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WHO INVENTED THE ZIPPER?

A Swedish-American engineer called Gideon Sundback is generally credited with inventing the modern zipper as we know it. He registered his first patent for the device in Germany in 1909, but it wasn’t until 1917 that he received a patent for a device called a “separable fastener”. As the name suggests, this was the modern zipper in its first true design.

But as with any good invention, Sundback didn’t invent the zipper in a vacuum. He built upon previous designs and concepts that led to the idea of a zipper. A quick summary is as follows:

In 1851, inventor Elias Howe came up with a garment fastener that was essentially a complicated drawstring. However, he was too busy inventing the sewing machine, so he stuck with that.
In 1893, Whitcomb Judson developed a more complex type of hook-and-loop fastener for shoes. It looked similar to a zipper but without the slider to draw both sides together.
Between 1909 and 1917, Sundback adapted the design of the zipper to increase the number of teeth to make zippers more secure.
In 1923, Sundback sold his rights to Martin Othmar Winterhalter, who added ribs and grooves rather than joints and jaws (different ways of fastening zipper sides together).

Initially, zippers were used mainly in shoes and tobacco pouches. This is partly because clothes were fastened with buttons or laces, which most people were content with. After all, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!

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