The Zipper
The idea for an “Automatic, Continuous Clothing Closure” wasn’t actually new. Elias Howe, innovator of the sewing machine, came up with an early prototype in the early 1850s. Howe let the idea fade to focus on his sewing machine venture. In the 1890s, Whitcomb Judson refined the idea of an easy clothes fastener with his partner, Colonel Lewis Walker, using the Howe idea to create a “clasp locker.” They displayed the zipper concept at the Fair as a novelty item, but fairgoers saw it differently. Electrical engineer Gideon Sundback of the Universal Fastener Company worked on the concept, refining the technology. By 1913, Sundback developed the modern form of the zipper.