Whitcomb L. Judson
Inventor
Died when: 63 years 275 days (765 months)Star Sign: Pisces
Whitcomb L.Judson (March 7, 1843 – December 7, 1909) was an American machine salesman, mechanical engineer and inventor.He received thirty patents over a sixteen-year career, fourteen of which were on pneumatic street railway innovations.
Six of his patents had to do with a motor mechanism suspended beneath the rail-car that functioned with compressed air.
He founded the Judson Pneumatic Street Railway.Judson is most noted for his invention of the common zipper.It was originally called a clasp-locker.
The first application was as a fastener for shoes and high boots.The patent said it could be used wherever it was desirable to connect a pair of adjacent flexible parts that could be detached easily.
Possible applications noted were for corsets, gloves, and mail bags.
