Humble Invention: The Past And Present Life Of Unlocking Zipper

We use zippers every day, and it's a very interesting invention that has changed our daily life, from making your pants easy to fasten to connecting early space suits firmly together. However, the zipper might have ended in failure, although it seems simple, it took an extremely long time to evolve. It has also been argued that "compared to the time it took to invent airplanes or computers," the invention of zippers was not long, "said Robert Friedel, the author of zipper: an exploration in novelty and a historian at the University of Maryland.

Design improvements took decades, during which time inventors after inventors scratched their ears and tried to make it easier for you and me to fasten our shoes and jackets. "Technology advances by learning from failure, but in improved zippers, failure means not only complete disruption, but also failure to use smoothly," said Henri Petroski, an engineer at Duke University, North Carolina

As perhaps the most common device in our lives, zippers require high-precision manufacturing capabilities, and after a century, they are still not the simplest or cheapest way to close or fasten things. but_it_deserves_more_attention_ , _friedel_said_ , _not_only_because_it_perfectly_demonstrates_the_modern_charm_of_mechanical_invention_ , _but_also_because_it_quickly_becomes_an_important_symbol_of_sexual_freedom_and_possibility_ ._

No one of the inventors of zippers is a household name. the_patent_for_the_first_design_was_granted_in_1851_by_elias_howe_ , _who_also_invented_a_sewing_machine_ , _but_the_design_did_not_really_greatly_improve_the_clasps_or_old_-_fashioned_buttons_ ._ His "automatic, continuous clothing closure" is very difficult to use, easy to rust, easy to hang or crack at the most inappropriate time, and it is expensive, making the retail price of a pair of pants double.

The idea was neither favored nor taken seriously until, 44 years later, Whitcomb Judson of Chicago designed and commercialized a device similar to what he called "clasp locker or Unlocker for shoes.". It's much more complicated than what we know today, but it improves the design of the clasp: instead of requiring the wearer to close or unfasten the buttons one by one, Judson's design allows the wearer to simply "zip up" to put on the shoe or "unzip" to take off the shoe.

although_the_invention_was_tried_to_market_at_the_chicago_world_ '_s_fair_in_1893_ , _it_had_only_limited_commercial_success_ ._ It can be said that Judson's mind is not on the zipper. Instead of perfecting and improving zippers, Judson spent most of his time designing the pneumatic streetcar, which failed.

Fast forward to the beginning of the 20th century, Gideon sundback, a Swedish American electrical engineer, began working for the universal fastener company. Thanks to his skills (and perhaps partly because of his marriage to the daughter of a factory manager), sundbach became general designer and, after improving on Judson's invention, developed a hookless fastening device that paved the way to modern zippers in 1913. Sundebach increased the number of chain teeth from four per inch (about one every 6.4mm) to 10 or 11 (about 2.5mm) and placed them in two opposite rows of teeth. In order to add a notch and bulge on each chain tooth, they can be interlocked and can be pulled into one body by sliding block, and the clearance between teeth guided by sliding block is also increased. His design, known as "separable fastener", was patented in 1917.

Sundbach, however, did not stagnate. He developed a zipper making machine called S-L, or waste free, for his zippers. Starting from the Y-shaped line, the machine cuts out the spoons, then punches them through the notches. Finally, all the spoons are clamped on a cloth belt to form a continuous zipper. The design sold well, partly thanks to the financial support of Col. Lewis Walker and the help of Wilson wear, the company's chief salesman for new equipment. In its first year of operation, the machine was able to produce hundreds of feet of zippers a day.

The name "zipper" was later coined by the B F Goodrich company, which used sunbuck zippers on their rubber overshoes, a new type of rubber boot. It is said that Goodrich liked the sound of zipper or "pull" so much that he later named it after it, and the name has been used to this day.

Early zippers were used not only for boots, but also for closing tobacco bags. Twenty years later, the fashion industry came from behind and began to use zippers in clothing. In particular, Esquire magazine used zippers on trousers in the late 1930s and declared it "the latest men's tailoring concept".

After World War II, zipper became a symbol of rebellion. Hollywood uses a motorcycle riding jacket with multiple zippers as a cultural sketch of the rebellious character of a young man played by Marlon Brando in the locomotive Party's film the wild one. All of a sudden, zippers symbolized the beginning of a rude, impulsive culture and sexual indulgence, until the 1970s, when the famous Rolling Stones album sticky fingers featured jeans with practical front zippers.

In 1956, the British designed a zipper to seal the storage bag of humidity sensitive military equipment. Even NASA discovered this mechanism and developed a sealed zipper for high altitude pressure suits in 1958, and later even early space suits were able to maintain air pressure inside the suit in vacuum. One difference from regular zippers is that they use waterproof sheets made of polyethylene reinforced fiber wrapped around the outside of each row of chain teeth. When the zipper is closed, the two opposite sides of the plastic sheet form a double seal.

This kind of zipper is usually stiff and difficult to open and close. NASA first used them in the mercury and Gemini space programs, and later developed more robust products for the Apollo space program. Zippers are used for the main openings and seals of the pilot's pressure suit and spacesuit, extending from the neck ring attached to the helmet and from the front or back to the crotch to allow the pilot or astronaut to dress easily. Cathy Lewis, curator of the national air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., said: "zippers are great for use because they are lightweight, easy to integrate into soft cloth clothes, and flexible when worn.

Although modern space suits no longer use zippers. The type of zipper previously used relied on two durable brass zippers that pressed the rubber pads between them when the package was pressurized. Lewis said that while the seal is reliable, it does require frequent retests throughout the production and flight test cycles. "The seal is reliable for short-term use, but not for long-term use," she said

The chemical interaction between the copper in the brass zipper and the rubber gasket leads to the rapid aging of the rubber, but as long as the task is less than a few weeks, only a few times of re pressurization without re testing are needed, so there is no need to worry. However, because modern astronauts stay on the international space station for weeks and months, the current spacesuits for extravehicular space activity (EVA) rely on hard sealing, which connects two metal parts (usually aluminum, but in some cases steel) to hold down rubber gaskets or O-rings. "This requires a heavier package, but you can always check the seal and replace the O-ring if necessary," Lewis said

Although NASA has banned the use of waterproof, sealed zippers are still used by many military and scuba divers around the world, and firefighters and sometimes even workers in chemical plants use zippers that are not only fire-resistant but also chemically resistant.

Over the years, the zipper has been innovated many times. With the introduction of nylon and other new materials in the 1960s, the zipper with open ends was invented. Recently, designers have gone a step further in using zippers. For example, Polish clothing company blessus has developed designs that can use hidden zippers to change the cutting and design of clothing. DNS Designs LLC has developed an intelligent magnetic zipper (later renamed magzip by Under Armour), which automatically closes and allows you to zip with one hand.

However, no matter what kind of modification the humble zipper gets, even though it can be seen at any unexpected time, we just use it without further thinking or thinking about how it was invented. It's not surprising, says Petrovsky, because "the less visible something is, the more successful it is.".