WEBVTT - Where Did Zippers Come From? 0:00:01.890 --> 0:00:07.610 Welcome to BrainStuff, a production of iHeart Podcasts. Hey BrainStuff, 0:00:07.690 --> 0:00:12.369 Lauren Vogelbaum here. The zipper is one of the simplest 0:00:12.430 --> 0:00:16.500 machines of modern times, but an immeasurably useful device in 0:00:16.540 --> 0:00:20.060 our everyday lives. Think of how much easier it is 0:00:20.140 --> 0:00:23.400 to close a pants fly, a suitcase, the back of 0:00:23.440 --> 0:00:26.160 a dress, a sleeping bag, or a tent flap with 0:00:26.239 --> 0:00:30.700 a zipper than with buttons or laces or hooks. The 0:00:30.720 --> 0:00:33.860 zipper is so effective and reliable that in just over 0:00:33.860 --> 0:00:37.559 100 years, it's become the de facto fastener for thousands 0:00:37.590 --> 0:00:42.650 of different products. The world's biggest manufacturer produces enough zippers 0:00:42.790 --> 0:00:47.680 every year to wrap around the globe 80 times. Today, 0:00:47.940 --> 0:00:51.120 let's look at the history and workings of the zipper. 0:00:52.570 --> 0:00:56.650 Zippers can only be manufactured using modern machines, but they're 0:00:56.690 --> 0:00:59.880 built around two of the oldest and simplest tools in 0:00:59.900 --> 0:01:04.560 the history of civilization, the wedge and the hook. A 0:01:04.620 --> 0:01:08.459 wedge is just an object with a slanted or inclined surface. 0:01:09.160 --> 0:01:11.680 If you push a wedge forward against an object, it 0:01:11.720 --> 0:01:15.920 will push the object in the perpendicular direction. A doorstop 0:01:15.959 --> 0:01:18.320 is a good example of this principle. When you shove 0:01:18.340 --> 0:01:21.530 it under a door, it applies an upward force on 0:01:21.560 --> 0:01:25.069 the bottom of the door. A plow is another common wedge. 0:01:25.569 --> 0:01:28.589 When you drive it forward, it pushes dirt or snow 0:01:28.690 --> 0:01:32.350 to the sides. A hook, of course, is a curved 0:01:32.430 --> 0:01:35.240 piece of material that can be used to grab onto 0:01:35.300 --> 0:01:38.480 another piece of material. Hooks have been used as fastening 0:01:38.500 --> 0:01:41.960 devices for thousands of years because they are simple and 0:01:42.220 --> 0:01:46.370 generally sturdy. When used as a fastening device, a hook 0:01:46.450 --> 0:01:49.650 is generally coupled with a loop, an eye, or some 0:01:49.730 --> 0:01:53.630 other kind of hollow area which catches the hook. A 0:01:53.710 --> 0:01:56.700 zipper is made up of two tracks with dozens of 0:01:56.920 --> 0:01:59.780 teeth in a long row, each of which combines a 0:01:59.840 --> 0:02:03.520 hook and a hollow. The idea is to latch every 0:02:03.580 --> 0:02:06.120 hook on each side of the two tracks into a 0:02:06.200 --> 0:02:10.989 hollow on the opposite one. The latching mechanism, called the slide, 0:02:11.250 --> 0:02:15.030 is just a collection of wedges. As the slide moves 0:02:15.090 --> 0:02:18.110 up the zipper, the two strips of teeth must enter 0:02:18.270 --> 0:02:22.230 at a specific angle. As the strips move through the slide, 0:02:22.490 --> 0:02:25.750 the slide's inclined edges push the teeth toward each other. 0:02:26.750 --> 0:02:29.130 The teeth on each strip are offset from each other 0:02:29.210 --> 0:02:32.070 so that each hollow settles into a hook in sequence. 0:02:33.150 --> 0:02:36.329 For this to work properly, each tooth must be exactly 0:02:36.389 --> 0:02:38.750 the same size and shape, and they all must be 0:02:38.850 --> 0:02:42.190 perfectly positioned on the track. this would be all but 0:02:42.230 --> 0:02:47.730 impossible without modern manufacturing technology. In a well-made zipper, the 0:02:47.790 --> 0:02:52.269 interlocking teeth form an incredibly secure bond. It's really difficult 0:02:52.310 --> 0:02:54.459 to separate the teeth by pulling at the two strips. 