The
Invention of VELCRO ® - George de Mestral
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.
Velcro and Trademarks
Today you cannot buy velcro because
VELCRO is the registered trademark for the Velcro Industries' product.
You can purchase all of the VELCRO brand hook and loop fasteners you need.
This illustrates a problem inventors often face. Names can become generic
terms. Many words used frequently in everyday language were once trademarks,
for example: escalator, thermos, cellophane and nylon. All were once trademarked
names and only the trademark owners could use the name with a product.
When names become generic terms, the U.S. Courts can deny exclusive rights
to the trademark
artwork mary bellis
