Google is honoring the inventor of the modern zipper today with — what else? — a zipper running down the middle of its homepage. You can drag it up and down. When it finishes opening, it reveals a selection of links about the zipper and its inventor, Swedish-American Gideon Sundback. He was born 132 years ago today.
And as The Guardian reports:
"Before Sundback's intervention, the idea for a fastener based on interlocking teeth had circulated among engineers for more than 20 years but no one had perfected it. His innovation was to place a dimple on the underside of each tooth and a nib on the top that would sit securely within the dimple of the tooth above it.
"As a result, the join between two rows of teeth was then strong because no single tooth has enough room to move up or down and come apart. He also created the manufacturing machine for the new zipper."
This is an amazing fun piece that really engage me with the web. A very creative way of educate people the history visually with interaction. Very smart!
I would like to know your first impression when you see this video~!
Apparently I have set a background image to my Google home page so I can't access this. I love what Google does - rather than being a static, boring page, they create interest by spotlighting some person or historical event with very clever and creati ve ways. Who knew a search engine could be that entertaining!
ReplyDeleteI love the google animations. It is a very memorable way to involve play in a site, too. I don't see much of animation on everyday websites, do you? Do you wish there was more?
ReplyDelete