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by Judson and Earle was one of the promoters. It even had a demonstration line in 1890 in
Washington, D.C., for about a mile that was at what is today Georgia Avenue. It ran for only a few weeks before the company shut it down due to technical problems. A cable streetcar firm bought them out and turned it into an electric streetcar since Judson's system was impractical.
263:
name "zipper" was not actually coined or used until many years after his death. The "clasp locker" was a complicated hook-and-eye fastener with an arrangement of hooks and eyes run by a "guide" for closing and opening a clothing item. The first application was as a shoe fastener, and there is mention in the patents for possible applications for
184:. It was originally called a clasp-locker. The first application was as a fastener for shoes and high boots. The patent said it could be used wherever it was desirable to connect a pair of adjacent flexible parts that could be detached easily. Possible applications noted were for corsets, gloves, and mail bags.
286:
The patent was approved in May 1893 after the last amendment was filed with an improved version. When the two patents were finally issued on August 29 (along with 378 others that day), they received the numbers U.S.P. 504,038 (first) and U.S.P. 504,037 (second). These patents describe several designs
336:
From the foregoing statements it must be obvious that a shoe equipped with my device has all the advantages peculiar to a lace-shoe, while at the same time it is free from the annoyances hitherto incidental to lace-shoes on account of the lacing and unlacing required every time the shoes were put on
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Judson's "clasp-locker" met with little commercial success at first. He ultimately never saw much success in the "clasp-locker" as a fashion item during his lifetime. Judson made a "C-curity" clasp-locker fastener in 1905 which was an improved version of his previous patents. It tended to break open
249:
Similar systems were tried throughout the nineteenth century, however, they all failed because of sealing problems. Judson's similar inventions were also impractical and as a whole not very successful. The street railway concept ultimately went electric. Judson
Pneumatic Street Railway was initiated
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or taken off the feet and on account of the lacing-strings coming untied. With my device, the lacing-strings may be adjusted from time to time to take up the slack in the shoes, and the shoes may be fastened or loosened more quickly than any other form of shoe hitherto devised, so far as I am aware.
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a cam-action slider which is somewhat similar to the locker and unlocker shown in my prior patents, but which in this combination operates with a somewhat different action involving an automatic movement of the slider backward in the uncoupling action of the chains, and which slider is in this case
262:
which he developed and invented in 1891. Judson is generally recognized as the inventor of the zipper. He also invented a "clasp-locker" automation production machine that made his fastener device inexpensively. His metal zipper fastener device was actually called a "clasp-locker" in his time; the
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didn't require a working model of a patent, only that the invention was to be a novel idea. However, his invention was almost rejected by the patent assistant examiner Thomas Hart
Anderson because there were several types of shoe fasteners already patented. He applied for a second patent on an
245:
Judson began his efforts of making inventions around 1888 to 1889. His concentration was on inventions for a "pneumatic street railway". His first patented invention was for a "mechanical movement" related to that. In 1889, Judson obtained six patents related to his concept of a street railway
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of the "clasp-locker". Later design patents of the fastener describe opposite elements on each side that are identical to each other and fit together by the engaging of "pintles" and "sockets." In his patent U.S.P. 557,207 of 1896 is a description mostly like the zipper of today.
349:
of Europe. Sundback successfully redesigned Judson's fastener into a more streamlined and reliable form called "Talon." Automatic Hook and Eye
Company then changed its name to the Hookless Fastener Company. In 1937 the Hookless Fastener Company became Talon, Inc.
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over a sixteen-year career, fourteen of which were on pneumatic street railway innovations. Six of his patents had to do with a motor mechanism suspended beneath the rail-car that functioned with compressed air. He founded the Judson
Pneumatic Street Railway.
374:
Judson married his wife, Annie Martin, in 1874. They had three children: Jane, Gertrude, and
Rossland. Rossland became vice-president of Continental Motor Manufacturing Company, which developed the first automobile hydraulic system co-innovated by Judson.
275:, and "generally wherever it is desired to detachably connect a pair of adjacent flexible parts." It is also said one of the reasons he invented this device was to relieve the tedium of fastening high button boots that were fashionable in those days.
246:
running on compressed air. The concept was similar to the cable railway system but with pistons suspended beneath the rail-car. Judson received a total of 14 patents related to this type of railway system out of the 30 patents he had.
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company manufactured flying suits for the United States Navy with this fastener. Judson's company received an order for thousands of their "clasp-locker" fasteners. Soon thereafter they appeared on gloves and tobacco pouches. The
291:... each link of each chain is provided both with a male and female coupling part, and when the chains are coupled together the female part of each link on one chain is engaged by the male part of a link on the other chain.
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Judson made his invention to save people the trouble of buttoning and unbuttoning their shoes every day as shows in his wording in the patent application. He describes this in his patent U.S.P. 557,207
427:
366:, calling the new design "Zippers." This then became the name of the fastener itself. The design of the fastener today is much like Sundback's improvement of Judson's "clasp-locker."
