Velcro is the trademarked name owned by Velcro USA, prime producer of hook and loop fasteners. Despite strenuous efforts by the company the name has become a generic term for a tenacious type of fastener. Its inventor was a Swiss citizen, George de Mestral, and he named his creation from "vel" for velvet, and "cro" for the French word crochet, meaning "hook."
George de Mestral was born on his family's estate near Lausanne, Switzerland in 1907. He was a bright and inventive boy who paid his way through the Ecole Polytecnique de Lausanne by doing odd jobs. Graduating as an electrical engineer, he was a person who dabbled in widely different fields. In addition to Velcro, he invented a humidity measurement device and an asparagus peeler.
In 1941, he was an artillery officer in the Swiss army, deployed near the borders of France and Austria, and one day, walking in the woods with his dog, he was presented with the idea for his most famous invention. Switzerland was an island of tranquillity in the sea of war that gripped the world, and the young officer greatly enjoyed the clean air and peaceful surroundings. Lessening his pleasure, however, were the irritating burrs that stuck to his socks, his wool jacket, and his dog. The inquisitive de Mestral shrugged off his irritation and examined the burrs under a microscope. He saw how the barbed seed-pods grabbed the fibers of his clothes, and realized that the embrace of the burrs was very strong and efficient. Mentally, he compared this with zippers, which are prone to jam, and realized that he was on to something.
It took him fourteen years to turn realization into reality. Less imaginative individuals laughed at his idea, but with the help of a French textile weaver, and a Swiss loom-maker, he persevered. By trial and error, he discovered that nylon, sewn under infra-red light, formed splendid hooks. After that, it took him eight years to mechanize the process of weaving 300 hooks and loops onto a square inch of fabric, but finally, in 1955 he took out patent number 2,717,437 for the "Hook and Loop Fastener." He made millions from his invention. Currently, varieties of Velcro are made from nylon, stainless steel, and spun silver. Hook and loop fasteners are used in clothing, office equipment, aircraft, sporting equipment, luggage, and cars. Velcro is used in hospitals and nuclear power plants, and it is utilized by NASA and the armed forces.
As usual, even the best of inventions can be subverted with a little ingenuity. There are stories of velcroized shoes sticking to carpets, and Velcro clothing patches grabbing onto underarm hair. One man, with Velcro patch shirt pockets hugged a well-endowed woman in a Lycra-Spandex top, and the union of Lycra and Velcro almost became permanent. For a while they were as inseparable as Siamese twins. When I heard this, I rushed out and bought Velcro patches for all my clothes, but I've had no luck so far..
For such a successful, lucrative and serious invention, Velcro has occasioned a great deal of mirth. The Velcro crop, like the fabled spaghetti harvest of central Italy, is a make-believe story. And yet… Didn't the invention start from an imitation of nature, those burrs that stuck to de Mestral's dog? Perhaps there is a brave band of Velcro farmers out there in California, hot and tired in their Teflon suits, brushing an occasional Velcro boll from their plucked eyebrows, toiling to save the Velcro harvest. They should be recognized with a special technology medal. Meanwhile, I'm going to bury my Velcro patches. Next year I may have a bumper harvest of hooks and loops.
