Why does a small zipper have such a great influence?
The invention of zipper was around 1890. At that time, there was an American named whitcomb Judson who had a feeling about the daily necessities made by sewing at that time-it was always inconvenient to use them. For example, handbags, pockets and other things should not only be tied with ropes and belts, but also sealed with buttons, which is both troublesome and unsightly.
On one occasion, Judson went to visit his big cousin with a pre-bought birthday present. When getting off the train, the door of the carriage was crowded. An old lady fell down so carelessly that her elbow pressed against the bulging bag she was carrying. The mouth of the bag sealed by the button was opened, and the rice inside was scattered all over the floor. Judson put down her handbag to help the old lady. When he turned to pick up the bag, he found that it was lighter and there was an unsealed bag mouth wide open. When I opened it, a box of birthday presents was missing.
The accident gave Judson a great stimulus. He thinks that the old lady's bag for rice spilled and his box for birthday presents was lost, which is mainly caused by the poor sealing of the bag or bag. So he decided to make a locking device that can seal the seam tightly and open and close it easily. However, this device can't be thought out at once. Judson pondered for a long time, but didn't come up with a clue.
One day, Judson saw a carpenter making a wooden box. The carpenter sewed the box with two boards with spaced teeth. He carefully observed and thought about this trick, and then thought of using such a limit tooth device to seal the opening of the cloth bag or bag tightly. The key question is: what kind of structure can make it open and close freely?
This unresolved problem has become a "heart disease" for him. Later, he went to a blacksmith's shop and bought a rice spoon.
The iron spoon here is hung neatly and skillfully: a horizontally supported steel bar is hung in two rows, the upper row is directly passed through the hole of the spoon handle by the steel bar, and the lower row is "buckled" together by the spoon part with the spoon handle facing downwards. Judson selected the fifth iron spoon on the left. He pulled down hard, but he couldn't. It seems to bite hard. Later, the blacksmith told him to open the four spoons on the left. Sure enough, the one he needed was easily taken down.
Buying a rice spoon brought him unexpected gains, and two rows of iron spoons that were tightly meshed together became the prototype of his "zipper". Later, he designed the zipper device according to this occlusion principle. I don't know if you have noticed, but now the zipper teeth are arranged at equal intervals. Its tooth shape has a characteristic, that is, it is concave and convex at the same time, just like a miniature rice spoon. Two rows of teeth open and close under the action of sliding chain. This slide chain is wide at the front and narrow at the back. When sliding forward, the narrow end presses the teeth on both sides, so that the convex and concave parts of two adjacent teeth are tightly locked together. When sliding backward, the stop at the front end forces the chain teeth on both sides to open at a certain angle, and the zipper is gradually pulled open.
In the eyes of modern people, the structure of zipper is very simple. However, after Judson painstakingly came up with the principle of staggered concave and convex teeth and designed this kind of opening and closing mechanism, he encountered many difficulties in the manufacturing process. 1893, Judson applied for a patent after completing this invention, and set up a joint venture company with lawyer Walter to produce zippers. 12 years later, the zipper manufacturing machine of this company began to run, and the products made were very rough.
Seven years later, the Swedish engineer Nathan Desbards became interested in Judson's invention. He realized that if the "movable button" can overcome its shortcomings, its use will be unlimited. After he reformed Judson's invention, the zipper he made satisfied the users. 1924, the American fixed company purchased the patent from Badnan Mountain Company, put it into production, and gave a live performance at the fair. The new movable button has aroused great interest, and everyone appreciates it because it is very convenient and reliable to use. According to the friction sound when it opens and closes, the fixed company gave it an image name, called "zipper", which is zipper.
Zippers quickly became popular in the world, from being used only for rain boots, to shoes, hats, clothes, schoolbags, handbags, wallets and many other necessities, even pillowcases, sofa cushions, briefcases, notebooks ... and many other items. Zipper is no longer limited to clothing, shoes and hats, and its function can be seen in many aspects of human life.
Someone once jokingly suggested adding a zipper to the incision of the operation for those careless surgeons in cross talk. Who would have thought that Si Tong, an American surgeon, really used a zipper in human pancreatic surgery? In the past, patients often suffered a lot of bleeding after pancreatic surgery, so they had to be sutured repeatedly in the abdomen and replaced with gauze. This method makes the patient miserable. Si Tong sewed the 7-inch zipper used for ordinary skirt on the wound. It only takes 5 minutes to change the gauze, and there is no need to repeat the operation. The patient's pain is reduced and the cure rate is higher.
Dr. Jenkins invented a kind of "skin zipper suture", which uses the zipper stuck to the skin to make the two sides of the wound fit tightly without sewing needles. Muscles and skin heal quickly, and scars are still small.
"Zipper sausage preservation technology" is another new invention using zipper. In order to keep the freshness of sausage, the outer coating should be thick, but the thick coating is difficult to cut. Scientists at the University of Berlin in Germany transplanted the technology of "opening and closing" zipper to sausages, which improved the freshness of sausages and extended the shelf life. You see, zippers not only bring great convenience to human clothing, but also play a role in a wider range of fields. It deserves to be regarded as the greatest invention of the 20th century.