U.S. patent US1219881, which was applied by Gideon Sundback on August 27, 1914 and approved on March 20, 1917, is the origin of the zipper and laid the foundation for the advent and development of the zipper.
The zipper structure of this patent is simple, exquisite and reliable, and the side pull strength is high. This is a major milestone for the birth of zippers. Before the invention of zippers, humans mainly used buttons and fasteners to wear clothes and shoes. With the advent of riding boots, hook-type fasteners were used Bulky and inconvenient to put on and take off. In the mid-19th century, some zipper patent applications appeared in the United States and Europe, but some applications were only ideas and never implemented; some applications were implemented but failed to be commercialized. One worth mentioning is American Whitcomb Judson's 1893 patent application US504038, which proposed the idea of ??opening and closing a series of hook-and-loop fasteners through the movement of the puller along the seam, and made it on the shoe. It was displayed at the Chicago World's Fair and attracted people's attention. However, due to reasons such as bulkiness, loose hook-and-loop overlap, easy bursting, slow movement of the slider, and difficulty in manufacturing, it was not favored by the market and could not be commercialized. Gideon Sundback's patented invention overcomes the above-mentioned series of defects. The key is the ingenious design of the chain elements, which makes the zipper practical. He himself then developed machines for stamping parts and attaching chain elements to belts. Around 1920, zippers quickly became popular all over the world and were widely used in clothing, boots, sachets, etc.