I saw where a guy is seeking a patent for his modification of a screwdriver.

His improvement?

He embosses or engraves the butt of the handle with a symbol showing the shape of the tip — flat or Phillips, large, medium or small.

That way, a person looking down at a tool belt can see instantly which screwdriver to withdraw.

Charlie Mitchell is executive editor of The Vicksburg Post. Write to him at Box 821668, Vicksburg, MS 39182, or e-mail.

Genius. Or at least a pretty smart advancement for a tool that’s been around for a while.

Hope he gets rich and President Obama lets him keep a dollar or two.

In addition to all the new gizmos — electronics and such — it’s comforting to know there are still people tweaking the old inventions, finding ways to improve them.

It’s kind of amazing.

Of course, some of the “oldies” are more open to modification than others.

Take the paper clip.

According to the Early Office Museum, the first bent-wire clip was patented by Samuel B. Fay in 1867. It was intended primarily for attaching price tickets to fabric in dry goods stores — replacing pointed pins. Dozens of other designs followed, all for similar purposes, but it was the Gem clip, never patented, that survives to this day. Every desk has paper clips. It’s easy to use them but hard to wear them out.

Staples and staplers are another …. staple.

They long ago replaced the red ribbons (also known as red tape) that was used to bind up stacks of paperwork, especially legal paperwork, in the 1700s. We still talk about red tape. But we replaced it with early versions of staples and staplers more than 200 years ago.

Stapling machines for everyday use started evolving about 1850 and, some required one staple be loaded at a time. Wouldn’t be hard for some folks to fill out an eight-hour day with those contraptions.

I still have the handheld Swingline model issued to me when I came to work here in 1975. Last year, I depleted the first box of 10,000 or so staples I was issued at the time. I got a new box. Odds are it and the stapler will both outlast me.

Pencils and ballpoint pens were pretty good inventions. Felt pens and other varieties have come along since, but most people — at least when they do actually write something on paper — still use a pencil or a ballpoint pen.

Away from the office, there are even more tools that are ancient if compared, say, to a computer, but have seen little improvement.

Noah, if he walked up to your house, would feel pretty comfortable if you were in the yard with a wheelbarrow and a shovel. If you had paused to take a call on your cell, he’d be pretty mystified by that. He could relate to rakes and hoes, too — but not to leaf blowers or string trimmers.

Eating utensils — from chopsticks to plates and bowls and cups — have varied only in shapes and the materials from which they’re made. People think Kentucky Fried Chicken or McDonald’s came up with the plastic “spork” not too long ago, but there was a patent application for a metal combination spoon and fork in the 1800s.

Readers who have made it this far may (justifiably) be wondering when a point will be made.

There’s really not one.

Just an observation that while it seems dozens of new devices are being invented all the time, a lot of them are modifications — even if brilliant modifications — for stuff that’s been around quite a while.

And something tells me that 100 years from now, everyone will still know a shovel when they see one. But they might have to have some old-timer explain what an iPhone was.