"1950s. The fastener consisted of two components: a lineal fabric strip with tiny hooks that could ""mate"" with another fabric strip with smaller loops, attaching temporarily, until pulled apart. Initially made of cotton, which proved impractical, the fastener was eventually constructed with nylon and polyester. De Mestral gave the name ""Velcro"", a portmanteau of the French words ""velour"" (""velvet"") and ""crochet"" (""hook""), to his invention as well as his company, which continues to manufacture and market the fastening system. Velcro Velcro BVBA is a privately held company that produces fasteners and other products. It is known for being the original"
"George de Mestral George de Mestral (June 19, 1907February 8, 1990) was a Swiss electrical engineer who invented the hook and loop fastener. He was born to Albert de Mestral, a civil engineer, and Marthe de Goumoëns in Colombier, near Lausanne, Switzerland. De Mestral designed a toy airplane at age twelve and patented it. He attended the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne. After graduation in 1930, he worked in the machine shop of an engineering company. He went for a hike and when he came back he discovered that his dog was covered in burs that had attached themselves to"
"the aerospace industry, where it helped astronauts maneuver in and out of bulky space suits. Eventually, skiers noted the similar advantages of a suit that was easier to get in and out of. Scuba and marine gear followed soon after. De Mestral unsuccessfully tried to update his patent; it expired in 1978. George de Mestral George de Mestral (June 19, 1907February 8, 1990) was a Swiss electrical engineer who invented the hook and loop fastener. He was born to Albert de Mestral, a civil engineer, and Marthe de Goumoëns in Colombier, near Lausanne, Switzerland. De Mestral designed a toy airplane"
"sound. The original hook-and-loop fastener was conceived in 1941 by Swiss engineer George de Mestral. The idea came to him one day after returning from a hunting trip with his dog in the Alps. He took a close look at the burs (seeds) of burdock that kept sticking to his clothes and his dog's fur. He examined them under a microscope, and noted their hundreds of ""hooks"" that caught on anything with a loop, such as clothing, animal fur, or hair. He saw the possibility of binding two materials reversibly in a simple fashion if he could figure out how"
"its fur. He then worked on inventing hook and loop fasteners for ten years starting in 1948. In 1955 he successfully patented hook and loop, eventually selling 60 million yards (about 55,000 km) a year through a multimillion-dollar company. George was married three times: to Jeanne Schnyder in 1932, Monique Panchaud de Bottens in 1949, and Helen Mary Dale. On his father's death in 1966, de Mestral inherited the family home at Colombier, château Saint-Saphorin-sur-Morges. De Mestral died in Commugny, Switzerland, where he is buried. The municipality posthumously named an avenue, L'avenue George de Mestral, in his honor. He was"
"inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1999 for inventing hook and loop fasteners. De Mestral first conceptualized hook and loop after returning from a hunting trip with his dog in the Alps in 1941. After removing several of the burdock burrs (seeds) that kept sticking to his clothes and his dog's fur, he became curious as to how it worked. He examined them under a microscope, and noted hundreds of ""hooks"" that caught on anything with a loop, such as clothing, animal fur, or hair. He saw the possibility of binding two materials reversibly in a simple"
"and unfastened many times. On the verge of giving up, a new idea came to him. He bought a pair of shears and trimmed the tops off the loops, thus creating hooks that would match up perfectly with the loops in the pile. Mechanizing the process of weaving the hooks took eight years, and it took another year to create the loom that trimmed the loops after weaving them. In all, it took ten years to create a mechanized process that worked. De Mestral submitted his idea for a patent in Switzerland in 1951, which was granted in 1955. Within"
"that would match up perfectly with the loops. Mechanizing the process of the weave of the hooks took eight years, and it took another year to create the loom that trimmed the loops after weaving them. In all, it took ten years to create a mechanized process that worked. He submitted his idea for patent in Switzerland in 1951 and the patent was granted in 1955. De Mestral expected a high demand immediately. Within a few years, he received patents and subsequently opened shop in Germany, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Canada. In 1957 he"
"fastened to tape.') granted in July 1856. Alison Gernsheim suggests that the unidentified French inventor was probably R. C. Milliet of Besançon, as the July 1856 patent was filed by their British agent, C. Amet. Milliet had already patented a 'tournure de femme' in Paris on 24 April 1856 which was described as comprising 'elastic extensible circles joined together by vertical bands.' Following its introduction, the women's rights advocate Amelia Bloomer felt that her concerns about the hampering nature of multiple petticoats had been resolved, and dropped dress reform as an issue. Diana de Marly, in her biography of the"
