29 August 25

The story of the zipper begins when Elias Howe, inventor of the sewing machine, received a patent in August 1851 for an "Automatic, Continuous Clothing Closure." It didn't go much further beyond that, though, until 1893 when inventor Whitcomb Judson marketed a "Clasp Locker" device similar to the system described in the 1851 Howe patent, and eventually Whitcomb got credit for being the "inventor of the zipper." My tie looks rather ordinary but it has the special feature of zipping up!