who invented velcro

The Person Who Invented Velcro Had a Great Idea for Organized Living!

2009-06-27T07:24:00.000-07:00

Who Invented Velcro

The person who invented velcro modelled the fastener on an invention originally designed by Mother Nature.

After a nature walk with his dog the velcro inventor found seed burrs stuck to his dog's fur and even to his own clothing. He set out to discover the basics of this ferocious sticking power and ended that journey with a hook and loop fastener that we now know as velcro.

The original velcro invention was trademarked with the name velcro as a combination of the words velour and crochet.

"Hook and loop" tape is the generic name.

But who cares what the velcro inventor called it? It is a wonderful invention and there are lots of storage ideas for velcro tape and other forms of this handy fastener.

The person who invented velcro just wanted to create a fastener to compete with the zipper, but his invention has so many other uses where a zipper application would be impossible.

Here are a few storage ideas the person who invented velcro would never have thought of!

Keep your vacuum cleaner wands upright and ready to go with sticky back velcro dots They never fall over or fall on your foot!
Keep your skylight wand upright at all times. This one is tucked inside the closet in a space that is usually wasted.
If you are the patriotic type keep your flag safely tucked away in a corner of the closet for the winter. That space is just wasted anyway!

VELCRO USA, INC. - Hook and Loop Tape Roll, Sticky Back, 3/4 inch x30', Black - MFG Part: 91137

VELCRO USA, INC. - Hook and Loop Tape Roll, Sticky Back, 3/4 inch x30', Black - MFG Part: 91137 VELCRO USA, INC. - Hook and Loop Tape Roll, Sticky Back, 3/4 inch x30', Black - MFG Part: 91137

Who Invented Velcro

George de Mestral Inventor of Velcro ® 2 - Who invented velcro

2009-06-27T06:56:00.000-07:00

Who invented Velcro

George de Mestral
Born Jun 19 1907 - Died Feb 8 1990

Velvet Type Fabric and Method of Producing the Same
Velcro
Patent Number(s) 2,717,437

Inducted 1999

In 1955, George de Mestral patented VELCRO® hook and loop fasteners, an efficient way to fasten fabrics and other materials. The idea came to him after observing the way a burr’s barbed hooks clung to clothing. He found the logistics of attaching hundreds of tiny hooks to cloth tape to be a challenge, but eventually his hook and loop fastener was manufactured as VELCRO®, derived from the French words velour (velvet) and crochet (hooks). Although most hook and loop tapes are nylon-based, there are also varieties made from plastic, stainless steel, and silver-impregnated substances for electrical applications.

Invention Impact

VELCRO® fasteners have provided society with a practical and effective tool. Touch fasteners are used in clothing, aircraft, office equipment, and sporting and leisure equipment. They are also used in the automotive and medical industries, nuclear engineering, and NASA’s space program.

Inventor Bio

De Mestral was born in a small village near Lausanne, Switzerland. By working odd jobs, he paid his way through the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, where he graduated as an electrical engineer. He began his own company to manufacture VELCRO® fasteners, and later sold it and all patent rights. Today, the Velcro companies continue to manufacture touch fasteners and other products.

Who invented Velcro

Fascinating facts about the invention of Velcro by George de Mestral in 1948. (who invented velcro)

2009-06-27T06:51:00.000-07:00

Who invented Velcro

For thousands of years, man has walked through fields of weeds and arrived home with burrs stuck to his clothing. It’s amazing no one took advantage of the problem until 1948. George de Mestral, a Swiss engineer, returned from a walk one day in 1948 and found some cockleburs clinging to his cloth jacket. When de Mestral loosened them, he examined one under his microscope. The principle was simple. The cocklebur is a maze of thin strands with burrs (or hooks) on the ends that cling to fabrics or animal fur. By the accident of the cockleburs sticking to his jacket, George de Mestral recognized the potential for a practical new fastener. It took eight years to experiment, develop, and perfect the invention, which consists of two strips of nylon fabric. One strip contains thousands of small hooks. The other strip contains small loops. When the two strips are pressed together, they form a strong bond. VELCRO, the name de Mestral gave his product, is the brand most people in the United States know. It is strong, easily separated, lightweight, durable, and washable, comes in a variety of colors, and won’t jam.

Who invented Velcro

George de Mestral Inventor of Velcro ® (who invented velcro)

2009-06-27T06:40:00.000-07:00

Who invented Velcro

Velcro®

It may be difficult to imagine a world without Velcro®, but the fastening mechanism did not exist before George de Mestral created it in 1955.

Born in Switzerland on June 19, 1907, de Mestral earned an electrical engineering degree from the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne. The idea for Velcro® came to him when he was doing one of the things he loved most: hiking. He and his dog passed through a patch of brush and were quickly covered with burrs which clung firmly to fur and clothing. When he returned home, de Mestral pulled one of the burrs off his trousers and took it to his microscope. He saw that the burr had tiny hooks all over it that were able to hold tightly to the fabric loops in his clothing or strands of hair in animal fur. This was nature’s way of ensuring that the seeds inside the burr would be spread far and wide for increased chance of successful planting.