0:02:55.500 --> 0:02:58.540 But the slide can easily separate the teeth using a 0:02:58.639 --> 0:03:02.640 simple plow-shaped wedge. When the slide is pulled down, the 0:03:02.680 --> 0:03:06.200 wedge pushes against the slanted edges of the hooks, pivoting 0:03:06.360 --> 0:03:09.280 each tooth off of the tooth below it. And just 0:03:09.320 --> 0:03:13.880 like that, the zipper tracks are detached. Zippers are usually 0:03:13.919 --> 0:03:17.000 manufactured with the two strips of teeth each sewn onto 0:03:17.060 --> 0:03:20.920 their own strip of backing fabric or plastic called tape. 0:03:21.820 --> 0:03:23.919 The zipper slide can be made to stop at the 0:03:23.980 --> 0:03:26.990 end of the tracks, like in a zippered fly, or 0:03:27.100 --> 0:03:30.310 to unhook from one side, allowing two sides of a 0:03:30.330 --> 0:03:33.910 garment to come totally apart, like in most zippered jackets. 0:03:35.130 --> 0:03:38.150 The concept of the zipper goes back to the 1850s, 0:03:38.540 --> 0:03:41.800 but no one really made it work properly for almost 0:03:41.800 --> 0:03:47.480 70 years. Okay, in 1851, an American mechanical engineer from 0:03:47.520 --> 0:03:51.300 Massachusetts by the name of Elias Howe Jr. patented an 0:03:51.600 --> 0:03:56.600 automatic continuous clothing closure. The basic concept was to use 0:03:56.640 --> 0:03:59.720 a slide to mimic the manual fastening of hooks and 0:03:59.900 --> 0:04:03.560 eyes in a row along a shoe or garment. Howe 0:04:03.600 --> 0:04:06.340 had dealt all his life with a physical disability that 0:04:06.380 --> 0:04:10.710 made manual work sometimes difficult or even painful, and I 0:04:10.750 --> 0:04:13.190 have to wonder whether that was part of his design motivation. 0:04:14.390 --> 0:04:17.330 In any case, he never really did anything with this patent, 0:04:17.630 --> 0:04:20.910 and never tried to produce or market his closure device, 0:04:21.450 --> 0:04:24.280 perhaps because of the sheer success of one of his 0:04:24.480 --> 0:04:29.380 other inventions. In 1846, he'd received a patent for the 0:04:29.560 --> 0:04:33.339 lock-stitch sewing machine— which is the basis for these sewing 0:04:33.360 --> 0:04:37.339 machines still in common use today. After a rough start 0:04:37.520 --> 0:04:41.400 and winning an infringement lawsuit against one Isaac Singer, Howe 0:04:41.460 --> 0:04:46.440 went into very successful business producing sewing machines. Including royalties, 0:04:46.620 --> 0:04:52.700 he was worth millions. So Howe's closure device fell into obscurity. Until, 0:04:53.120 --> 0:04:56.690 after the patent had expired, another inventor picked up where 0:04:56.730 --> 0:05:01.849 he had left off. In 1893, one Whitcomb L. Judson 0:05:01.970 --> 0:05:06.290 secured patents for a clasp locker. Working out of Chicago, 0:05:06.470 --> 0:05:10.000 Judson's invention paired an assemblage of hooks and eyes, or 0:05:10.210 --> 0:05:14.040 alternately hooks and lines, with a sliding device to clasp 0:05:14.180 --> 0:05:18.020 and unclasp them. He first applied the invention to boots, 0:05:18.360 --> 0:05:21.180 apparently fed up with the long rows of small buttons 0:05:21.300 --> 0:05:24.870 that boots commonly fastened with at the time. To be fair, 0:05:25.350 --> 0:05:28.010 I would not enjoy undoing 20 buttons just to take 0:05:28.029 --> 0:05:32.540 off my shoes. Judson showed off his invention at the 0:05:32.540 --> 0:05:35.840 1893 Chicago World's Fair and there met up with a 0:05:35.860 --> 0:05:39.680 businessman by the name of Lewis Walker. They formed the 0:05:39.800 --> 0:05:44.640 Universal Fastening Company that year to manufacture this device. They 0:05:44.670 --> 0:05:48.229 saw some success, mostly