🔗 ↕️ 1913
Separable Fastener
U.S. Patent 1,219,881 · 1917
From the abstract
This invention relates to separable fasteners of the type comprising two opposed series of interlocking members carried respectively by tapes or other flexible carriers, the members of one series being adapted to engage and interlock with the members of the other series upon the relative movement of the carriers...
Note
The zipper. Sundback was an electrical engineer hired by Whitcomb Judson's failing 'Clasp Locker' company in Meadville, Pennsylvania; in 1913 he reinvented the entire mechanism around the now-familiar interlocking-tooth design. The U.S. Army bought 24,000 in 1918 for flying suits. The word 'zipper' didn't exist yet — B.F. Goodrich coined it in 1923 for the sound the fastener made on rubber boots. Fashion adoption was slow: zippers replaced buttons on men's trousers only in the 1930s.