Although Whitcomb Judson is seen as the inventor of the zipper, Gideon Sundback developed the closest design to today's zipper.
They called you for an urgent meeting during the day. You want to attend the meeting as stylishly as possible, even if it was not planned beforehand. You don't have much time to prepare. You immediately put the things you need in your bag, choose one of your clothes that you think might be stylish, put on your boots, unzip them, make your final preparations and leave the house to attend the meeting. You were able to handle everything quickly. Because you had a helper that allows you to close both your clothes, your bag and your boots practically: the zipper. Well, if you had lived centuries ago, could you have done this easily in such a short time? What did people use for this purpose before the zipper? Why and how was the zipper invented? Let's find out the answers to these questions together.
The zipper, which takes its name from the word firmare, which means "to secure", "to close" in Latin, is an apparatus used to join two pieces of material. The zipper has a series of teeth that engage on either side of a strong band. Each tooth in the zipper has protrusions and cavities. When the two parts are brought together by sliding the slider, these protrusions and grooves are interlocked and the teeth do not separate from each other.
For centuries, people have used buttons, hooks, hooks, snaps, and laces to close clothes and bags. Many entrepreneurs have worked to make this business more practical. One of them was Elias Howe, one of the inventors of the sewing machine. Although Howe received a patent for one of the first types of zippers in 1851, its design did not differ much from the old hook-and-button closures. It was both difficult to use and very costly to manufacture. For this reason, Howe's design did not receive much attention.
In the design, which was patented by the US engineer Whitcomb Judson in the early 1890s, especially for use in boots, there were rows of opposing hooks and loops that were interlocked with a slider. An investor named Lewis Walker founded a company called Universal Fastener Company to support Judson's invention. Judson's design, however, often stuck and was constantly causing problems. After several failed attempts, Judson gave up.
Gideon Sundback (April 24, 1880 – June 21, 1954) was a Swedish-American electrical engineer, who is most commonly associated with his work in the development of the zipper.
Swedish engineer Gideon Sundback improved Judson's design in the 1910s and introduced a new model. Sundback first got rid of the hooks. Consisting of two rows of teeth attached to a rigid strip and working with a "Y" shaped slider, this model was very similar to the zipper used today.
In 1917, the invention gained popularity when the US Army started using these zippers on their flight suits. Zippers, which started to be used in the fashion industry towards the end of the 1930s, were no longer selling. For example, 300 million zippers were sold in 1939. By the 1950s, this number had exceeded one billion.
Today, zipper has become an indispensable part of our lives. It is now used in many special clothes and equipment that should not be waterproof and airtight, except for clothes, bags or shoes. Diving suits have zippers made of nickel and silver, which can remain intact even under great pressure. Zippers are also used in airtight space suits. Another area where the zipper is used is music. Bagpipes, the national instrument of the Scots, need to be closed in an airtight and watertight manner on the one hand, and opened practically for cleaning and humidity control, on the other. Zippers are used for this. In the healthcare field, special zippers with adhesive tapes on both sides and lubricated with silicone are used to close the wounds.