This design intrigued de Mestral, who thought, why not create a fastening system employing these same ideas? He decided to experiment with his idea of using two sides, one with lots of small hooks and the other with lots of tiny loops. At first his loops and hooks were not sized correctly and did not cling as ferociously as he wanted them to. He began working with a weaver in France who helped him design tough hooks and soft loops that produced the desired effect. They also found that nylon, not cotton, was the best material for the hooks. The design was perfected in 1955.

That year, de Mestral patented his locking tape calling it Velcro®, a combination of the words “velour” and “crochet” (French for “velvet” and “hooks”). He established Velcro Industries and was soon selling more than sixty million yards per year.

Later de Mestral sold his rights to Velcro®. He died on February 8, 1990. Velcro® has since become a practical, effective, and ubiquitous material, used in an endless list of products and applications including clothing, shoes, sports equipment, luggage, wallets, toys, and home furnishings. It has even been used in heart surgery and by NASA to keep objects “tied down” during space shuttle missions. Today it is made from a variety of materials as well, including steel and plastic.

Who invented Velcro

Who Invented Velcro Facts

2009-06-27T06:38:00.001-07:00

Who Invented Velcro Facts:

Velcro was invented also in replacement of zippers
- Danny

George de Mestral named Velcro after the words Velvet and crochet, which means hook.
- Tim

The process to invent velcro took over 10 years from start to patent.
- Lynn

The idea of Velcro was developed by a Swiss Engineer named Georges de Mestral in 1948. While hiking with his dog he realized that burrs and fabric formed a superior bond. With the help of a textile company velcro was completed and patented in 1955.
- Belinda

Mestral, the man who invented velcro was born in Switzerland on June 19, 1907.
- Simpson

Who Invented Velcro Facts

APS News story about inventor of Velcro (who invented velcro)

2009-06-27T06:20:00.000-07:00

Who invented Velcro

Sardonic talk show host David Letterman delighted millions across the
country when he attached himself to a wall of Velcro as part of his late
night antics, inspired by a quirky barroom pastime of tossing midgets onto
similarly constructed walls. Today, Velcro is everywhere, rivaling the
zipper in its ingenuity and the extent to which it has permeated our daily
lives. But it wasn't your Uncle Milton (or Frank, or Harold, or any number
of distant relatives that seek to lay claim to its origins) that invented
this unique little gadget. It was a Swiss engineer named George de Mestral.

Born in June 1907 in Lausanne, Switzerland to working class parents, as a
young boy de Mestral was fond of both the great outdoors and coming up with
new inventions. In fact, at the age of 12, he designed a toy airplane and
received his very first patent for it. By working odd jobs, he paid for his
studies at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, focusing on
engineering. After finishing school he took a job in the machine shop of a
Swiss engineering company, which still left him sufficient leisure time to
pursue his first love of inventing.

In 1948, de Mestral took a two week holiday from work to go game bird
hunting. While out with his Irish pointer in the Jura Mountains, he was
plagued by cockleburs, which stuck relentlessly both to his hunting pants,
and to his dog's fur. It was so difficult to disentangle the tenacious seed
pods that de Mestral was intrigued, and examined them under a microscope. He
noticed that the exterior of each burr was covered with hundreds of tiny
hooks that "grabbed" into loops of thread or fur. Inspired by Nature's
ingenuity, he conceived of a similar man-made fastener based on the design.

He conferred with numerous fabric and cloth experts in Lyon, France-then the
worldwide center for the weaving industry -but most were skeptical that the
idea would work. In his early attempts, the loops were too big for the
hooks, or vice versa. But one weaver shared de Mestral's love of invention
and, working on a small loom by hand, managed to weave two cotton tapes
that, when pressed together, fastened just as strongly as the burrs did.
Eventually de Mestral discovered that nylon, when sewn under infrared light,
formed nearly indestructible hooks, and this eventually replaced cotton as
the primary material.

De Mestral called his invention Velcro, from the French words VELours
(meaning "velvet") and CROchet (meaning "hook") and applied for a patent
with the Swiss government, which was granted in 1955; he received subsequent
patents in Germany, Great Britain, Sweden, Italy, Holland, Belgium, France,
Canada and the US. The trademark name Velcro was officially registered on
May 13, 1958. By then, de Mestral had quit his job with the engineering firm
and obtained a $150,000 loan to perfect the concept. He established his own
company, Velcro S.A., in Switzerland to manufacture his new hook and loop
fasteners, which contained 300 hooks and loops per square inch.

Since mass production proved problematic with existing manufacturing
technology, de Mestral designed a special machine to duplicate the hooks and
loops. By the end of the 1950s, textile shuttle looms were able to mass
produce the product. Introduced in 1960, Velcro was not an immediate
success, but it was adopted by the aerospace industry as an aid to getting
in and out of bulky space suits. But then manufacturers of children's
clothing and sports apparel realized the possibilities, and soon the company
was selling over 60 million yards of Velcro per year, making de Mestral a
multimillionaire. He died on February 9,1990, and was inducted into the
National Inventor's Hall of Fame in 1999.

