Sundback, Gideon

SUBJECT AREA: Textiles

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fl. 1910 USA

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American engineer who improved zip fasteners so they became both a practical and a commercial proposition.

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The zip fastener was originally patented in the USA in 1896 by W.L. Judson of Chicago. At first it was used only in boots and shoes and was not a success because it tended to jam or spring open. It was expensive, for it was made largely by hand. Eventually the Automatic Hook and Eye Company of Hoboken, New Jersey, took on Dr Gideon Sundback, a Swedish electrical engineer who had settled in the United States in 1905. After several years' work Sundback filed a patent application and his model was sold as a novelty item but was still unsatisfactory in use. In 1912 he invented a hookless fastener which looked promising but also was impractical in use. Finally, in 1913, he invented a fastener which in all important essentials was the modern zip fastener and, in addition, he invented the machinery to produce it. However, clothing manufacturers continued to oppose its introduction until in 1918 a contractor making flying suits for the United States Navy placed an order for 10,000 fasteners and in 1923 B.F.Goodrich \& Co. put zips in the galoshes that they manufactured. Success was assured from then on.

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Further Reading

J.Jewkes, D.Sawers and R.Stillerman, 1969, The Sources of Invention, 2nd edn, London (discusses the invention).

I.McNeil (ed.), 1990, An Encyclopaedia of the History of Technology, London: Routledge pp. 852–3 (for an account of the development of fastenings).

RLH