In honor of what would have been the 132nd birthday of Gideon Sundback, the Swedish-American engineer commonly associated with developing the zipper, Google is celebrating with a new doodle. The search engine replaced its official logo on its homepage with an interactive doodle; a zipper runs down the logo, which appears as sewn-on stitching. When users click on the doodle, the zipper opens, and information about Sundback is loaded.
Sundback came up with the idea to put a dimple on the underside of each tooth on a zipper. He put a nib on the top that would sit securely within the tooth above it. As a result, the two rows of teeth were strong enough to stay together, but no one tooth could move apart on its own. Before his invention, the idea for a fastener had circulated for more than 20 years among engineers, but no one had perfected it.
Sundback, who also created the manufacturing machine for his new zipper, was born on April 24, 1880 in Smaland, Sweden. He moved to Germany after he finished his studies, and migrated to the U.S. in 1905. He started working at Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company in Pittsburgh.
A year later, Sundback was hired to work for the Universal Fatener Company in Hoboken, New Jersey. He became the head designer in 1909. He died in 1954 of a heart condition.
Written by: Karen Benardello
