Discovery+of+Velcro

Many people think that Velcro was just another discovery, and I was one of those people. But if you actually look into the story of how Velcro was discovered, it is very interesting and random. How the idea of Velcro became, is astonishing to me.
 * Velcro, by Lanie Babak **

Engineer, George De Mestral was the discoverer of Velcro. What interests me the most about Velcro is how he got the idea from a plant, burrs. One afternoon George De Mestral was coming home from a hunting trip, and the burs kept sticking to his pants, and he wondered how they stuck to his pants. He looked at the burrs under a microscope and noticed that the burr had hundreds of hooks on it that stuck to a lot of things; Such as hair, clothing, and animal fur.

George De Mestral came up with an idea. The idea was “binding two materials reversibly in a simple fashion if he could figure out how to duplicate the hooks and loops.” When he took the idea to Lyons (weaving center) they refused to take him and the idea, but one weaver helped him out. His first material that he used was cotton. The cotton worked but it wore out quickly. Then he tried synthetic fiber, and found that nylon was the best synthetic fiber. It took him 10 years before he came up with a process that actually worked.

A number of Velcro brand products were displayed at a fashion show at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel in New York in 1959. They used Velcro for astronaut suits to help them get in and out of them. They also used Velcro for skier suits, scuba suits, and baby clothing. After NASA adopted Velcro, it became more popular. By the mid 1960’s everybody was using Velcro for their designs. George de Mestral was inducted into the national inventor’s hall of fame for his invention.

Science is… Science is everything, and it relates to everything in a way. All the way from shoes to cars. Scientists just dont come up with these great ideas, they alot of times stumble upon them by accident. Like for instance if George De Mestral didnt go on his hunting trip, it makes you want to question would there ever be an invention of velcro?...

Reference: (n.d.). Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velcro