"fashion, if he could figure out how to duplicate the hooks and loops. Originally people refused to take him, and the idea, seriously. He took his idea to Lyon, which was then a center of weaving, where he did manage to gain the help of one weaver, who made two cotton strips that worked. However, the cotton wore out quickly, so de Mestral turned to synthetic fibers. He settled on nylon as being the best synthetic after, through trial and error, he eventually discovered that nylon forms hooks that were perfect for the hook side of the fastener when sewn"
"a quarter-century ago."" A Montreal firm, Velek, Ltd., acquired the exclusive right to market the product in North and South America, as well as in Japan, with American Velcro, Inc. of New Hampshire, and Velcro Sales of New York, marketing the ""zipperless zipper"" in the United States. De Mestral obtained patents in many countries right after inventing the fasteners, as he expected an immediate high demand. Partly due to its cosmetic appearance, though, hook-and-loop's integration into the textile industry took time. At the time, the fasteners looked like they had been made from leftover bits of cheap fabric, and thus"
"issued in 1917. Gideon Sundback also created the manufacturing machine for the new device. The ""S-L"" or ""scrapless"" machine took a special Y-shaped wire and cut scoops from it, then punched the scoop dimple and nib, and clamped each scoop on a cloth tape to produce a continuous zipper chain. Within the first year of operation, Sundback's machinery was producing a few hundred feet (around 100 meters) of fastener per day. In March of the same year, Mathieu Burri, a Swiss inventor, improved the design by adding a lock-in system attached to the last teeth, but his version never got"
"allowing the snap to unfasten so the halters were able to be removed. Modern snap fasteners were first patented by German inventor Heribert Bauer in 1885 as the ""Federknopf-Verschluss"", a novelty fastener for men's trousers. Some attribute the invention to Bertel Sanders, of Denmark. These first versions had an S-shaped spring in the ""male"" disc instead of a groove. Australian inventor Myra Juliet Farrell is also credited with inventing a 'stitchless press stud' and the 'stitchless hook and eye.' In America, Jack Weil (1901–2008) put snaps on his iconic Western shirts, which spread the fashion for them. The Prym-company has"
"and is more suitable for automatic insertion and extraction. Pandrol Pandrol UK is a British company that manufactures rail fastenings, which are used to fasten rails to railway sleepers. The Pandrol clip was patented in 1957 by a Norwegian railways engineer, Per Pande Rolfsen. It is now common worldwide. Pandrol has manufacturing plants in 12 countries and 82 markets. Over 240 railway systems in 91 countries adopted its products. The original clip is now called the ""PR-clip"" The Pandrol ""Fastclip"" was introduced in 2000 to overcome some of the limitations of the original E-clip. In particular, the Fastclip is captive"
"be inserted by using a specially designed hole punch to perforate the pages to conform to the discs. Several companies have manufactured or distributed disc-binding systems. These include the Belgian firm Atoma, the now-defunct Israeli brand Flic, Levenger Company (under the brand name Circa) in the US, Clairefontaine (under the brand 'Clairing') in France, Rollabind in the US, Office Depot (TUL), Staples (Arc), and William Hannah in the UK. Andre Tomas and Andre Martin (from whom the Atoma brand name was derived) invented and patented the first disc-binding system. In 1948, they sold their patent to Georges Mottart, who founded"
"wheel, as do the ""X""-class locomotives on the Nilgiri Mountain Railway. The Strub rack system was invented by Emil Strub in 1896. It uses a rolled flat-bottom rail with rack teeth machined into the head approximately 100 mm apart. Safety jaws fitted to the locomotive engage with the underside of the head to prevent derailments and serve as a brake. Strub's U.S. patent, granted in 1898, also includes details of how the rack rail is integrated with the mechanism of a turnout. The best-known use of the Strub system is on the Jungfraubahn in Switzerland. It is the simplest rack"
"to duplicate the hooks and loops. Hook-and-loop is viewed by some like Steven Vogel or Werner Nachtigall as a key example of inspiration from nature or the copying of nature's mechanisms (called bionics or biomimesis). Originally people refused to take De Mestral seriously when he took his idea to Lyon, which was then a center of weaving. He did manage to gain the help of one weaver, who made two cotton strips that worked. However, the cotton wore out quickly, so De Mestral turned to synthetic fibers. He settled on nylon as being the best synthetic, which had several advantages:"
