Gideon Sundbäck
Otto Fredrik Gideon Sundbäck (after moving to the United States Sundback ; born April 24, 1880 in Ödestugu , Sweden , † June 21, 1954 in Meadville , Pennsylvania ) was a Swedish-American mechanical engineer and inventor whose most famous development is the modern zipper .
Life
Gideon Sundbäck studied mechanical engineering at the Rheinisches Technikum in Bingen , today's Technical University of Bingen. There he passed his engineering exam in 1903. Two years later he emigrated to the USA. There he met his compatriot Peter Aronson, whose daughter Elvira he later married. Aronson was the managing director of the Automatic Hook and Eye Company, the first to manufacture imperfect zippers.
Other inventors had already done important preparatory work for this new locking system, including Elias Howe , Max Wolff and, in particular, Whitcomb Judson . The latter had developed the first practicable zipper for boots in 1892 and founded the Automatic Hook and Eye Company with his partner Lewis Walker in 1905 to market it. After Judson left the company, Walker hired Aronson and Sundbäck, who decisively further developed the product.
Sundbäck developed this zipper further so that it was not only suitable and practical for leather goods, but also for textile clothing and other areas of application. He had his further development patented for the first time in Germany in 1909 as a “fastener for all types of clothing and for everyday objects”. In 1914 a new patent application followed in the USA.
At first the zipper was used exclusively for boots and tobacco pouches, but after a few further improvements, in part by Sundbäck himself, it was first used on a larger scale in 1917 for the manufacture of weatherproof clothing for the US Navy. In the following years, from around 1930, it also gained increasing importance in the general textile industry .
Web links
- Biography of Gideon Sundbäck (Swedish)
- Patent US1219881 : Separable fastener. Filed August 27, 1914 , published March 20, 1917 , Applicant: Gideon Sundback.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Patent DE216807 : Closure for items of clothing of all kinds and for everyday objects, consisting of eye and hook links arranged in a chain-like manner on the closure edges of the item of clothing or the like. Filed April 1, 1909 , published December 4, 1909 , Applicant: Gideon Sundback.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Sundbäck, Gideon |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Sundback, Gideon; Sundbäck, Otto Fredrik Gideon (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Swedish inventor |
| DATE OF BIRTH | April 24, 1880 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Ödestugu , Sweden |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 21, 1954 |
| Place of death | Meadville , Pennsylvania , Pennsylvania , United States |