Talk:Gideon Sundback

More about the zipper

A Swedish immigrant to Canada, Sundback, an electrical engineer, was hired as a designer at the Universal Fastener Company. Because he was married to the daughter of the plant’s manager as well as being a talented designer, he was able to secure the position of head designer. One of the main components of this job was to find ways to improve the pre-existing Judson C-curity Fastener developed by Whitcomb L. Judson which had many flaws in its design. The original “Clasp-Locker” was developed when one of Judson’s friends with a sore back was having difficulties doing up his boots, so he developed a simpler hook-an-eye fastener that was easier to close than laces. With the death of his beloved wife in the year 1911, Sundback dedicated a larger amount of time to redeveloping the Judson C-curity Fastener and thus the zipper was born. His patent was filed in the year of 1917, describing the new zipper with features such as an increased number of teeth from four per inch to approximately 10 per square inch. It was easy to fasten as the two opposing sets of teeth were clasped together by a slider that could attach and detach the teeth with a simple up or down movement. In addition to this, Sundback also developed the machinery called the Scrapless (S-L) that was used to produce the zipper on a massive scale. The machine crafted the teeth of the zipper, and attached them onto long strips of fabric allowing a couple hundred feet of zipper to be manufactured on a daily basis. “Zipper was not the original name that the fastener was patented under. It was termed the “Separable Fastener” by Sundback. The actual name “Zipper” was not thought of by the inventor, but was rather coined by one of his first customers: The B.F. Goodrich company who used the fastener on a new pair of boots. The name Zipper was chosen because it was an easy to use and fast fastener to use as it could be easily used with one hand. The Zipper was originally only used on items such as boots and tobacco pouches. It was not until thirty years after this that the fashion industry finally decided to allow the Zipper to make its debut in the world of fashion clothing. When they did enter the clothing industry, it was in the form of the zippered fly on men’s trousers. The French designers who used it first claimed that it was a new sensation that would prevent “the possibility of unintentional and embarrassing disarray." Today, Zippers are used for a multitude of applications anywhere from luggage to the latest in clothing to footwear. The options for Zippers are truly limitless and this has never been as obvious as it is now with thousands of miles of zippers being manufactured daily that we are dependant upon this simple machine for completing the simplest daily tasks in our lives that we take for granted on a daily basis. Could you imagine life without the Zipper? Sorces: http://www.coolquiz.com/trivia/explain/docs/zipper.asp http://inventors.about.com//library/weekly/aa082497.htm — Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.221.81.98 (talk) 00:44, 6 April 2006‎ (UTC)

Sundback's nationality

Do you have any reliable sources that in any way justify describing Sundback as "Canadian"? He lived in Hoboken, NJ and Meadville, PA when he made his improvements to the zipper. He was living in Meadville when he died. (And I can give you as many reliable sources for those as you like.) The only connection to Canada that I've been able to find is that for a while he was the president of Talon Zipper's Canadian subsidiary in St. Catherines, Ontario. I can't even find anything that unequivocally states that he lived in Canada while he was president of the subsidiary. And even if he did, I don't think that qualifies him as "Canadian" unless he actually became a Canadian citizen, or at least at some point was living there with the intention of staying permanently, neither of which I can find any evidence for. He was also the president of Talon's subsidiary in Mexico; should we call him Mexican on the basis of that?

If he really did become a Canadian citizen or something, then at most he was Swedish/American/Canadian. But without a source I don't see any jusification for mentioning Canada at all. And there's certainly no justification for *deleting* the fact that he was American. Reverting. Anonymous55 00:24, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Sundback was a naturalized US citizen

G. Sundback was born in Sweden and became a naturalized US citizen. He was never a citizen of Canada.

The authoritative history of the early development of the slide fastener (and Sundback's contribution) is Robert Friedel, Zipper, An Exploration in Novelty, W. W. Norton & Company, ISBN 0-393-03599-9 hardcover). The article would benefit from an edit to correct information that is inconsistent with Friedel.

Sundback had sold non-US rights to his patents to the Brits, and, in 1924, the Brits founded Lightning Fastener Company in Quebec. In 1925 Sundback took back non-US Western Hemisphere rights, took control of the Canadian company, and moved it to St Catherines Ontario. He was President until he died in 1954. In that time, he traveled to St. Catherines weekly from his home in Meadville, Pennsylvania.

