Gideon Sundback
| Gideon Sundbäck | |
|---|---|
Gideon Sundbäck
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| Born |
April 24, 1880 Ödestugu Parish, Jönköping County, Småland, Sweden |
| Died | June 21, 1954 (aged 74) Meadville, Pennsylvania, United States |
| Resting place | Greendale Cemetery |
| Nationality | Swedish-American |
| Occupation | Businessman |
| Known for | invention of the zipper |
| Spouse(s) | Elvira Aronson, married in 1909; |
Gideon Sundbäck (April 24, 1880 – June 21, 1954) was a Swedish-American electrical engineer, who is most commonly associated with his work in the development of the zipper.
Otto Fredrik Gideon Sundbäck was born on Sonarp farm in Ödestugu Parish, in Jönköping County, Småland, Sweden. He was the son of Jonas Otto Magnusson Sundbäck, a prosperous farmer, and his wife Kristina Karolina Klasdotter. After his studies in Sweden, Sundbäck moved to Germany, where he studied at the polytechnic school in Bingen am Rhein. In 1903, Sundbäck took his engineer exam. In 1905, he emigrated to the United States.
In 1905, Gideon Sundbäck started to work at Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 1906, Sundbäck was hired to work for the Universal Fastener Company of Hoboken, New Jersey. Subsequently in 1909, Sundbäck was promoted to the position of head designer at Universal Fastener.
Sundbäck made several advances in the development of the zipper between 1906 and 1914, while working for companies that later evolved into Talon, Inc. He built upon the previous work of other engineers such as Elias Howe, Max Wolff, and Whitcomb L. Judson.
He was responsible for improving the "Judson C-curity Fastener". At that time the company's product was still based on hooks and eyes. Sundbäck developed an improved version of the C-curity, called the "Plako", but it too had a strong tendency to pull apart, and was not any more successful than the previous versions. Sundbäck finally solved the pulling-apart problem in 1913, with his invention of the first version not based on the hook-and-eye principle, the "Hookless Fastener No. 1". He increased the number of fastening elements from four per inch to ten or eleven. His invention had two facing rows of teeth that pulled into a single piece by the slider, and increased the opening for the teeth guided by the slider.
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