Science/Fashion
Invented In Envy And Greed To Be Superior, This Hook Failed Its Task.
The “War of the Fly” and high fashion world have only one absolute winner.
A fun Sunday Afternoon, surfing the net.
Nothing idles away a Sunday afternoon like surfing the net. For instance, reading about Velcro ®, — that “hook and eye” stuff which is everywhere now.
George de Mestral was a Swiss Engineer and proven inventor who decided to create a new fastener — to compete with the Zipper. Why?
De Mestral was a keen game bird hunter and in 1935 had taken two weeks holidays from work to pursue his hobby. As an aside, he was with Jeanne Schneider, the first of his three wives, and with whom he had his only two sons. He and Jeanne married in March 1932.
One night they were about to go out for dinner and his wife, Jeanne, asked him to help her with a faulty zipper in her dress.
The story is well known of how he got the idea to solve a problem, yet the reason for him being aware of the problem is rarely disclosed.
From that first interaction with a faulty zip and (probably) a prickly wife, de Mestral sought an opportunity to challenge the Swedish-American Gideon Sundback’s total dominance in the fashion industry as zips became ubiquitous. He was still using buttons on his flies!
While his initial observation of the burrs was during that March 1935 nature walk, it was not until July 1936 that the idea came to him to investigate the seeds more closely. Under a microscope, de Mestral examined the prickly seed husks of the cocklebur which attached themselves to his dog and his clothes, to see why they stuck so strongly. He found both the reason and the name.
“Vel” from velours (French for loops, in clothing) and “cro” from crochet (for the hooks).
There’s little doubt this ten years of experimenting took its toll.
It took eight years of experimenting with different textiles to perfect his idea, and another two years to perfect the manufacturing machinery. His patent was granted in 1955.
It’s during this time, in 1949, that de Mestral divorces his first wife and marries a former fiancé of Ian Fleming. The marriage lasts almost twenty years before he marries in 1967 for the third and last time.
Finally, a break-through from a chance observation.
Mestral, his weaver from Lyon, France, and a Swiss loom-maker from Basel, Switzerland, found that nylon, the first synthetic fibre developed in 1938, would harden if woven under infrared light.
His patent application describes how long loops are woven, passing over metal bars that can be heated to “fix” the hook after cutting and that have a groove through which a knife can pass to cut the loops. Their challenge was to cut a hardened fabric that would not rip or tear.
A chance visit to his local barber gave Mestral the idea of cutting the loops with a sideways motion, similar to the way a barber cuts hair. 300 loops per square inch has proven to be the right number and a two-inch square of “hook and loop” tape can suspend the weight of a 175lb man.
With a loan of $US150,000 to start a company to manufacture Velcro®, the first factory opened in 1957 and he later sold the company and worldwide patent rights to Velcro SA, a Swiss company (later Velcro International) and retained the right to royalties.
It is fascinating to go to the United States Patent and Trademark Office website and read the original Patent Application No 314,933 lodged on October 15, 1952 — which was lodged in Switzerland a year earlier. The patent grant was issued on 13 September 1955. (Publication Number: 02717437)
It’s impossible to foresee which will fail, what will succeed.
De Mestral hoped that Velcro® would replace the Zipper, which got its name eighty years after its invention. The zipper was patented on August 29, 1893, was a failure until it was re-engineered in 1913 for use in the army, but still did not become universally popular.
Gideon Sundback had made constant improvements to the product, and in 1915 renamed his company the Hookless Fastener Company. He was trying to sell the product to the fashion industry, but his own earlier failures made it almost impossible.
In the same year, a New York tailor, Robert J Ewig, began making money belts for WWI sailors because their uniforms were sans pockets. Over 20,000 money belts were sold that year, with the tag slogan of “Zip Up Your Money”. Three years later, the Navy ordered zip fasteners for 10,000 flying suits and some others were being used for sleeping bags.
In 1923, F. B. Goodrich ordered 150,000 for his new product — rubber galoshes — and based on the z-z-z-zip sound, he called it “The Zipper”.
Galoshes, also known by many other names, are a type of overshoe or rubber boot that is put on over shoes to keep them from getting muddy or wet during inclement weather.
Goodrich trademarked the word “Zipper” and protected it assiduously.
The zipper was primarily used for boots and tobacco pouches — until the 1930’s. In the same way that the future Velcro® would replace shoelaces in children’s shoes, the zipper was promoted as a way of helping children to be more independent in dressing themselves. Buttons need manual dexterity!
It’s a myth that in 1937, French fashion designers decided the zipper was absolutely the winner in the “War of the Fly” and incorporated them into men’s trousers and high fashion garments. Up until then, buttons were largely used for men’s flies but zippers were becoming more prevalent.
The fashion war got a huge kick along when Earl Mountbatten persuaded the Prince of Wales to adopt the zip over buttons on his flies.
The story “War of the Fly” was invented by Sundback, having re-labelled his company to match the product name “TALON” and put the story about the war in advertising. They declared themselves the winner!
“Don’t Mention The War” — Basil Fawlty
In 1941, Talon had its biggest sales year ever, but supply problems had such a devastating effect on its ability to manufacture that the company is now a shadow of its former self. In particular, getting copper became almost impossible as the munitions industry geared up for WWII. After the war, they never regained their former market share.
In contrast, YKK in Japan was rebuilt from the ground up after being razed in WWII and became a titan by being prepared to manufacture in multiple countries. Talon tried to stay at home in the US.
To the Moon and back
Despite de Mestral’s hopes, the cheap appearance of early Velcro® counted against it. Nylon was being replaced with more aesthetically pleasing fabrics like polyester and Dacron. Zippers quickly became light and invisible.
Velcro® was too bulky for everyday use in clothing — and its first successful commercial use was for children’s wallets.
The makers of children’s clothing and sports apparel saw possibilities, watching astronauts easily remove their carefully tailored space suits with the Velcro® “zips”. The strength and longevity of Velcro® makes it ideal for tough, repetitive actions.
In spite of this, it was a YKK zip that first made it to the moon. Today, YKK manufacturers half of the zips used in the world and particularly those used in high fashion. Their quality is legendary.
In 1969, the first astronaut to step onto the moon wore a space suit secured with YKK zips. Like Talon, they strongly promote their identity by having their name embedded into the pull tag of the zip.
Like Hoover, Kleenex and Band-Aid, Velcro is a generic product type, but the trademark name is still owned.
So, what exactly is “Velcro”? It is the name of a group of companies and it is a trademark owned by Velcro Industries, but it is not the hook and loop product itself.
When the patent expired in 1978, the word “velcro” had become as universal as Hoover, Kleenex and Band-Aid — where every product of that type receives the generic name — whether it is the original or a low-cost imitation from Taiwan.
These are two of the most unusual uses for Velcro® I know: The two pumping chambers of the Jarvik 7–70 artificial heart (implanted in Canada) are fastened with Velcro®.
A nuclear physicist, Lev Neymotin, devised a “Kippon” with four strips of Velcro® that grab hair but release gently and hold yarmulkes firmly in place, even during basketball games. Lev was highly chuffed to find himself mentioned in my story.
The “Holy Grail”
The “holy grail” is silent Velcro — which would be quickly adopted by the military who see the “rip” sound of releasing the “hooks and loops” as a disadvantage in the field.
On my idle Sunday next week, I might just see what I can do about inventing it.
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