in rain boot fasteners, but the 0:05:48.250 --> 0:05:53.250 clasp locker didn't hold fast reliably yet. After the turn 0:05:53.270 --> 0:05:56.270 of the century and a couple of company shifts, Walker 0:05:56.330 --> 0:05:59.910 and Judson hired on a Swedish-born engineer to help improve 0:05:59.930 --> 0:06:04.810 their designs, one Gideon Sundbeck. Sundbeck had the idea to 0:06:04.890 --> 0:06:09.060 make the hooks smaller, more numerous along each strip, and 0:06:09.300 --> 0:06:15.030 shaped more like interlocking gear teeth. Judson passed away in 1909. 0:06:15.029 --> 0:06:18.770 But Sunbeck's more streamlined and reliable versions of his fastener 0:06:19.070 --> 0:06:24.350 were awarded patents in 1913 and 1917. They were called 0:06:24.550 --> 0:06:27.979 separable fasteners, or, with a nod to the company's name 0:06:28.000 --> 0:06:32.260 at the time, hookless fasteners, numbers 1 and 2. The 0:06:32.300 --> 0:06:38.039 latter is absolutely recognizable as a modern zipper. Sunbeck also 0:06:38.080 --> 0:06:41.560 designed the machinery that would make his fasteners. It punched 0:06:41.720 --> 0:06:46.380 dimples in a Y-shaped wire to precisely create those interlocking teeth. 0:06:47.350 --> 0:06:50.110 The U.S. military had been using the company's fasteners since 0:06:50.110 --> 0:06:53.970 1902 in products like life jackets, and they commissioned them 0:06:54.089 --> 0:06:57.920 in bulk for incorporating into military gear during World War I. 0:06:59.130 --> 0:07:02.380 By the time Lewis Walker passed away in 1938, his 0:07:02.460 --> 0:07:05.180 company had the brand name that it still bears today, Talon, 0:07:06.360 --> 0:07:11.340 and they had three factories and over 4,000 employees. Walker's 0:07:11.420 --> 0:07:15.120 obituary in the Pittsburgh Press newspaper said that his company's 0:07:15.160 --> 0:07:19.060 fastener was, at that point, used in virtually every article 0:07:19.100 --> 0:07:23.850 of wearing apparel from overshoes to lingerie. And further, that 0:07:23.880 --> 0:07:27.990 Walker had amassed a fortune in the industry. But the 0:07:28.010 --> 0:07:33.050 device still wasn't universally known as a zipper. We're going 0:07:33.070 --> 0:07:35.120 to get into how the zipper got its name and 0:07:35.210 --> 0:07:38.960 became an integral part of so many everyday products. But first, 0:07:39.000 --> 0:07:40.760 we're going to get into a quick break for a 0:07:40.760 --> 0:07:50.920 word from our sponsor. Okay. The name zipper comes to 0:07:51.000 --> 0:07:54.970 us not through any closure manufacturer, but rather through the 0:07:55.110 --> 0:08:00.130 BF Goodrich Company. They're known mostly for their tires, but 0:08:00.170 --> 0:08:04.630 they also produced rubber-soled shoes for sports. Their PF Flyers 0:08:04.690 --> 0:08:08.280 were an early competitor of Converse and Keds, and also 0:08:08.480 --> 0:08:14.060 overboots for protecting your nice footwear in bad weather. In 1923, 0:08:14.060 --> 0:08:16.900 they released a new style of women's overboot with a 0:08:16.980 --> 0:08:19.960 woven wool upper, a heeled rubber sole, and one of 0:08:20.020 --> 0:08:25.230 Sunbeck's separable fasteners up the front. They called these boots zippers. 0:08:26.600 --> 0:08:29.540 It's a mystery of history, whether it's named after the 0:08:29.680 --> 0:08:33.260 noise that the fastener itself makes, or for the zippy 0:08:33.360 --> 0:08:35.319 speed at which you could get the boots on and off, 0:08:35.880 --> 0:08:38.429 or maybe for how you could zip around town in them. 0:08:39.690 --> 0:08:42.750 At any rate, the name caught on, as did the device, 0:08:43.270 --> 0:08:47.290 mostly in boots, bags, and pouches. It wasn't until the 0:08:47.630 --> 0:08:51.809 1930s that the garment industry really picked it up. Talon 0:08:51.929 --> 0:08:55.260 advertised it around that time as useful for children's clothing, 0:08:55.679 --> 0:08:58.819 to promote independence in dressing, as little fingers would have 0:08:58.860 --> 0:09:03.080 an easier time handling a zipper versus buttons. It also 0:09:03.120 --> 0:09:06.200 caught on for the flies on men's pants instead of buttons. 