Martin Othmar Winterhalter
Martin Othmar Petrus Notker Winterhalter (born May 4, 1889 in St. Fiden , municipality of Tablat , Canton of St. Gallen , Switzerland ; † July 22, 1961 in Kreuzlingen ) was a major Swiss industrialist . He is considered the inventor of the modern zipper .
Life
After his studies (graduation with doctoral) of the Law at the University of Leipzig returned Winterhalter 1923 back to St. Gallen. There he met Gideon Sundbäck . He had developed a preliminary stage of the modern zipper and tried to sell his invention for Europe. Winterhalter then acquired the patent for Europe, further developed the closure, which originally consisted of beads and clamping jaws, and replaced them with ribs and grooves, from which the name Riri arose. Soon afterwards, the Riri zippers were industrially manufactured as a mass product, initially in the first zipper factory in Wuppertal , and later under license worldwide.
From 1936 the headquarters of Winterhalter's zipper company were in the newly built industrial complex in Mendrisio . After his patents had expired, a worldwide cheap production of zippers began in the middle of the 20th century, which led to a sharp drop in sales at Riri. Winterhalter remained childless and squandered his fortune. In 1951, his siblings finally incapacitated him and sent him to the Bellevue psychiatric sanatorium ( Kreuzlingen , Canton Thurgau , Switzerland ), where he died in 1961.
Riri SA in Mendriso still exists today and produces precious closures for international luxury brands.
literature
Wolfgang Göldi: Martin Winterhalter. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . November 6, 2013 , accessed January 15, 2020 .
Web links
- The father of the zipper came from St. Gallen on denkmalpflege-schweiz.ch/2016/03/17/
- Ribs, grooves, crickets - the rise and fall of the factory owner Winterhalter. In: NZZ Folio . Edition 10/98.
Individual evidence
- ^ "The inventor of the zip fastener" , St. Galler Tagblatt , December 28, 2008
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Winterhalter, Martin Othmar |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Winterhalter, Martin Othmar Petrus Notker (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Swiss industrialist and inventor of the modern zipper |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 4, 1889 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | St. Fiden , Canton of St. Gallen , Switzerland |
| DATE OF DEATH | July 22, 1961 |
| Place of death | Kreuzlingen |