Fellowes, Inc. Sponsors Annual Rube Goldberg Machine Contest; Invention Competition Honoring Pulitzer Prize Winner Seeks A New Way To Shred Paper

Business Wire, March 2, 2006

ITASCA, Ill. -- Fellowes, Inc., the nation's leading shredder company, announced today that it will sponsor the 23rd annual Rube Goldberg Machine Contest on April 1 at Indiana's Purdue University. This year's design challenge is to create a machine or shredder that cuts or shreds five sheets of 8 1/2-by-11-inch, 20 pound paper into strips, in a minimum of 20 steps.

The competition is organized by the Phi Chapter of Theta Tau, the National Student Engineering Organization, and will host college and university teams from across the U.S. Regional winners will be determined during competitions on March 4 with winners competing at the national contest on April 1.

Inspired by Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist Reuben Lucius Goldberg, the contest is designed to pull students out of the conventional problem-solving mind set and compel them to use creativity to solve a problem. Instead of just "solving" the problem, participants will have to use convoluted and complicated steps to get the task done. For example, last year's winners took 125 steps to change the batteries in a flashlight and turn it on. Past challenges include shutting off an alarm clock, toasting a slice of bread, and putting toothpaste on a toothbrush.

"The Rube Goldberg design challenges often coincide with world and cultural events; for example, the election ballot machines contest in 2004. Today's news often involves identity theft and the need to shred documents, so sponsoring this year's shredder contest is a perfect fit, as well as a great opportunity, for Fellowes," said Jude Rake, an engineering graduate of Purdue University and president and chief operating officer for Fellowes, Inc. "As the leading shredder manufacturer, we have a strong interest not only in the contest's challenge, but also in the future engineers that will be displaying their talents at Purdue's College of Engineering."

About Fellowes

Headquartered in Itasca, Ill., Fellowes, Inc. offers an impressive range of products to equip the workspace, including paper shredders, binders and laminators, desktop accessories and record storage solutions. Fellowes, Inc. owns and operates subsidiaries in Canada, United Kingdom, Benelux, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, Singapore, Japan, Korea, China and Australia. The company employs more than 1,200 people throughout the world and expects global sales in excess of $700 million this year. For more information, visit www.fellowes.com.