Inventors: George de Mestral

George de Mestral came up with the idea for velcro after walking his dog. He noticed that he and his dog were covered in cockleburrs. He studied them in the microscrope and found that they had a natural hook-like shape that attached to surfaces for adhesion. This lead to the idea of velcro, which has stiff artificial hooks on one surface, and soft loops on the other, which connect to eachother. The name velcro was derived from the french words “velour” and “crochet.” Velcro has become a popular fastener, whose use ranges from clothing to cutting edge industrial uses.

*Pictures from http://waynesword.palomar.edu/images/velcro.jpg and Microsoft Electronic Encarta Encyclopedia Edition 2002

Sources:
Velcro.com. History of Velcro. 13 October 2003. <www.velcro.com/ABOUT/history.html>

BACK