Many inventors had a hand in creating this wondrously simple contraption which is now in such common use today. The first patent for a device using an "automatic, continuous clothing closure" was submitted in 1851 by Elias Howe, the creator of the sewing machine. The sewing machine was such a success; however, that Howe did not follow up on his clothing closure patent.

In 1893, Whitcomb L. Judson introduced and marketed a "clasp locker" which was similar to Howe's patent. Judson had originally designed the clasp locker as a way to help a friend who had difficulty tying his shoes due to his bad back. Because Judson marketed his product, he is credited with the invention of the zipper, despite his patent not containing the actual word "zipper."

Judson partnered with several people including Harry Earle, Lewis Walker and a businessman named Colonel Lewis Walker, and opened the Universal Fastener Company to produce his new product. His invention worked as a slide fastener, which was designed to be closed and opened using only one hand, and was mainly used for shoes, pouches, and mailbags. The first versions were clumsy hook-and-eye fasteners and met little success when they were debuted at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893.

In the early 1900s, the company hired a Swedish electrical engineer and scientist by the name of Gideon Sundback. He took Judson's design and revised the fastener model to have metal, interlocking teeth with more fasteners per inch, and two rows of facing teeth with a slider to connect them. Sundback patented this model in 1913 as a 'hookless fastener' and then created another patent in 1917 for a 'separable fastener.' He also created a manufacturing machine to produce his new fastener.

The actual name "zipper" was coined by the B.F. Goodrich Company when they used Sundback's fastener for a line of rubber boots and galoshes. The company named the fastener a "zipper" because it could be closed in one "zip" and the name stuck. While it took several years before the zipper was used in clothing and luggage, the US Army became one of the first customers to use Sundback's fastener for all the gear and clothing the troops used during World War One.

Fun Facts about Zippers:

• YKK initials on a zipper stand for Yoshida Kogyo Kabushibibaisha, which is the biggest zipper manufacturer in the world.

• The Zippo lighter derived its name from the zipper because the inventor liked the way the word "zipper" sounded.

• It took almost 20 years before zippers were used in children's clothing and men's trousers in the 1930s.

Venus Kelly is a sales and marketing professional with ten years experience and a degree in business marketing. She writes and maintains Who Invented - a website dedicated to Who Invented What http://whoinvented.info/.