Hooked on collecting

When was the zip fastener invented? Apparently, one Elias Howe came up with what he called "an automatic continuous clothing closure" in 1851. He patented the idea but it never came to market, possibly because he was too busy with his other invention: the sewing machine.

It was a further 40 years before another American, Whitcomb Judson, patented a similar "Clasp Locker", but even that was only ever used for fasting shoes, seen from the first time at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893.

The zipper we know it today, based on interlocking teeth, was invented by an employee of Judson's, Swedish scientist Gideon Sundback in 1913.Read more »