Chicago Innovations That Changed the World-- Part 2: The Zipper

18. THE ZIPPER (1893) Another thing not "invented" in Chicago, made its debut, well, the protype did. In 1893, inventor Whitcomb L. Judson revealed his patented "clasp holder" at the Chicago World's Columbian Exposition, now considered to be the proto-zipper. It was originally designed for shoes. //// In Pennsylvania, inventor Fredrik Gideon Sundback added more teeth per inch, ten to be exact. That was 1914 and it was still not called a zipper. It was the "Hookless No. 2." //// B.F. Goodrich popularized the name "zipper" for the sound it made on its rubber boots in the 1920s. //// Flies Would Never be the Same. --Cooter