i t never abandoned the 548. Versions with different fin- ishes and colors followed, with the company still test- ing each one individually and guaranteeing it against manufacturing defects for life. Today it is still made by t h e V o g h e r a f i r m , w h i c h celebrated its centenary in 2024. There are faster ways of d i s t r i b u t i n g d o c u m e n t s n o w , a n d m o s t o f t h e m involve no paper at all. Yet when the pages do need fas- tening, the old Zenith still has a job, and there is no reason to replace a tool that keeps doing it so well. B e f o r e O t e l l o C a t t a b r i g a c a m e a l o n g , m a k i n g g e l a t o d e m a n d e d a great deal of arm work: the mixture sat in a metal con- tainer surrounded by ice and s a l t , a n d w h i l e s o m e o n e turned the container, some- one else had to scrape the frozen layer from its walls and spread the mixture back against the cold surface. This was how the gelato developed its smooth texture: left alone, t h e m i x t u r e w o u l d f r e e z e unevenly, forming large ice crystals. Turning the handle helped, but it did not relieve t h e g e l a t o m a k e r o f t h e scraping. C a t t a b r i g a , b o r n i n Bologna in 1897, trained in m e c h a n i c a l w o r k s h o p s , i n c l u d i n g a f i r m m a k i n g pasta-production equipment, and in 1927 he established his own workshop on Via San Mamolo. That year he devel- oped the Motogelatiera, a machine that reproduced the gelato maker's hand move- ment mechanically. A spatula moved along the wall of a rotating cylindrical contain- er, removing the frozen mix- ture and spreading it again, t h e a c t i o n I t a l i a n s c a l l e d stacca e spalma, or scrape and spread. It sounds like a small improvement, until you remember how often it had to be done for a single batch. Cattabriga's design also used mechanical refrigera- tion instead of relying on an outer tub filled with ice and salt: the rotating container was cooled through a sur- rounding liquid bath, giving the mixture an extensive cold s u r f a c e w h i l e t h e s p a t u l a kept it moving. The machine could therefore produce a consistent batch with consid- erably less physical effort. Cattabriga obtained an Ital- ian industrial patent in 1931 and continued improving the design, including making the machine more compact. His workshop grew into a manu- facturer whose equipment became known well beyond B o l o g n a : t h e p r i n c i p l e behind the invention sur- vived, too. Modern machines w o r k d i f f e r e n t l y i n m a n y details, but freezing a mix- t u r e w h i l e c o n t i n u o u s l y s c r a p i n g a n d s t i r r i n g i t r e m a i n s f u n d a m e n t a l t o making smooth gelato. Cattabriga took the hard- est, most repetitive part of making gelato and gave it to a machine. What had once meant hours of stirring by h a n d c o u l d n o w b e d o n e mechanically, leaving gelato makers free to concentrate on the part of the job that still needed their experience: knowing when the gelato was just right. A craftsman examines the metal components of an early mechanical gelato maker, illustrating the precision and engineering behind the development of Italian ice cream-making technology (Original image created for L'Italo-Americano with the assistance of AI) Otello Cattabriga and the machine that revolutionized gelato Zenith 548: the stapler that never needed reinventing An iconic Zenith 548: don't we all have one in a drawer somewhere? (Original image created for L'Italo-Americano with the assistance of AI) IMPRESA ITALIA MADE IN ITALY TOP BRANDS BUSINESS & ECONOMY

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