From a purely scientific standpoint, Velcro belongs to a class of materials
called polymers, which contain many chemically bonded units which are
themselves bonded together to form a solid. Traditionally made of out of
nylon, Velcro can be made out of other materials as well, such as plastic,
stainless steel and silver, which provide unique properties, such as flame
retardance and the ability to withstand higher temperatures. Today, Velcro
is used in sneakers, backpacks, jackets, wallets, watchbands, blood pressure
cuffs, and toys like child safe dart boards. It even helped hold a human
heart together during the first artificial heart surgery.

But Velcro is more than just a convenient fastener for consumer goods. It is
also an excellent example of the emerging field of biomimicry, which studies
models and concepts found in Nature, and uses them as inspiration for new
designs and processes to solve very human problems. Sonar is another
example: the technology was inspired by the way whales and dolphins navigate
in water, and how bats employ echolocation by emitting high pitched sounds
to navigate in the dark. Some scientists are studying spider silk, which is
ten times stronger than steel would be at that thickness, in hopes of
imitating those properties. The ultimate goal of biomimicry is to create
products, processes and policies that are well adapted to life on Earth in
the long term.

Who invented Velcro

Who Invented Velcro? Version One

2009-06-27T05:41:00.000-07:00

Who Invented Velcro

Velcro was invented in the 1940's by a Swiss electrical engineer named George de Mestral who got the idea after a walk in the woods with his dog. Arriving home, he discovered hundreds of cockleburs stuck to his clothes and his dog's fur. Being an inquisitive man, he examined the burrs under a microscope and noted the stiff hooked spines, perfect for grabbing clothing, hair and fur.

Cockleburs can only reproduce by being carried from one location to the next; however, their hold is so strong that they have become an invasive species around the world due to increased travel. George recognized the unique value of this natural hook and loop fastener system and set out to create a fabric fastener that would mimic it. Thus the idea for Velcro was born!

It took George eight years of trail and error to perfect his invention and in 1952 he quit his job and took out a loan to start his own company and focus exclusively on his Velcro product. In the beginning stages, the loops were too big for the hooks and vice versa. He tried nylon but couldn't cut the nylon and produce useable hooks. George eventually teamed up with a French weaver and learned to perfectly mimic nature's burr-like hooks. Together the men also created a fabric the burrs could grab onto.

Production started in the mid 1950s and while George had great plans for the millions of uses he saw for his invention, the 1960s debut was disappointing. The public disliked the cheap, clumsy appearance and considered the product impractical and too ugly to use for quality clothing. Despite these setbacks, Velcro was embraced by the aerospace industry as the perfect solution for astronauts needing to get in and out of space suits and anchor equipment to the space shuttles.

Gradually the demand and popularity of Velcro has increased and this product is now used in everything. Some examples are sports wear and equipment, children's clothing and shoes, office equipment, medical industries, aircraft, and automotive industries. While the original product is made from nylon, newer varieties made from stainless steel plastic, and silver have been developed.

Fun Facts about Velcro:

• The name comes from the two French words for velvet (velour) and hook (crochet.)
• Voted by scientists as the best invention of the century.
• Used during the 1st artificial heart surgery to hold the heart together.
• David Letterman used it to attach himself to a wall on his show.
• Stuck to the inside of space helmets so astronauts can scratch their itchy faces.

Who Invented Velcro

The Invention of VELCRO ® - George de Mestral who invented velcro

2009-06-27T05:30:00.001-07:00

Who invented Velcro

Microscopic view of VELCRO

By Mary Bellis

One lovely summer day in 1948, a Swiss amateur-mountaineer and inventor decided to take his dog for a nature hike. The man and his faithful companion both returned home covered with burrs, the plant seed-sacs that cling to animal fur in order to travel to fertile new planting grounds. The man neglected his matted dog, and with a burning curiosity ran to his microscope and inspected one of the many burrs stuck to his pants. He saw all the small hooks that enabled the seed-bearing burr to cling so viciously to the tiny loops in the fabric of his pants. George de Mestral raised his head from the microscope and smiled thinking, "I will design a unique, two-sided fastener, one side with stiff hooks like the burrs and the other side with soft loops like the fabric of my pants. I will call my invention 'velcro' a combination of the word velour and crochet. It will rival the zipper in its ability to fasten."

Mestral's idea met with resistance and even laughter, but the inventor 'stuck' by his invention. Together with a weaver from a textile plant in France, Mestal perfected his hook and loop fastener. By trial and error, he realized that nylon when sewn under infrared light, formed tough hooks for the burr side of the fastener. This finished the design, patented in 1955. The inventor formed Velcro Industries to manufacture his invention. Mestral was selling over sixty million yards of Velcro per year. Today it is a multi-million dollar industry.

Not bad for an invention based on Mother Nature.

Who invented Velcro