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Who invented the zipper?

On August 29, 1893, mechanical engineer Whitcomb Judson of Chicago, Illinois, was awarded a patent for a "clasp-locker." (A patent is a government document that grants an inventor the sole right to manufacture his or her invention for a certain period of time.) This fastener, which consisted of a linear sequence of hook-and-eye locks, was originally used to close high boots. It replaced the long, button-hooked shoelaces of the 1890s.

Judson displayed his invention at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, but it received little attention. Judson and his business partner, Lewis Walker, eventually received an order from the U.S. Postal Service for 20 zippered mail bags. However, the zippers jammed up so badly that the bags were discarded.

In 1913, Gideon Sundback, a Swedish-American engineer, revised Judson's hook-and-eye device and created a smaller, lighter, and more reliable "hookless fastener" with...

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