The Invention of Velcro
Georges de MestralVelcro was invented by a man named Georges de Mestral, who was a Swiss engineer. He originally got the idea to make velcro in 1941 when he was walking through the woods with his dog and he studied the way that the burs stuck to his dogs fur and thought that something similar to the bur would be useful for daily life. After a long eight years, Mestral finally came out with a product that resembled a bur. He used two different strips of cotton, one with many tiny loops and one with many tiny hooks and named it velcro. The reason that he named it velcro is because he combined the words velvet and crochet. He patented this newly made product in 1955, but soon after he decided to make it out of nylon, instead of cotton because it lasted much longer. Soon after the new nylon product came out, the product started to become popular and was known as the "zipper less zipper."
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The Impact of VelcroVelcro made a huge impact on society right after it was invented and still has a lasting impact today. It was used in 1960 for NASA to secure pens, tools and other items. It was also implemented various ways in hospitals, from holding blood pressure readers to keeping the hospital gowns together. Additionally, many clothing companies used velcro to keep close together starting in 1959. It replaced zippers and buttons for many different types of clothes and it even replaced shoe laces on some shoes like Pumas. Even today, Velcro is used in many ways, which shows just how much the simple innovations in the baby boom era have affected America as a whole and helped make our lives better.
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