0:09:07.120 --> 0:09:10.760 A zipper could lay flatter, and Esquire magazine noted that 0:09:10.800 --> 0:09:13.780 its security was such that it would prevent the possibility 0:09:13.950 --> 0:09:20.290 of unintentional and embarrassing disarray. Zippers were considered something of 0:09:20.309 --> 0:09:24.390 an expensive novelty at the time, a very modern or 0:09:24.590 --> 0:09:29.790 perhaps very weird mechanical addition to a garment. In Aldous 0:09:29.850 --> 0:09:35.050 Huxley's dystopian speculative fiction novel Brave New World, published in 1932, 0:09:35.050 --> 0:09:40.380 zippers feature as a fashionable and luxurious over-convenience, an almost 0:09:40.460 --> 0:09:46.030 scandalously easy way to undo women's clothing in particular. the 0:09:46.070 --> 0:09:51.220 fashion houses in Paris did start taking note of the closure, too. 0:09:51.340 --> 0:09:56.290 In 1938, avant-garde designer Elsa Schiaparelli collaborated with Salvador Dali 0:09:56.429 --> 0:10:00.650 to create what's known as the skeleton dress, alongside black 0:10:00.730 --> 0:10:04.030 sheath with skeletal bones quilted in along the ribs and hips, 0:10:04.570 --> 0:10:08.190 and a striking, large black plastic zipper at the top 0:10:08.210 --> 0:10:11.810 of each shoulder. The zipper really picked up around World 0:10:11.860 --> 0:10:15.400 War II, with the innovation of zippers that totally separate 0:10:15.520 --> 0:10:19.640 and allow, say, a jacket to come open. The earliest 0:10:19.700 --> 0:10:22.520 patent I could find for that, with a retaining box 0:10:22.559 --> 0:10:24.930 at the bottom to catch and keep the slider on 0:10:25.030 --> 0:10:28.510 one half of the zip, is from Sundbeck from 1936, 0:10:28.510 --> 0:10:33.469 still designing for Talon. Leather bomber jackets and canvas work 0:10:33.510 --> 0:10:36.589 jackets in the 1940s gave way to all kinds of 0:10:36.730 --> 0:10:40.800 casual and workwear and fashion garments bearing zippers in the 0:10:40.820 --> 0:10:45.820 1950s and beyond, from motorcycle jackets to denim jeans to miniskirts. 0:10:47.110 --> 0:10:50.670 In the 50s and 60s, NASA engineers even developed airtight 0:10:50.710 --> 0:10:55.150 zippers that could withstand brief low-pressure spacewalks. These were used 0:10:55.230 --> 0:10:59.270 on the astronauts' suits during the first moon landing. Talon 0:10:59.290 --> 0:11:02.320 brand zippers remained the most popular in the United States 0:11:02.460 --> 0:11:06.280 until the 1980s. That's when another big brand took over 0:11:06.300 --> 0:11:09.120 the American market, one that you might have noticed the 0:11:09.160 --> 0:11:11.920 initials of on the zipper pull of your favorite jacket 0:11:11.980 --> 0:11:18.710 or jeans, YKK. YKK Corporation is a global manufacturing company 0:11:18.809 --> 0:11:22.780 out of Japan that oversees often vertical production of all 0:11:22.820 --> 0:11:26.740 sorts of things, but they're best known for zippers. As 0:11:26.780 --> 0:11:30.720 well they should be. YKK currently produces more than 10 0:11:30.720 --> 0:11:35.429 billion zippers a year, about 45% of the world's supply. 0:11:36.870 --> 0:11:42.589 YKK stands for Yoshida Kogyo Kabushiki Gaisha, or Yoshida Kogyo Corporation. 