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to manufacture his new invention, together with Harry L. Earle and Lewis Walker. The
Universal Fastener Company started out in Chicago and then moved to
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unexpectedly like the predecessors. Clothing manufacturers showed little interest in Judson's fastener perhaps because of this reason.
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working probably for Pitts
Agricultural Works. A couple of years later Judson began working for Earle Manufacturing Company with
172:(March 7, 1843 – December 7, 1909) was an American machine salesman, mechanical engineer and inventor. He received thirty
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220:, in 1886. In 1886 and 1887 the Minneapolis city directory identified Judson as a "traveling agent" – a
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Travers, p. 702 "The zipper was invented by
Whitcomb L. Judson, a Chicago, Illinois, mechanical engineer."
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improved version for the same item some nine months later before the first was even approved.
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387:. There he died at the age of 63 on December 7, 1909. The cause of death was stomach cancer.
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Judson's most noteworthy invention, a chain-lock fastener, was the precursor to the modern
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Judson's first slide fastener patent was applied for in
November 1891. At the time the
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Judson lived in New York City for the later part of his life. He moved in 1906 to
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In 1913, the zipper was improved by the Swedish-American engineer,
674:. Van Nuys, California. December 29, 1972. p. 21 – via
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315:. The name changed eventually to Automatic Hook and Eye Company.
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768:
The Gay Nineties in America: A Cultural Dictionary of the 1890s
486:. Elmira, New York. September 15, 1955. p. 17 – via
645:. Howell, Michigan. December 15, 1909. p. 1 – via
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company in 1923 installed these fasteners in their rubber
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for them along with other items as one of their salesmen.
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according to the Illinois State Archives. Judson attended
567:. Honolulu, Hawaii. May 18, 1949. p. 13 – via
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as the head of the firm. Judson sold band cutters and
295:In 1893, Judson exhibited his new invention at the
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668:"Woman Financial Wizard Takes Management Position"
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165:Judson's improved 'clasp-locker' fastener, 1893
180:Judson is most noted for his invention of the
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157:Judson's original 'clasp locker' patent, 1893
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831:People of Illinois in the American Civil War
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299:where it had its debut. Judson launched the
327:designed to remain permanently on the shoe.
704:Death certificate, State of Michigan, 1909
598:, Washington, D.C.: March 29, 1982, p. W15
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811:American people in rail transportation
322:An improved version of 1896 came with
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405:(the Forty-second Illinois Calvary)
192:Judson was born March 7, 1843, in
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719:Zipper: An Exploration in Novelty
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826:People from Galesburg, Illinois
801:19th-century American inventors
206:42nd Illinois Infantry Regiment
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821:Knox College (Illinois) alumni
733:The World's Greatest Inventors
1:
816:American mechanical engineers
643:Livingston County Daily Press
16:American inventor (1843–1909)
105:Salesman, engineer, inventor
280:United States Patent Office
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770:, Greenwood Press (1992),
735:, Platt & Munk, 1976,
594:, by Thomas V. DiBacco of
592:Ups and Down of the Zipper
523:Travers, pp. 702–703
301:Universal Fastener Company
480:"First Zipper Man's Idea"
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309:Catasauqua, Pennsylvania
200:and enlisted in 1861 at
836:Engineers from Illinois
749:, Gale Research, 1994,
469:Friedel, pp. 6–10
403:Historian Friedel says
731:Leslie, Sarah et al.,
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218:Minneapolis, Minnesota
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565:The Honolulu Adviser
297:Chicago World's Fair
806:People from Chicago
596:The Washington Post
347:Catharina Kuhn-Moos
313:Hoboken, New Jersey
307:. It then moved to
214:Galesburg, Illinois
196:. He served in the
747:World of Invention
541:Friedel, p. 2
385:Muskegon, Michigan
222:traveling salesman
216:. He was found in
170:Whitcomb L. Judson
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23:Whitcomb L. Judson
766:Gale, Robert L.,
745:Travers, Bridget
717:Friedel, Robert,
484:Elmira Advertiser
428:"Whitcomb Judson"
194:Chicago, Illinois
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561:"Back in 1893"
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305:Elyria, Ohio
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230:grain scales
210:Knox College
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182:zip fastener
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126:Annie Martin
113:Inventor of
72:(1909-12-07)
796:1909 deaths
791:1843 births
672:Valley News
353:In 1918, a
94:Nationality
785:Categories
433:2020-05-23
414:References
379:Later life
198:Union Army
188:Early life
44:1843-03-07
391:Footnotes
273:mail bags
204:, in the
364:galoshes
144:Children
97:American
87:Michigan
83:Muskegon
56:Illinois
712:Sources
355:textile
265:corsets
174:patents
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130:
52:Chicago
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269:gloves
260:zipper
254:Zipper
236:Career
121:Spouse
115:zipper
89:, U.S.
132:(
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772:ISBN
751:ISBN
737:ISBN
723:ISBN
67:Died
60:U.S.
38:Born
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Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