"Pandrol Pandrol UK is a British company that manufactures rail fastenings, which are used to fasten rails to railway sleepers. The Pandrol clip was patented in 1957 by a Norwegian railways engineer, Per Pande Rolfsen. It is now common worldwide. Pandrol has manufacturing plants in 12 countries and 82 markets. Over 240 railway systems in 91 countries adopted its products. The original clip is now called the ""PR-clip"" The Pandrol ""Fastclip"" was introduced in 2000 to overcome some of the limitations of the original E-clip. In particular, the Fastclip is captive to the concrete sleeper to which it is attached"
"and used these to set up in subsequent years the Canadian firm Lightning Fastner Co. in St. Catharines, Ont. Sundback's work with this firm has led to the common misperception that he was Canadian and that the zipper originated in that country. Gideon Sundback increased the number of fastening elements from four per inch (about one every 6.4 mm) to ten or eleven (around every 2.5 mm), introduced 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. The patent for the ""Separable Fastener"" was"
"from Textron. In the German part of Switzerland, Bostitch became a commonly used deonym (pendant to eponym). The verb ""bostitchen"" is a synonym for staple and is even used in official documents. Bostitch Stanley Bostitch, previously and more commonly known as simply Bostitch, is an American company that specializes in the design and manufacture of fastening tools — such as staplers, staple guns, nailers, riveters, and glue guns — and fasteners — such as nails, screws, and staples. Its product range covers home, office, like the pencil sharpener, construction and industrial uses, like the power tool. The company developed a"
"Swiss inventor, became curious about the seeds of the burdock plant that had attached themselves to his clothes and to the dog's fur. Under a microscope, he looked closely at the hook system that the seeds use to hitchhike on passing animals aiding seed dispersal, and he realized that the same approach could be used to join other things together. His work led to the development of the hook and loop fastener, which was initially sold under the Velcro brand name. Serbo-Croatian uses the same word, , for burdock and velcro; Turkish does the same with the name , while"
"previous model). He presented it to the Goodyear Company in 1885. He followed this in 1891 with a straight-needle machine delivered a year later. Around 1895 he developed the Brooklyn-based Dancel Machine Company. Just prior to his death he created a machine which performed all of the aforementioned functions plus stitched the in-sole, all caught with one stroke of the needle. Dancel's solution of various shoe-related stitch-forming problems is the foundation upon which the current Goodyear Welt system is based. He also co-patented machines designed to manufacture barbed-wire fencing, skive, gage and mark leather, create leather buttonholes, rub type, and"
"Metaklett Metaklett (from German ""Metall"", metal + ""Klettband"", Velcro ribbon) is a fastening material made of steel that acts on a similar principle to conventional hook and loop fasteners. It was developed by Reinz-Dichtungs-GmbH, Technische Universität München, Hölzel Stanz- und Feinwerktechnik GmbH & Co. KG and Koenig Verbindungstechnik GmbH. Metaklett is claimed to support shear strength 35 t/m² at temperatures up to 800 °C . It consists of two complementary strips of 0.2 mm thick perforated steel with catcher and holes. A second variant consists of two strips with protruding brushes and hooks. There is also a hybrid variant with"
"and began the development of its own post-tensioning system. The patent of this wire-based system was registered in 1954 and Vorspann System Losinger was created to help develop this activity. The patent was first applied in 1956 for the construction of the Pont des Cygnes bridge in Yverdon, Switzerland. In 1966, VSL launched its strand post-tensioning system. In 1978, VSL's stay cable system was installed for the first time on the Liebrüti bridge in Kaiseraugst, Switzerland. While the company developed internationally from the 1970s, in 1991, VSL joined the Bouygues group following the purchase of Losinger. In 2001, VSL diversified"
"products included tank parts and ammunition components for the Nazi war effort. After the war there was a sharp decline in sales and the company was close to bankruptcy. To make ends meet Martin Hilti signed sub-contracts as diverse as gray cast iron parts for the Swiss textile industry, machining eggcups molds, or lighters and pencil sharpeners . In the late 1940s Martin Hilti found a technology that would allow setting nails into concrete or masonry, and he acquired the original designs and the patents rights of what would later become Hilti's Direct Fastening first tool. Although promising, the technology"
