Interlocking Teeth and the Battle of the Fly
The zipper was once a dangerous, unreliable novelty that took eighty years and a pair of rubber boots to succeed.
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Whitcomb Judson's original eighteen ninety-three fastener failed because it relied on unreliable hook-and-eye mechanics.
Gideon Sundback solved fastener failure by increasing tooth density to ten or eleven teeth per inch.
The term zipper originated as a trademarked name for rubber galoshes manufactured by B.F. Goodrich.
Military adoption in World War One money belts and flying suits proved the fastener's functional necessity.
The nineteen thirty-seven Battle of the Fly marketed zippers as a way to achieve a smoother silhouette.
Marketing campaigns in the nineteen thirties framed zippers as tools to teach children independence and self-reliance.
- 01Intro1 min
- 02The Clasp Locker Myth2 min
- 03Sundback and the Hookless Revolution4 min
- 04The Sound of Success3 min
- 05The Battle of the Fly3 min
- 06Outro1 min
- Zipper - Wikipedia
- How Gideon Sundback Perfected the Zipper | National Inventors Hall of Fame®
- Zippers and Design | The Engines of Our Ingenuity
- The Up and Down History of the Zipper – Smithsonian Libraries and Archives / Unbound
- Zipper | Encyclopedia.com
- Talon Zipper
- History of the Zipper - YKK Americas
- The birth of the slide fastener
- US 1219881 — How Gideon Sundback Invented the Modern Zipper | PatentBrief
- Whitcomb L. Judson
- Whitcomb Judson | Lemelson
- Mechanisms: Ode To The Zipper | Hackaday
- Engineering:Zipper - HandWiki
- -who Should You Thank -when You
- Whitcomb L. Judson
- Gideon Sundback
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