Google celebrated GIDEON SUNDBACK, the ZIPPER’s inventor

Google paid a tribute on Thursday to Gideon Sundback, the inventor of the zipper. Google has modified it’s mainpage, by placing a huge interactive zipper between the middle letters. When a user pulled the zipper with the mouse, it opened and the first page of results was displayed.

Gideon Sundback, a Swedish-American electrical engineer, was born on April 24th, 1880, in Smaland (Sweden), to a farmer and his wife. After his studies in Sweden, he moved to Germany, where he studied at the Polytechnic School in Bingen am Rhein. In 1905, he moved to Canada, then to the United States.

In the US, Sundback started work at an electrical company, then was moved to another one and named chief designer. In 1909, he married Elvira Aronson, the daughter of a Swedish immigrant. His wife died two years later, and Sundback started to concentrate only at his work after this incident.

Between 1906 and 1914, Gideon Sundback made several advances in the development of a zipper, building it upon the previous work of other engineers. In 1914, Sundbäck developed a version based on interlocking teeth. The teeth are held so tightly to the cord and tape that there is not enough space to let them pull apart.

Gideon Sundback patented his work in 1917, under the name „Separable Fastener”. The name „zipper” was created in 1923 by B. F. Goodrich, who used the device on their new boots.

Gideon Sundbäck also created the manufacturing machine for the new zipper.

Gideon Sundbäck died of a heart condition in 1954 and was interred at Greendale cemetery in Meadville, Pennsylvania. In 2006, Gideon Sundbäck was honored by inclusion in the National Inventors Hall of Fame for his work on the development of the zipper