Sundback was a Swedish-American electrical engineer who will forever be associated with the humble zip.
Before his masterstroke, engineers had dabbled with the idea of a fastener based on interlocking teeth, but it had never transpired.
Sundback’s genius was to place a dimple on the underside of each tooth and a nib on the top that would sit securely within the dimple of the tooth above it.
As a result, the join between two rows of teeth was then strong because no single tooth has enough room to move up or down and come apart. He also created the manufacturing machine for the new zipper.
The inventor was born in April 24, 1880, in Smaland, Sweeden and moved to Germany after his studies.
In 1905 he emigrated to the US where he started to work at Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
A year later he started work at the Universal Fastener Company in Hoboken, New Jersey, becoming its head designer in 1909.
There, he proposed replacing hook and eye fasteners with zippers on women’s boots, but by the 1930 the zip had revolutionised all clothing.
Sundback died of a heart condition in 1954, and is buried in Pennsylvania.
