The Vegas Voice 5-20

Sliced Bread Has Nothing on This Stuff!
By: Adrea Nairne-Barrera / 60s to 60
An expression we all grew up with is “I
haven’t seen anything like this since sliced
bread!” I’m still not sure why that was such an
accomplishment but I imagine it was significant at the time.
But in my opinion, two things completely blow sliced bread out of the
water! How about elastic and zippers?
As body parts relocate and buttons are harder to use when you’re
arthritic, elastic and zippers make life better, adjusting to changes and
always reliable.
Zippers keep everything in order. There are plastic bags with zippers,
pants, mattress covers, tents and millions of things that close neatly
and tightly as needed.
And elastic! The best of the best! It lets you squeeze into things when
your body shouldn’t be wearing it. Spandex fabric, stretchy waists and
pull-on clothes rely on it so we can say we wear a size smaller than we
really do.
So who do we have to thank for all that? It was Thomas Hancock,
an Englishman who founded the British rubber industry in the early
1800s.
He invented the masticator, a machine that shredded rubber scraps
and allows rubber to be recycled after being formed into blocks or
rolled sheets. The process of creating elastic fabrics required a lot of
trial & error until he used heat and pressure to unite the pieces for
some purposes.
And the zipper came from an 1851 patent for an “Automatic
Continuous Clothing Closure” invented by Elias Howe. His invention
acted as more of a drawstring. In 1891, Whitcomb Judson marketed a
“Clasp Locker” that served as more of a hook-and-eye shoe fastener.
Eventually, development led by Gideon Sundback, a Swedish-
American engineer gave us the “Separable Fastener” patented in 1917.
In the 1920s zippers showed up on leather jackets and in the 1930s,
sales campaigns for children’s clothing featured zippers. By 1937,
zippers for men’s trousers were all the rage.
Their stories are far more detailed than I’ve written here, but suffice
it to say, these guys made sliced bread look blah!
Adrea Nairne-Barrera writes of celebrations, observations &
complaints of life in the 60s to being in your 60s.
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