The Mobile Button Became An International Hit As The Zipper 30 Years After Its Inventor, Whitcom Judson, Patented It In 1923, 14 Years After Judson’s Death. In Fact, The Appearance Of The Zipper Was Originally Just To Solve A Small Problem In People’s Lives.
Many Inventions Have Made Their Name In The World Expo, But “zipper” Is Not So Lucky. In 1923, 30 Years After Witcon Judson, The Inventor Of The “moving Button”, Applied For A Patent, The Small Object Was Sold Internationally Under The Name “zipper”, And Judson Had Died 14 Years At This Time. In Fact, The Appearance Of The Zipper Was Originally Just To Solve A Small Problem In People’s Lives.
Fighting For The Expo And Getting Cold
At The End Of The 19th Century, People Still Kept The Habit Of Wearing Long Boots. However, Its Shortcomings Are Obvious. There Are More Than 20 Iron Hook Buttons On A Boot, Which Is Extremely Time-consuming And Laborious To Put On And Take Off. A Friend Who Suffers From Back Pain Shows A Painful Expression Every Time He Puts On And Takes Off His Boots, Prompting Witcon Judson To Improve His Boots.
As A Mechanical Engineer, Judson Usually Likes To Modify Machines And Experiment With Many Different Gadgets, But This Time The Road To Improvement Was Not So Smooth. Judson Thought Of Using A Device Like Spacer Teeth To Seal The Opening Tightly. But How Can It Be Made To Open And Close Freely? This Unresolved Problem Became A Piece Of His “heart Disease”.
One Day, He Went To A Blacksmith Shop To Buy Rice Spoons. The Iron Spoons In This Shop Are Neatly And Neatly Hung: A Steel Bar That Is Placed In A Horizontal Position Hangs The Upper And Lower Rows, The Upper Row Is The Steel Bar Directly Passing Through The Spoon Handle Hole, And The Lower Row Is The Spoon Handle Face Down, “snapped” Together By The Recess Of The Spoon. Judson Chose The Fifth Iron Spoon From The Left And Down. He Pulled It Down Hard, But He Couldn’t Pull It Down. It Seemed To Bite Tightly. Later, The Master Blacksmith Told Him To Open The Fourth Spoon From The Left. The One He Needed Was Easily Removed. Buying A Rice Spoon Brought Him An Unexpected Harvest. The Two Rows Of Iron Spoons That Were Tightly Snapped Together Became The Prototype Of The “zipper” He Imagined. He Designed The Zipper Mechanism Based On This Bite Principle.
In 1893, Judson Applied For A U.s. Patent And Demonstrated His New Invention At The Chicago World’s Fair. The Invention Was Known At The Time As The “sliding Tether”, Aka “removable Button”. Despite Judson’s Lobbying, This “button” Was Not Very Popular Due To Its Bulkiness, Loose Hook-and-loop Lap And Easy To Split, But It Still Attracted The Attention Of Individual Manufacturers.
War With Buttons
In 1902, A Company That Originally Produced Buttons And Lace Bought The Patent, Registered The Trademark “kubituo”, And Began To Produce Zippers For Shoes. But This “crab-eating” Company Quickly Went Down The Road Of Destruction. The “kubituo” Of Production Could Not Be Pulled Up Or Opened, And Sometimes Collapsed Suddenly, Making Consumers Extremely Embarrassed. The Discredited “kubituo” Became A Slow-selling Product, And The First Company To Produce Zippers Eventually Closed Its Doors At A Loss.
However, People Have Never Stopped In Their Pursuit Of A Comfortable Lifestyle. Since 1908, The Swede Senbeck, Who Was Working In The United States, Began To Study The Improvement Of The Zipper. In Order To Make The Toothed Part Of The Zipper Close To Prevent The Explosion, He Proposed A Zipper Composed Of Three Parts: “teeth, Nose Pull And Cloth Tape”. Conceived, And Named It “toothless Fastener”. This New Idea Is The Zipper We Use Today. This Idea Is Already Very Advanced. In 1913, Senbeck Attached Metal Locking Teeth To A Flexible Shaft, Each Of Which Was A Small Hook. This Zipper Is Strong And Becomes A Reliable Commodity.
Senbeck Used This New Type Of Zipper On Women’s Clothing. Unfortunately, People Still Remember The Zipper’s Automatic Collapse 10 Years Ago. At That Time, Women Who Were Relatively Conservative Did Not Dare To Wear Fashionable Women’s Clothing With Zippers. . When Those Manufacturers Who Produce And Sell Buttons Find That The Zipper Will Become The Biggest Enemy Of Buttons, They Will Attack Them In Groups, Calling It “the Enemy Of Civilized Clothing”. Seenbeck’s Company Is In Trouble Again. The Zipper As A Commodity Entered The Market For The Second Time, But It Was Still The Doom Of Failure.
Air Crash “rescue” Zipper
History Is Often Rewritten Due To Some Accidental Factors, And The Fate Of The Zipper Is No Exception. An Incredible Air Accident “saved” The Dying Zipper Industry.
Shortly After The Zipper Got A Cold Shoulder In The Market, There Was An Accidental Crash Of An Air Show Over Place De La Concorde In Paris. After Careful Analysis And Evidence Collection By The Accident Investigation Team, It Was Found That A Button From The Pilot’s Jacket Rolled Into The Aircraft Engine, Causing The Accident. The Painful Price Caused The French Ministry Of Defense To Issue An Order Not To Fasten Buttons On Flight Suits, And European And American Countries Followed Suit.
“we Have Hope!” After Learning About This, Senbeck Decided That This Was An Opportunity To Bring The Zipper
