Despite its status as an icon of American journalism, the notepad was actually invented in Australia in 1902 by J.A. Birchall, who owned a stationary shop in Tasmania. Bored of selling writing paper in folded stacks known as quires (four sheets of paper folded to create eight leaves), he glued a stack of halved sheets together and added a piece of cardboard to support the contraption. Thus, the world's first notepad (nicknamed the "Silver City Writing Tablet") was born.