We tend to be the most inventive when pressed by circumstances, and Swiss engineer George de Mestral proved that by example when a broken zipper on the dress ruined the evening for George and his wife.
Georges thought about designing a new fastener. While thinking, he strolled in alpine meadows with his dog. And when he came home, he was quite annoyed to find burs stuck in the thick fur of his dog. But here was a revelation: he looked at burs through a microscope and found that they are covered with minute hooks. On May 13 1958, he registered the Velcro trademark which was a portmanteau of “velvet” and “crook.” As it found wide-ranging uses in our lives, the trademark became a general term. Textile fasteners even traveled to the space in the spacesuits of astronauts who landed on the Moon. And in spaceships too – they are used to attach different objects in zero-gravity conditions. Today in the world produce so many Velcro tapes every year that they could be wound twice around the globe.
