“Zippity doo dah, zippity ay, my oh my!” Disney’s “The Song of the South.”
Google routinely marks achievements, large or small, by replacing its regular multi-colored Google Logo with intriguing designs. Today, Google honors a man who, though anonymous to most, played a huge role in how we dress, and undress.
That man is Gideon F. Sundback, inventor of the modern zipper. His story, and the story behind Google’s homage, are detailed in this article– www.csmonitor.com/Innovation/Pioneers/2012/0424/Google-honors-Gideon-Sundback-Father-of-the-zipper-video
“Zipper” was originally the brand name for the device Sundback called a “hookless fastener.” That name lacked pizzaz and before long, the brand name became the product’s generic name, saving us all quite a mouthful.
But zipper’s trademark legacy did not end with its passage into genericnesss. A vestige lives on in a now-famous trademark for cigarette lighters. Rumor has it that the founded of that lighter company so admired Sundback’s invention that he was inspired to borrow the name of Sundback’s invention, calling his lighter company Zippo.
Sundback’s innovation may seem to pale in comparison to Edison’s, Ford’s, Graham Bell’s, Marconi’s, or Steve Jobs’. But take a moment. Imagine a world without the zipper. A population of billions fumbling with their button flies. Then give thanks for the zipper–the consummate invention for modern times.
QUOTE OF THE DAY: “Zippers are primal and modern at the very same time. On the one hand, your zipper is primitive and reptilian, on the other mechanical and slick. A zipper is where the Industrial Revolution meets the Cobra Cult, don’t you think? Ahh. Little alligators of ecstasy, that’s what zippers are. ” ― Tom Robbins
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