Zip Fasteners

[Matheous]

Who invented the zip - and who modified it as a 'double ended' zip (as in zip from the bottom or the top??)?

[Hippy]

Elias Howe invented it but did not pursue the idea at the time. Some time later Whitcomb Judson worked on a method of manufacture and patented it in 1893, forty yearsw after Howe's original idea. See http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa08 2497.htm for moe illustrated info.