QuatSkinner 16:54, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure that Americans would take full credit for the production of any company located in the US, with American workers, which had a Canadian owner/president. For some reason, Canada isn't allowed the same standard. A Canadian company, with Canadian workers, mysteriously becomes all-American because the Swedish-born president of the company lived in the US at the time. LOL. Americans... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 198.53.129.181 (talk) 04:07, 5 August 2008 (UTC)

The question you're replying to isn't about the company. It's about Sundback himself. Bearcat (talk) 21:48, 5 August 2008 (UTC)

This article is frustrating. The patent in 1914 describes him as a subject of the Swedish king. When did he become a US citizen? --Wtshymanski (talk) 15:52, 25 February 2010 (UTC)

Patent no. 1746565, filed in 1926, no longer contains any declaration of citizenship. Rats. But in 1923 when he filed for 1557381, he said he was Swedish. --Wtshymanski (talk) 15:56, 25 February 2010 (UTC)

Sundback didn't marry Whitcomb Judson's daughter

Gideon Sundback indeed married his boss' daughter, but another boss -- fellow Swede Peter Aronson. Aronson was also taking part in the numerous improvments of the zipper, although Sundback was the genius.

Comment by Mats Karlsson, Stockholm, Sweden Journalist who has made extensive research on Sundback and Aronson for article published by historical magazine Popular Historia.

WRONG....According to the Swedish "Daedalus Tekniska Museets Arsbok" from 1940 and letters sent by Peter Aronson's son and Mr. Lennart Way-Matthjieson, Asst. Director - Teknicka Musect in Stockholm Sweden written in 1956,...it was PETER ARONSON's invention the Sundback stole and patented. Please check your facts. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.177.39.79 (talk) 21:13, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

Spelling

None of the English-language sources I've seen spell Sundback with the double-dot over the A. The Swedish Wikipedia does, though (as an aside, their article on him is a little shorter than in en. ). Did he naturalize his spelling when he took out US citizenship? Do we record him under his birth spelling or the name he died with? This is obviously a crucial issue for the continued progress of the Wikipedia, even more than the John Logie Baird controversy, and must be resolved. --Wtshymanski (talk) 15:04, 25 February 2010 (UTC)

According to "The Evoloution of Useful Things", page 103, ([1]) Sundback dropped the "European trappings" from his name when he immigrated; presumably this means the double-dot A? --Wtshymanski (talk) 15:12, 25 February 2010 (UTC)

That's not necessarily the actual inventor's personal physical signature on a patent? Could be teh patent lawyer fills it in? (but the lawyer should know how the client spells his name) --Wtshymanski (talk) 17:04, 25 February 2010 (UTC)

Citizenship and death

This title sounds like his death had something to do with his citizenship. — Preceding unsigned comment added by MurkMenthaa (talk • contribs) 23:19, 23 April 2012 (UTC)

Agreed, title should be rethought DoyleyTalk 00:17, 24 April 2012 (UTC)

I've removed it for now, since it doesn't really fit with the section, but having everything under the Career heading doesn't quite fit with some of the content. The content will need to be re-arranged and titled according to the topic. - M0rphzone (talk) 04:51, 24 April 2012 (UTC)

1917 "zipper" patent

please ad a following if the article is blocked... 1917 Gideon Sundback patent(issued in 1917, filled for in 1914):

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Edit request on 24 April 2012

or:ଗିଡନ୍ ସଣ୍ଡ୍‌ବ୍ୟାକ୍

Shisir 1945 (talk) 05:43, 24 April 2012 (UTC)

Edit request on 24 April 2012

122.166.9.176 (talk) 06:00, 24 April 2012 (UTC)

Edit request on 24 April 2012

Can I edit this page? Only a minor edit? No vandalism. I promise. Plz?

Kushan Lahiri (talk) 06:16, 24 April 2012 (UTC)

Use of zipper in men's clothing

Military uniform items might not count as the "fashion industry," but an early usage of zippers in clothing was in leather flight jackets and suits. The Type A-2 summer flight jacket and Type B-2 winter flight suit, adopted by the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1931, were the first such garments to use zipper closures. There were also occasional waist-length jackets for the civilian market, but the high price of zippers at the time made them uncommon. 50.81.119.136 (talk) 07:17, 24 April 2012 (UTC)