Gideon Sundback: Difference between revisions
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Sundback also created the manufacturing machine for the new zipper. |
Sundback also created the manufacturing machine for the new zipper. |
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He is sometimes claimed as [[Canada|Canadian]], as his Lightning Fastener Company, an early manufacturer of the zipper, was based in [[St. Catharines]], [[Ontario]]. Although Sundback frequently visited the St. Catharines factory as president of the company, he resided in [[Meadville, Pennsylvania|Meadville]], [[Pennsylvania]] and was never a resident or a citizen of Canada.<ref name=Friedel9 |
He is sometimes claimed as [[Canada|Canadian]], as his Lightning Fastener Company, an early manufacturer of the zipper, was based in [[St. Catharines]], [[Ontario]]. Although Sundback frequently visited the St. Catharines factory as president of the company, he resided in [[Meadville, Pennsylvania|Meadville]], [[Pennsylvania]] and was never a resident or a citizen of Canada.<ref name=Friedel9 |
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Sundback is interred at Greendale Cemetery in Meadville. |
Sundback is interred at Greendale Cemetery in Meadville. |
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Revision as of 16:43, 18 January 2010
Otto Frederick Gideon Sundback (April 24, 1880 – June 21, 1954) was a Swedish-American electrical engineer and inventor.
Sundback made several advances in the development of the zipper between 1906 and 1914, while working for companies that later evolved into Talon, Inc. He built upon the previous work of other engineers such as Elias Howe, Max Wolff, and Whitcomb Judson. Gideon Sundback was hired to work for the Universal Fastener Company. Good design skills and a marriage to Elvira Aronson, daughter of the plant-manager Peter Aronsson, led Sundback to the position of head designer at Universal. He was responsible for improving the "Judson C-curity Fastener". He increased the number of fastening elements from four per inch to ten or eleven. His invention had two facing rows of teeth that pulled into a single piece by the slider, and increased the opening for the teeth guided by the slider. The patent for the "Separable Fastener" was issued in 1917.[1]
The name zipper was created by B.F. Goodrich who used the device on their new boots. Initially, boots and tobacco pouches were the primary use for zippers; it took another twenty years before they caught on in the fashion industry. About the time of World War II the zipper achieved wide acceptance for the flies of trousers and the plackets of skirts and dresses.[2]
Sundback also created the manufacturing machine for the new zipper.
He is sometimes claimed as Canadian, as his Lightning Fastener Company, an early manufacturer of the zipper, was based in St. Catharines, Ontario. Although Sundback frequently visited the St. Catharines factory as president of the company, he resided in Meadville, Pennsylvania and was never a resident or a citizen of Canada.<ref name=Friedel9
Sundback is interred at Greendale Cemetery in Meadville.
