GSAndré
Zipper
Elias Howe, who invented the sewing machine, received a patent in 1851 for an "Automatic, Continuous Clothing Closure". Perhaps because of the success of his sewing machine, he did not try to seriously market it, and missed out on any recognition he might otherwise have received. Forty-two years later, Whitcomb Judson, who invented the pneumatic street railway, marketed a "Clasp Locker". The device was similar to Howe's patent, but actually served as a (more complicated) hook-and-eye shoe fastener. With the support of businessman Colonel Lewis Walker, Whitcomb launched the Universal Fastener Company to manufacture the new device. The clasp locker had its public debut at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair and met with little commercial success.
Gideon Sundbäck, a Swedish-American electrical engineer, was hired to work for the Universal Fastener Company in Hoboken, New Jersey in 1906. Good technical skills and a marriage to the plant-manager's daughter Elvira Aronson led Sundbäck to the position of head designer. After his wife's death in 1911, he devoted himself to the worktable, and by December 1913 had designed the modern zipper.
Sundbäck increased the number of fastening elements from four per inch to ten or eleven, introduced two facing rows of teeth that pulled into a single piece by the slider, and increased the opening for the teeth guided by the slider. The patent for the "Separable Fastener" was issued in 1917. Sundbäck also created the manufacturing machine for the new device.
Zipper
Elias Howe, who invented the sewing machine, received a patent in 1851 for an "Automatic, Continuous Clothing Closure". Perhaps because of the success of his sewing machine, he did not try to seriously market it, and missed out on any recognition he might otherwise have received. Forty-two years later, Whitcomb Judson, who invented the pneumatic street railway, marketed a "Clasp Locker". The device was similar to Howe's patent, but actually served as a (more complicated) hook-and-eye shoe fastener. With the support of businessman Colonel Lewis Walker, Whitcomb launched the Universal Fastener Company to manufacture the new device. The clasp locker had its public debut at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair and met with little commercial success.
Gideon Sundbäck, a Swedish-American electrical engineer, was hired to work for the Universal Fastener Company in Hoboken, New Jersey in 1906. Good technical skills and a marriage to the plant-manager's daughter Elvira Aronson led Sundbäck to the position of head designer. After his wife's death in 1911, he devoted himself to the worktable, and by December 1913 had designed the modern zipper.
Sundbäck increased the number of fastening elements from four per inch to ten or eleven, introduced two facing rows of teeth that pulled into a single piece by the slider, and increased the opening for the teeth guided by the slider. The patent for the "Separable Fastener" was issued in 1917. Sundbäck also created the manufacturing machine for the new device.