From its humble beginnings as an "Automatic Continuous Clothing Closure" invented in 1851 by Elias Howe to the "Clasp Locker" patent in 1893 and marketed by Mr. Whitcomb Judson, the zipper as we know it today, had little commerical success. It was not until Whitcomb partnered with businessman Colonel Lewis Walker—together they launched the Universal Fastener Company to manufacture the new device. The "Clasp Locker" made is debut in 1893 at the the Chicago World's Fair.
Gideon Sundback, an electrical engineer who worked for the Universal Fastener Company, worked on the design by increasing the number of fastening elements. His design had two facing-rows of teeth pulled into a single piece by the slider and he increased the opening for the teeth. By December 1913 he had created the modern zipper and in 1917 the patent for "Separate Fastener" was issued.
It wasn't until the B.F. Goodrich Company decided to use Gideon's fastener on a new type of rubber boot—they renamed the fastener to zipper and the name stuck. The major uses for the zipper were for boots and tobacco pouches. It would be another twenty years before the fashion industry would promote the closure on garments.
The upswing for the zipper came in 1937 when the zipper beat the button in the 1937 "Battle of the Fly" and french fashion designers began to rave over the zipper. Esquire magazine declared the zipper the "Newest Tailoring Idea for Men" and of zipper's many virtues it would exclude the "possibility of unintentional and embarrassing disarray."
—Ninette Dean
Talon, inc. : a romance of achievement. An abridgement of the original manuscript by James Gray to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the company ; [edited by Stanley H. Brown].
Related:
Zipper: An Exploration in Novelty By Robert Friedel
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[…] have created Pampers. Salute Josephine Cochran for patenting the first home dishwasher and Whitcomb Judson for creating the first zipper for […]
[…] have created Pampers. Salute Josephine Cochran for patenting the first home dishwasher and Whitcomb Judson for creating the first zipper for […]
[…] We’re talking about the humble zipper, the unsung modern marvel that dutifully eliminates the “possibility of unintentional and embarrassing disarray.” (If yours happens to be down, go ahead and take a second to zip it up. You’re […]
[…] We’re talking about the humble zipper, the unsung modern marvel that dutifully eliminates the “possibility of unintentional and embarrassing disarray.” (If yours happens to be down, go ahead and take a second to zip it up. You’re […]
[…] talking about the humble zipper, the unsung modern marvel that dutifully eliminates the “possibility of unintentional and embarrassing disarray.” (If yours happens to be down, go ahead and take a second to zip it up. You’re […]
Enquiring minds have to know ,or zipper necks that like Young Frankenstein ( where it derived! )
My great aunt told me a story about the day my mother was born in 1929 rural Virginia. My grandmother was in labor and the midwife (my ggmother) showed up with her new bag that had a zipper closure. My grandfather, who had never seen a zipper before, was fascinated and kept zipping and unzipping the bag. Being in labor with the sound of zip zip zip drove my grandmother to scream the first, and only curse word they ever heard my grandmother speak. “Stop playing with that goddamned bag!” A great story about a grandmother I never really knew because she died when I was two.