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In 1851 the inventor of the sewing machine, Elias Howe, patented something he called an Automatic, Continuous Clothing Closure. This was in fact the first zipper but for unknown reasons Howe never marketed his device and therefore he was never recognised as the inventor of the zip.
It was not until Whitcomb Judson forty-four years later marketed something called a Clasp Locker - a device similar to the 1851 Howe patent - that the real zipper saw the light of day. And therefore Judson is now name the inventor of the zipper.
However, it was not until Gideon Sundback, an electrical engineer, busied himself at the design table in 1913, that the design of the modern zipper was brought forward and the popular "zipper" name came from the B. F. Goodrich Company, when they decided to use the device on a new type of rubber boots or galoshes. They renamed the device the zipper, the name that lasted. Boots and tobacco pouches with a zippered closure were the two chief uses of the zipper during its early years. It took twenty more years to convince the fashion industry to seriously promote the novel closure on garments.

Learn more about this author, Kristian Andersen.
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