Whitcomb L. Judson (March 7, 1843 – December 7, 1909) was an American machine salesman, mechanical engineer and inventor. He received thirty

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A ...

s 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. Judson is most noted for his invention of the common

zipper A zipper, zip, fly, or zip fastener, formerly known as a clasp locker, is a commonly used device for binding together two edges of fabric or other flexible material. Used in clothing (e.g. jackets and jeans), luggage and other bags, camping ...

. 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.

Early life

Judson was born March 7, 1843 in

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. He served in the

Union Army During the American Civil War, the Union Army, also known as the Federal Army and the Northern Army, referring to the United States Army, was the land force that fought to preserve the Union of the collective states. It proved essential to th ...

and enlisted in 1861 at

Oneida, Illinois Oneida is a city in Knox County, Illinois, United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 state ...

in the 42nd Illinois Infantry Regiment according to the Illinois State Archives. Judson attended Knox College in his hometown

Galesburg, Illinois Galesburg is a city in Knox County, Illinois, United States. The city is northwest of Peoria. At the 2010 census, its population was 32,195. It is the county seat of Knox County and the principal city of the Galesburg Micropolitan Statistical ...

. He was found in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1886. In 1886 and 1887 the Minneapolis city directory identified Judson as a "traveling agent" – a traveling salesman working probably for Pitts Agricultural Works. A couple of years later Judson began working for Earle Manufacturing Company with Harry L. Earle as the head of the firm. Judson sold band cutters and grain scales for them along with other items as one of their salesmen.Friedel, p. 5

Career

Street railway

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 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. 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 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.Friedel, pp. 6–10

Zipper

Judson's most noteworthy invention, a chain-lock fastener, was the precursor to the modern

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.Travers, pp. 702–703 His metal zipper fastener device was actually called a "clasp-locker" in his time; the 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 corsets, gloves,

mail bag A mail bag or mailbag is a generic term for a type of bag used for collecting, carrying, categorizing, and classifying different types of postal material, depending on its priority, destination, and method of transport. It is oftentimes used ...

s, and "generally wherever it is desired to detachably connect a pair of adjacent flexible parts."Friedel, p. 16 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. Judson's first slide fastener patent was applied for in November 1891. At the time the

United States Patent Office The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is an agency in the U.S. Department of Commerce that serves as the national patent office and trademark registration authority for the United States. The USPTO's headquarters are in Alex ...

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 improved version for the same item some nine months later before the first was even approved.Friedel, p. 2 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 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. In 1893, Judson exhibited his new invention at the Chicago World's Fair where it had its debut. Judson launched the

Universal Fastener Company The Talon Zipper company was the first zipper manufacturing company. It was founded in 1893 as the Universal Fastener Company, manufacturing hookless fasteners for shoes, but a move to Meadville, Pennsylvania led to it becoming the first manuf ...

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

Elyria, Ohio Elyria ( ) is a city in the Greater Cleveland metropolitan statistical area and the county seat of Lorain County, Ohio, Lorain County, Ohio, United States, located at the forks of the Black River (Ohio), Black River in Northeast Ohio 23 miles sou ...

. It then moved to

Catasauqua, Pennsylvania Catasauqua, referred to colloquially as Catty, is a borough in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. Catasauqua's population was 6,518 at the 2020 census. It is a suburb of Allentown in the Lehigh Valley, which had a population of 861,899 and was the 68th ...

, and then to

Hoboken, New Jersey Hoboken ( ; Unami: ') is a city in Hudson County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the city's population was 60,417. The Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program calculated that the city's population was 58,690 i ...

. The name changed eventually to Automatic Hook and Eye Company.''Ups and Down of the Zipper'', by Thomas V. DiBacco of ''The Washington Post'', Washington, D.C.: March 29, 1982, p. W15 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 unexpectedly like the predecessors. Clothing manufacturers showed little interest in Judson's fastener perhaps because of this reason. An improved version of 1896 came with 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 In 1913, the zipper was improved by the Swedish-American engineer,

Gideon Sundback Gideon Sundback (April 24, 1880 – June 21, 1954) was a Swedish-American electrical engineer, who is most commonly associated with his work in the development of the zipper.

, and also by Catharina Kuhn-Moos 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. In 1918, a

textile Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, different fabric types, etc. At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. However, weaving is not the ...

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 B. F. Goodrich company in 1923 installed these fasteners in their rubber

galoshes Galoshes, also known as dickersons, gumshoes, rubbers, or overshoes, are a type of rubber boot that is slipped over shoes to keep them from getting muddy or wet. In the United States, the word ''galoshes'' may be used interchangeably with boo ...

, 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."

Personal life

Judson married his wife, Annie Martin, in 1874. They had three children: Jane, Gertrude, and Rossland.Leslie, p. 19 Rossland became vice-president of Continental Motor Manufacturing Company that developed the first automobile hydraulic system co-innovated by Judson.

Later life

Judson lived in New York City for the later part of his life. He moved in 1906 to

Muskegon, Michigan Muskegon ( ') is a city in Michigan. It is the county seat of Muskegon County. Muskegon is known for fishing, sailing regattas, pleasure boating, and as a commercial and cruise ship port. It is a popular vacation destination because of the expans ...

. There he died at the age of 63 on December 7, 1909.Friedel, p. 10

Footnotes

References

Sources

*Friedel, Robert, ''Zipper: An Exploration in Novelty'', W. W. Norton & Company, 1996, *Leslie, Sarah et al., ''The World's Greatest Inventors'', Platt & Munk, 1976, *Travers, Bridget ''World of Invention'', Gale Research, 1994,