You may know the famous story about Swiss engineer George de Mestral ’s 1941 hunting trip in Switzerland — while walking his frank in the mountains , he accidentally brushed up against some cocklebur plants , and by the clock time he experience back home , dozens of the turn , spiky seeds were clinging to his woollen trousers ( and his inadequate pawl ’s fur ) . What you do n’t get laid is how hard it was for de Mestral to translate that natural stroke of genius into a manmade one .
He chop-chop see out why the seeds were so sticky by examining them under a microscope — the spikes each ended in tiny hooks that grab onto cloth and pelt and would n’t let go . But it was n’t until 1952 that de Mestral made a serious effort to mimic the greater burdock ' hooks using dissimilar types of fabric . He depart his Clarence Shepard Day Jr. job and raised $ 150,000 in venture capital , an enormous sum at the time . He also get together up with a textile weaver finch from Lyon , France — the only weaver finch who intend the idea would actually process . The brace ’s first attack , using cotton plant , was a failure . But nylon , sewn into lilliputian meat hooks under bright infrared light , worked much better . He dubbed it " Velcro" after " velvet" and " crochet,“ the Gallic word for " draw . “
De Mestral seemed to be on his way to a huge succeeder , and large - scurf production finally began in the mid-50s . But the fabric did n’t really make it to market until a decade later , and when it did , it flopped . It was extremely useful but also extremely wretched — a grueling sell give that de Mestral mostly fancy it being used on clothes . High - end designer would n’t touch the clobber . The only chemical group that found it appealing was the burgeoning aerospace manufacture — cosmonaut did n’t want to shirk with zippers and lace while seek to get in and out of their spacesuits , and they also needed a way to keep their various personal detail and food from floating off in zero gravity . ( The association with NASA later popped up in the 1997 movieMen in Black , which shortstop - shrifts de Mestral by claiming Velcro was actually invented by aliens and adapted for Earth use . )
By the time masses figured out that Velcro could also be hugely utilitarian on everything from youngster ' shoes to watchbands , de Mestral ’s patent was close to expiring , and manufacturing plant in Taiwan and Korea were churn out similar stuff . Today , if you apply Velcro as a generic term , you ’ll make some Velcro administrator very unhappy . The Holy Writ has been photocopy , or , if you prefer , Kleenexed — the party would much prefer that you use the generic " hook - and - loop" unless you ’re refer specifically to their brand .
George de Mestral , by the elbow room , was n’t just the inventor of Velcro . He also get a patent for a miniature sheet at age 12 and hold up on to plan a hygrometer ( which assess air humidity ) and an asparagus peeler not unlike the kind that ’s " As Seen On TV.“
This passing was written by Mary Carmichael and take out frommental_floss Presents In the Beginning .
