The Sticky Hunting Trip

Year: 1941

The dog uttered a squeal. 

George de Mestral, a Swiss electrical engineer in his mid-thirties gave the dog an unfriendly stare.

“What’s up buddy, haven't you enjoy our hunting trip?” George asked while unbuttoning his gray overcoat.

The dog made another squeak and shook his entire body. 

“You didn’t like the alps, old boy?” George raised his arm to throw the overcoat on the chair. But he stopped abruptly.

“What the hell is this?” George murmured. He was staring at his overcoat. Little brown burdock seeds where clinging everywhere on his overcoat.

He sat next to his dog.

“Oh my goodness!” He gasped, caressing the hairy body of the dog. “They are on you as well. So that’s why you were so anxious old boy”.

George gave the dog a bath. But he couldn’t forget those tiny brown burdock seeds.

He collected a few seeds from the overcoat. “Old boy, ready for some excitement?” George said to his dog.

After a few minutes, the Swiss electrical engineer was examining the brown burdock seeds under a microscope.

“Hmmmm…..interesting….w…wait”.

George had a light bulb moment.

A couple of days later, inside the office of a textile industry.

“No.” The executive nodded his head left to right. “George, you are an electrical engineer, stick to your occupation. You are just wasting your time here”.

 “You are not getting the point, Mr. Executive,” George said softly. “I had examined these burdock seeds under the microscope. These seeds have hundreds of tiny hooks that can stick to almost anything.  They can stick to clothing, hair, fur, on my dog. If…”

 “You are wasting my time”. The executive interrupted.

But George's excitement was on another level. He continued his pitching.

“If these seeds can cling to almost anything, then I’m sure that we can find a material that can be stick together in a similar way.”

“And?” The executive yawned.

“We just need to figure how we can make the hooks and loops on the material. We just need to imitate the property of the seeds. And…”

“Sorry George, I have a meeting to attend, kindly leave”. The Executive said, pointing towards the door.

A disappointed George walked away.

George took his idea to many industrialists. But none of them became interested. For the next few days, his ears became familiar to -

“That’s sound nice, but we don’t have time to do this Mr. George”.

“Are you kidding George”.

“It ain’t work”.

“Sorry George”.

After many rejections, a weaver in Lyon took some interest in George’s experiment.

“Isn’t this fantastic?” The weaver said in excitement. He was holding two strips of cotton cloth. On one strip were tiny hooks and on the other were loops.

 “Let’s do this”. George's eyes gleamed with happiness.

The weaver then placed the hooks of one strip on the loops of the other strip.

“It is working”. George said.

The weaver nodded in agreement.

Kkkkkrrrriiiissshhh, a sound clung in the small room as the weaver pulled the two strips apart.

“It is working”. George said in happiness.

But George’s happiness was short-lived. The cotton cloth wore out quickly. But he didn’t give up. After a series of experiments, he settled on nylon.

“Old boy...” George glanced at the dog and then lifted a piece of nylon from the table. “When nylon is sewn under hot infrared light, it forms hooks.”

  “Just like this old boy”. He picked another piece of nylon, but this was different. It had several tiny hooks on one surface.

“But something is still not in line”. George said while scratching his hand.

And he was right.

George had figured out how to make the hooks, but he had to still make the loops. After several days of hard work, he made the loops. When the nylon was woven in loops and subjected to heat, it was retaining its shape. But-

“This is not good old boy. The loops…how can the loops mate perfectly with the hooks?” George groaned. But the dog wasn’t paying any attention.

“I will give up. I’m tired”. George threw the piece of nylon on the table. His eyes smothered with sorrow. “I give up”.

Then an idea popped up in George’s mind that changed his life.

He took a pair of shears and trimmed the tops of the loops.

“Look, old boy, just look”. George said happily to his dog. “The hooks are mating perfectly with the loops”. The dog waived his tail. 

George has just invented Velcro.

It took another ten years for George to create a perfect Velcro. In 1951, he submitted the idea for patent in Switzerland. The patent was granted in 1955.

Velcro became famous in the early 1960s when it was used by astronauts to move in and out of their heavy suits. Soon the scuba, marines and skiers, realized the significance of the unusual... Kkkkkrrrriiiissshhh...sounding sticky material.

Let's give our thanks to George De Mestral and his dog for taking up that hunting trip in the Alps.

Note: The incident is real, but the scenarios and dialogues are fictional (for entertainment purpose).