"into production due to conflicting patents. In 1923 during a trip to Europe Sundback sold his European rights to the Swiss Martin Othmar Winterhalter who improved the design by using ribs and grooves instead of Sundback's joints and jaws and started producing with his Riri-company on large scale first in Germany, then in Switzerland. The popular North American term ""zipper"", (UK ""zip"", or occasionally ""zip-fastener""), came from the B. F. Goodrich Company in 1923. The company opted to use Gideon Sundback's fastener on a new type of rubber boots (or galoshes) and referred to it as the zipper, and the"
"one metal and one synthetic fleece ribbon. In the context of the development Dr. Christoph Karl Hein compiled his dissertation ""Systematic analysis to metallic hook-and-loop bondings"". Metaklett Metaklett (from German ""Metall"", metal + ""Klettband"", Velcro ribbon) is a fastening material made of steel that acts on a similar principle to conventional hook and loop fasteners. It was developed by Reinz-Dichtungs-GmbH, Technische Universität München, Hölzel Stanz- und Feinwerktechnik GmbH & Co. KG and Koenig Verbindungstechnik GmbH. Metaklett is claimed to support shear strength 35 t/m² at temperatures up to 800 °C . It consists of two complementary strips of 0.2 mm"
"the Netherlands to name a few. Avdel Avdel is a worldwide operating company producing Blind Fastening Systems and related tools. In 1936 the company was founded by Stanley Thomas Johnson in Godalming, Surrey, United Kingdom. The business, originally called ""Aviation Developments"", manufactured riveting technology, including the newly invented Chobert magazine-fed rivets, primarily to the at that time growing aviation industry. At the time aircraft construction was moving from metal and wood to all-metal structures, such as the Spitfire fighter. This required a new generation of fasteners and tools, which could be installed from one side of the assembly to replace"
"1882 Jacques-Arsène d'Arsonval and Marcel Deprez developed a form with a stationary permanent magnet and a moving coil of wire, suspended by fine wires which provided both an electrical connection to the coil and the restoring torque to return to the zero position. An iron tube between the magnet's pole pieces defined a circular gap through which the coil rotated. This gap produced a consistent, radial magnetic field across the coil, giving a linear response throughout the instrument's range. A mirror attached to the coil deflected a beam of light to indicate the coil position. The concentrated magnetic field and"
"Carmagnole ADS never worked properly and its joints never were entirely waterproof. It is now on display at the French National Navy Museum in Paris. Another design was patented in 1894 by inventors John Buchanan and Alexander Gordon from Melbourne, Australia. The construction was based on a frame of spiral wires covered with waterproof material. The design was improved by Alexander Gordon by attaching the suit to the helmet and other parts and incorporating jointed radius rods in the limbs. This resulted in a flexible suit which could withstand high pressure. The suit was manufactured by British firm Siebe Gorman"
"became especially interested in a prediction made in the late 1970s by Pierre-Gilles de Gennes, about the situation where a polymer molecule is tethered by its end to a surface but no other segments were attracted to the surface, a situation that has become known as a polymer brush. De Gennes predicted that a dense layer of such end-tethered chains would result in the chains stretching out normal to the tethering surface to a high degree, resulting in a surface that is resistant to adhesion and has very low friction. Tirrell conceived and implemented the first experimental system to test"
"the following non-DIN-specified sizes: DIN standards define the following pressure couplings: DIN standards define the following suction couplings: DIN standards define the following fixed couplings (for securing fittings to hoses): DIN standards define the following threaded adapters: DIN standards define the following caps: DIN standards define the following swivel reducers: Guido Storz patented his coupling in Switzerland in 1890, and it soon became a standard for fire hydrants throughout much of Europe — but it took nearly one hundred years before the main larger ""steamer ports"" on fire hydrants started to be converted to the Storz coupling in the United"
"patented a hand-controlled constant flow regulator (not a demand valve), which used a full-face mask (the air escaping from the mask at constant flow). In 1937 and 1942 the French inventor, Georges Commeinhes from Alsace, patented a diving demand valve supplied with air from two gas cylinders through a full-face mask. Commeinhes died in 1944 during the liberation of Strasbourg and his invention was soon forgotten. The Commeinhes demand valve was an adaptation of the Rouquayoul-Denayrouze mechanism, not as compact as was the Cousteau-Gagnan apparatus. It was not until December 1942 that the demand valve was developed to the form"