Velcro 1940s Suggested by Marilyn R., Kanata, ON

Nature is one of the best sources of invention inspiration. Like many things, Velcro is an invention originally designed by Mother Nature. One summer afternoon in 1941, Swiss engineer George de Mestral was hunting in the Jura Mountains with his dog, an active Irish Pointer. When the pair returned home after the hunt, their clothes were coated with prickly burrs (or cockleburs) from stomping through meadows and underbrush. As George picked off the hitchhiking pods from his pants and the dog's tangled fur coat, he was amazed at their toughness. So he placed one under a microscope. He was stunned to see that the exterior of the seedpod was covered with lots of tiny hooks that acted like hundreds of grasping hands. De Mestral thought that this natural design could be copied in a human-made fabric, and the result could even rival the zipper! Eight years later, he quit his job as an engineer, got a loan for $150,000 from the bank, and began experimenting with fabric, trying to recreate the hook design of the common burr. Cotton was the first material that successfully transformed into the hook design, but it was too expensive to mass produce. So de Mestral experimented with other fabrics. He discovered that nylon sewn under infrared light formed almost indestructible hooks- just like the clasping hands of the burrs. And the fabric was cheap to mass produce. All that was left to do was name the material. De Mestral liked the sound of "vel" from velvet and "cro" from the French word "crochet"- which means hook. VelcroÆ became the trademarked name of Velcro USA - it is the name of a company that makes these "hook and loop" or "touch fasteners." But the original design for Velcro can't be claimed by any company - that design belongs to Mother Nature.