depending on the direction of its movement. The friction of the slider
against the teeth causes a characteristic buzzing noise, which is probably
the origin of the name zip(per). The name also may have originated in the
greater speed with which the two sides of a zipper can be joined or
separated, compared to the time needed for fastening or undoing laces
or buttons.
Some zippers have two slides, allowing variation in the opening's size and
position. In most jackets and similar garments, the opening is closed
entirely when one slide is at each end. In most baggages, the opening is
closed entirely when the two slides are next to each other at any point
along the zipper.
Zippers may:
• increase the size of an opening to allow the passage of larger
objects, as in the fly of trousers or in a pocket
• join or separate completely two ends or sides of a single garment,
as in the front of a jacket
• attach or detach completely one separable part of the garment to
or from another, as in the conversion between trousers and shorts
• decorate an item.
A zipper costs very little, but if the zipper fails, the garment may be
unusable until the zipper is repaired or replaced. The problem often lies
with the zipper slider, which may have been bent upwards due to wear.
Repair is easy in this case: just push the slider downwards.
History Of The Zipper
An early device superficially similar to the zipper, "an Automatic,
Continuous Clothing Closure", was patented in the United States by Elias
Howe in 1851; but it was probably never manufactured. Whitcomb L.
Judson patented a "Clasp Locker", for fastening shoes and boots, in
1893, and attempted to market the invention through the Universal
Fastener Company. His designs used hooks and eyes. The true zipper,
and the design used today, is based on interlocking teeth. It was
invented in St. Catharines, Ontario by Gideon Sundback, a Swedish-born
immigrant to Canada who was in 1913 the top designer at Universal
Fastener Company. He made his first "Hookless fastener" in 1913, and
designed the complex machinery needed to manufacture it. The patent
was issued in 1917 as a "separable fastener." The B. F. Goodrich
Company coined the name Zipper in 1923 for the line of rubber
overshoes that it made using the fastener. The name slowly came to be
associated with the fastener itself, and eventually acquired generic status.
Initially the fly zipper was resisted on moral grounds, as it made it too
easy to take off one's pants. This was overcome when the Prince of
Wales adopted the zip fly.
The zipper slowly became popular for children's clothing and men's
trousers in the 1920s and 1930s. In the early 1930s the haute couture
designer Elsa Schiaparelli featured zippers in her avant-garde gowns,
helping it to become acceptable in women's clothing. In 1934, Tadao
Yoshida founded a company called San-S Shokai in downtown Tokyo.
Later, this company would change its name to YKK and become the
world's largest manufacturer of zippers and fastening products.
Today, such leading global companies as YKK, KCC Group, and Tex Corp,
make various types of zippers including "invisible" zippers, metallic
zippers, and plastic zippers.
Recently invented is the Excoffier zipper, which possesses a new shape of
zipper teeth.
Types
• Coil zippers form the bulk of the sales of zippers world-wide—the
classic zipper. The slider runs on two coils on each side. The "teeth" on
this zipper are coils. Two basic types of coils are used. One type uses
coils in spiral form, usually with a cord running inside the coils. The other
type uses coil in ladder form, also called the Ruhrmann type. This second
type is now used only in a few parts of the world, mainly in South Asia.
• Invisible zippers' teeth are behind the tape. The tape's color
matches the garment's, as does the slider, so that, except the slider, the
zipper is "invisible". This kind of a zipper is common in skirts and dresses.
Invisible zippers are usually coil zippers.
• Metallic zippers are the type found in jeans today. The teeth are
not a coil, but are individual pieces of metal moulded into shape and set
on the zipper tape at regular intervals.
• Plastic-moulded zippers are identical to metallic zippers, except
that the teeth are plastic instead of metal. Metal zippers can be painted
to match the surrounding fabric, plastic zippers can be made in any color
of plastic.
• Open-ended zippers use a "box and pin" mechanism to lock the
two sides of the zipper into place, often in jackets. Open-ended zippers
can be of any of the above specified types.
• Closed-ended zippers are closed at both ends; they are often
used in baggage.
[edit] Manufacturing
Japan makes 68% of the world's zippers. A large part of these are
manufactured by YKK. Almost all of the rest are made in southeast Asia.
|
|
