How the zipper took twenty years
The zipper looked like a simple idea. It took decades, several inventors and a name change before it caught on.
It seems obvious now: two rows of teeth, joined by a slider. But the zipper did not appear in a flash. It took about twenty years to become something people could trust.
The first attempt#
In 1893, an American engineer named Whitcomb Judson showed a device at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. He called it a clasp locker. It was meant to replace the long rows of hooks that people used to fasten boots, which took ages to do up.
It worked, up to a point. But it jammed, popped open and was not easy to make. It did not sell well.
The improvement#
A Swedish-born engineer called Gideon Sundback, working for a company that had taken over Judson's business, redesigned it. Around 1913 he developed a version with many small teeth, closely spaced, that interlocked reliably. He patented a form of it in 1917.
Now it was strong, flexible and cheap enough to produce in numbers.
An odd name#
The name we use today came later. In the 1920s, the B. F. Goodrich Company used the fastener on rubber boots and called them Zipper boots, after the sound it made. The word stuck to the fastener itself.
Slow to catch on#
Early on, buyers regarded the zipper as a boot fastener. It took time for the clothing industry to accept it. Its use spread in the 1930s, when children's clothes were fitted with zips so that kids could dress themselves, and then in men's trousers, which replaced buttons on the front.
What we can learn#
- A good idea is not enough. It had to become reliable.
- Improvement is often the real invention. Sundback's refinement mattered as much as the first concept.
- New things need a use. The zipper found success when it was linked to something people needed.
Next time you do up a coat, you can thank two engineers, and a pair of boots.