Otto Fredrik Gideon Sundbäck (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 A zipper (N. America), zip, zip fastener (UK), formerly known as a clasp locker, is a commonly used device for binding together two edges of textile, fabric or other flexible material. Used in clothing (e.g. jackets and jeans), luggage and oth ...

.''Gideon Sundback'' (National Inventors Hall of Fame
)

Background

Otto Fredrik Gideon Sundbäck was born on Sonarp farm in Ödestugu Parish, in

Jönköping County Jönköping County () is a county or '' län'' in southern Sweden. It borders the counties of Halland, Västra Götaland, Östergötland, Kalmar and Kronoberg. The total county population was 356,291 inhabitants in September 2017. The capita ...

Småland Småland () is a historical Provinces of Sweden, province () in southern Sweden. Småland borders Blekinge, Scania, Halland, Västergötland, Östergötland and the island Öland in the Baltic Sea. The name ''Småland'' literally means "small la ...

, Sweden. He was the son of Jonas Otto Magnusson Sundbäck, a prosperous farmer, and his wife Kristina Karolina Klasdotter. After his studies in Sweden, Sundbäck moved to Germany, where he studied at the polytechnic school in

Bingen am Rhein Bingen am Rhein () is a town in the Mainz-Bingen district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. The settlement's original name was Bingium, a Celtic languages, Celtic word that may have meant "hole in the rock", a description of the shoal behind the ...

, graduating in engineering in 1903. In 1905, he emigrated to the United States.

Personal

On June 5, 1909, Sundbäck married (Naomi) Elvira Aronson, daughter of the Swedish-born plant manager Peter Aron Aronson (Aronsson), in

Hoboken, New Jersey Hoboken ( ; ) is a City (New Jersey), city in Hudson County, New Jersey, Hudson County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Hoboken is part of the New York metropolitan area and is the site of Hoboken Terminal, a major transportation hub. As of the ...

Legacy

In 2006, Sundbäck was honored by inclusion in the

National Inventors Hall of Fame The National Inventors Hall of Fame (NIHF) is an American not-for-profit organization, founded in 1973, which recognizes individual engineers and inventors who hold a US patent of significant technology. Besides the Hall of Fame, it also operate ...

for his work on the development of the zipper.''Zipper: An exploration in novelty'' (Robert Friedel, author. W. W. Norton and Company, New York, 1996) On April 24, 2012, the 132nd anniversary of Sundbäck’s birth, Google changed the

Google logo The Google logo appears in numerous settings to identify the search engine company. Google has used several logos over History of Google, its history, with the first logo created by Sergey Brin using GIMP. A revised logo debuted on September 1, ...

on its homepage to a

Google Doodle Google Doodle is a special, temporary alteration of the logo on Google's homepages intended to commemorate holidays, events, achievements, and historical figures. The first Google Doodle honored the 1998 edition of the long-running annual Bu ...

of the

, which when opened revealed the results of a search for ''Gideon Sundbäck''.

1917 patent

Sundbäck's (filed in 1914, issued in 1917):
File:001 Sundback zipper 1917 patent.jpg File:002_Sundback zipper 1917 patent.jpg File:003_Sundback zipper 1917 patent.jpg File:004_Sundback zipper 1917 patent.jpg File:005_Sundback zipper 1917 patent.jpg

References

Other sources

*Petroski, Henry (1992) ''The Evolution of Useful Things'' (Vintage Books) *Friedel, Robert (1996) ''Zipper: An Exploration in Novelty'' (W. W. Norton and Company)

External links

An image of US patent no. 1219881
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sundback, Gideon 1880 births 1954 deaths American electrical engineers People from Jönköping Municipality Swedish emigrants to the United States Swedish electrical engineers 20th-century American inventors Burials at Greendale Cemetery