{"id":415952,"date":"2026-04-24T22:59:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T22:59:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/415952\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T22:59:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T22:59:17","slug":"astronaut-explains-profound-existential-pain-after-moon-orbit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/415952\/","title":{"rendered":"Astronaut explains profound existential pain after moon orbit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Between clothing<\/a>, outerwear,<\/a> handbags<\/a>, and cushion covers, most of us have no shortage of zippers in our households<\/a>. They\u2019re so ubiquitous that we probably don\u2019t give them much thought (until one of them stops working properly, of course).<\/p>\n

But zippers are surprisingly fascinating, from their storied history to their truly genius design. Veritasium created a video<\/a> explaining how zippers work, how they were invented, and why so many have the letters \u201cYKK\u201d on them, which you can watch here:<\/p>\n

Host Gregor \u010cavlovi\u0107 starts us off with a remarkable fact: \u201cWe\u2019ve made more zippers than there are stars in the Milky Way.\u201d Wow. But how did we get here?<\/p>\n

It all began with a not-so-great inventor who knew how to sell an idea<\/p>\n

In the late 1800s, American engineer Whitcomb Judson decided that fastening buttons and hooks one by one was entirely too tedious. He came up with a zipper-like device for shoes that would automatically connect hook-and-eye fasteners. He received a patent, but the device didn\u2019t work very well. Still, he didn\u2019t let that minor detail deter him.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 1893 at the Chicago World\u2019s Fair, he presented this fastening device as the next big thing, claiming that in no time at all, this would replace buttons and laces,\u201d says \u010cavlovi\u0107. \u201cAnd not just on shoes, but on all sorts of garments. A few wealthy investors actually believed it. So with their backing, the Universal Fastener Company was born.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"WhitcombWhitcomb Judson\u2019s clasp locker device was a precursor to the modern zipper. Photo credit: Images in the public domain<\/p>\n

But it would take another decade for a usable zipper-like product to come from Judson\u2019s company. They had made an automatic fastener for women\u2019s skirts, but even that was a bust. The device jammed constantly and couldn\u2019t be washed with the garment, meaning it had to be removed before each wash and sewn back in afterward. The company struggled to retain customers and fell into debt.<\/p>\n

How a manager\u2019s \u201cgorgeous\u201d daughter played a major role in the invention of the modern zipper<\/p>\n

In 1906, 25-year-old Swedish engineer Gideon Sundback joined Judson\u2019s floundering company. Sundback may or may not have had a particular affinity for fasteners, but he did have an affinity for Elvira, the \u201cabsolutely drop-dead gorgeous\u201d daughter of one of the company\u2019s managers.<\/p>\n

Sundback took the job to get closer to Elvira, and it worked. They fell in love and married, and in the meantime, Sundback made minor improvements to Judson\u2019s fastener design. Tragically, Elvira fell ill and died soon after giving birth to their daughter. Sundback was devastated.<\/p>\n

To deal with his grief, he threw himself into his work. He eventually tossed Judson\u2019s fastener idea completely and came up with a \u201cseparable fastener\u201d design of his own. Patented in 1914, Sundback\u2019s design is nearly identical to zippers today. <\/p>\n

\"GideonGideon Sundback and his zipper patent. Photo credit: Images in the public domain<\/p>\n

How a zipper (aka \u201cthe hookless hooker\u201d) actually works<\/p>\n

Sundback\u2019s design was fairly simple, but ingenious\u2014so ingenious, in fact, that manufacturing capabilities at the time were no match for it. He also had to design the machinery to produce the zipper.<\/p>\n

(You really have to watch the video<\/a> to see how the machine was designed and how a zipper works. The folks at Veritasium even created a large-scale model to make the mechanism easier to see.)<\/p>\n

Finally, the Universal Fastener Company had created a commercially viable product. They initially called it a \u201chookless hooker,\u201d which, thankfully, lasted only a blip. They ultimately went with a less eyebrow-raising name: the \u201chookless fastener.\u201d<\/p>\n

The word \u201czipper\u201d actually came from B.F. Goodrich Company (yes, the tire company), after it used the fastener in rubber boots it manufactured. It called them Zipper boots, after the \u201czip\u201d sound they made when used. The boots were a hit, and the name stuck\u2014eventually becoming the common term for the hookless fastener.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the deal with \u201cYKK\u201d being on so many zipper pulls?<\/p>\n

If you check the zippers in your home, there\u2019s a good chance you\u2019ll find the letters \u201cYKK\u201d on many of the pull tabs. Why?<\/p>\n

YKK stands for Yoshida K\u014dgy\u014d Kabushikikaisha, the Japanese company that manufactures more zippers than any other in the world\u2014close to 10 billion each year. YKK is the undisputed G.O.A.T. of zippers.<\/p>\n

That story began in 1933 with Tadao Yoshida, a salesman in Japan whose company had gone under. He found a pile of unsold zippers among the company\u2019s leftover inventory, bought them, and started his own zipper business.<\/p>\n

His goal was to make zippers that never failed. That foresight into how frustrating an unreliable zipper is for a consumer proved invaluable. After some setbacks that could have ended his business ambitions, Yoshida became the leading manufacturer of zippers in the world. And he kept on honing the quality and efficiency of the manufacturing process, eventually bringing every part of the process in-house. <\/p>\n

\"RedYKK zippers are seen all over the world. Photo credit: Cornischong\/Wikimedia Commons<\/a><\/p>\n

Yoshida had created a zipper juggernaut. Today, YKK makes over 7,000 types of zippers and dominates the global zipper market.<\/a> It also operates under an endearing philosophy referred to as \u201cThe Cycle of Goodness,\u201d<\/a> which basically boils down to: \u201cNo one prospers without rendering benefit to others.\u201d<\/p>\n

Who knew the basic zipper had such a fascinating history? <\/p>\n

You can follow Veritasium on YouTube<\/a> for more fascinating insights into innovation and ideas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Between clothing, outerwear, handbags, and cushion covers, most of us have no shortage of zippers in our households.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":415953,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[107033,61,60,91,182430,113888,82,247],"class_list":{"0":"post-415952","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-artemis-ii","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-nasa","12":"tag-overview-effect","13":"tag-reid-wiseman","14":"tag-science","15":"tag-space"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=415952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415952\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/415953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=415952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=415952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=415952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}