0:11:43.740 --> 0:11:46.920 It was originally founded in Tokyo in 1934 by one 0:11:46.980 --> 0:11:51.950 Tadao Yoshida to assemble and sell zippers. By that point, 0:11:52.030 --> 0:11:55.190 there were several manufacturers of these types of closures around 0:11:55.230 --> 0:11:58.910 the world. After the air raids of World War II 0:11:58.980 --> 0:12:03.340 destroyed the plant, Yoshida rebuilt in the 1950s. And when 0:12:03.380 --> 0:12:07.650 he did, he started designing his own machinery. not just 0:12:07.730 --> 0:12:11.670 to assemble zippers, but to machine the parts, and dye 0:12:11.700 --> 0:12:14.420 the yarn and weave the cloth for the zippers' tape, 0:12:15.040 --> 0:12:18.319 and produce the metal alloys that go into making the parts, 0:12:18.820 --> 0:12:23.020 and to make the machines that make the parts. Yoshida's 0:12:23.100 --> 0:12:26.339 idea was that for true quality control, you have to 0:12:26.380 --> 0:12:30.719 make everything yourself, and that for true success as a business, 0:12:30.940 --> 0:12:34.900 you have to, and I quote, render benefit to others. 0:12:36.050 --> 0:12:39.720 He called his management philosophy the cycle of goodness. And 0:12:40.059 --> 0:12:42.940 beyond a corporate shtick, I think he meant it. And 0:12:43.200 --> 0:12:46.460 that's how the company continues to be the preferred zipper 0:12:46.520 --> 0:12:51.180 of many product designers due to its reliability today. They're 0:12:51.260 --> 0:12:53.850 not a sponsor or anything. I just find the corporate 0:12:53.870 --> 0:13:00.360 concept of sharing benefits with society fascinating. Anyway. Starting in 0:13:00.380 --> 0:13:05.819 the 1960s, YKK opened plants overseas, including one in Macon, Georgia, 0:13:06.140 --> 0:13:10.959 in 1974. Today, it's the largest zipper plant in the world, 0:13:11.179 --> 0:13:15.170 with 900 employees producing some 7 million zippers a day 0:13:15.470 --> 0:13:20.510 in thousands of styles for clothing, furniture, automotive interiors, outdoor goods, 0:13:20.710 --> 0:13:26.700 medical supplies, etc. And YKK and other companies are still innovating. 0:13:27.780 --> 0:13:31.140 You know, zippers are easier than buttons, sure, but what 0:13:31.179 --> 0:13:35.540 about a lightweight motorized zipper to help people or situations 0:13:35.580 --> 0:13:38.640 where manual dexterity is an issue, like when you have 0:13:38.760 --> 0:13:42.060 fine motor control problems or are working in heavy gloves? 0:13:43.260 --> 0:13:45.679 That one is still a YKK prototype as far as 0:13:45.740 --> 0:13:50.250 I know, but environmental improvements are a huge category these days. 0:13:51.110 --> 0:13:55.449 You know, using greener materials and processes, and manufacturing zipper 0:13:55.470 --> 0:13:58.430 components that can be replaced if they break, meaning you 0:13:58.470 --> 0:14:01.670 don't have to re-sew or junk a jacket just because 0:14:01.710 --> 0:14:05.770 the zipper failed. The global market for zippers is worth 0:14:05.840 --> 0:14:10.540 some $ 13 billion a year. Not shabby for just over 0:14:10.559 --> 0:14:15.040 a century of progress. If you'd like to celebrate, here 0:14:15.080 --> 0:14:18.319 in the United States, April 29th is National Zipper Day. 0:14:18.760 --> 0:14:22.680 chosen because it was the day in 1913 that Sunbeck's 0:14:22.800 --> 0:14:31.390 first separable fastener received its patent. Today's episode is based 0:14:31.410 --> 0:14:34.230 on the articles How Zippers Work by Tom Harris and 0:14:34.350 --> 0:14:36.990 Why Do Most Zippers Say YKK on the Pull Tab 0:14:37.070 --> 0:14:41.020 by Katherine Whitburn on HowStuffWorks.com. BrainStuff is a production of 0:14:41.100 --> 0:14:44.540 iHeart Podcasts in partnership with HowStuffWorks.com and is produced by 0:14:44.580 --> 0:14:48.140 Tyler Klang. For more shows from iHeart Podcasts, visit the 0:14:48.260 --> 0:14:51.570 iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to 0:14:51.610 --> 0:14:52.450 your favorite shows.