Gideon Sundbäck, April 24, 1880 – June 21, 1954

Google puts some zip
Into its homepage, recalls
Gideon Sundbäck

Swede moved to U.S.
Universal Fastener
Lured him from GE

Engineer devised
The modern zipper, replaced
Hook and eye design

Dimple-bottomed teeth
With conical projections,
Slider — sounds kinky

Hookless Fastener
Number 1 worked pretty well
Number 2 worked great

Necessity called
Sundback invented machine
To make zippers, too

But B.F. Goodrich
Came up with the name “zipper”
Used it on its boots

Garment makers slow
To adopt, years before it
Was done on the fly

Eventually
Zippers found their opening
Ruled the clothing world

Kids, randy grownups
Still love to play with zippers
So thanks, birthday boy

Could go on all day
But to honor Sundbäck’s work
I’d better zip it