Tuesday 24 April 2012

GIDEON SUNDBACK, the inventor of the zip, is being celebrated today by Google - which has launched a new doodle, marking what would have been the Swedish-American's engineer's 132nd birthday. Today, the search engine features a giant zipper running down its homepage, unveiling pages relating to the revered inventor.
The idea of the zip had been discussed for 20 years before Sundback developed the fastening in its entirety in 1913. A patent was issued for the "separable fastener" four years later in 1917. It was first used to close boots and tobacco pouches, before the fashion world adopted it in the Thirties, replacing hook-and-eye fasteners.
Sundback died in 1954 of a heart condition. In 2006, he was honoured by being included in the National Inventors Hall of Fame in New York.

No comments:

Post a Comment