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In 1941 the Swiss engineer George de Mestral came home from a walk in the Alps curious about the burrs stuck to his dog. Under a microscope he saw tiny hooks catching in loops of fur, and he spent the next decade turning that idea into Velcro.

Switzerland, 1941

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The story behind the card

The burrs came from burdock, a common wayside plant whose seed heads are covered in tiny hooks that cling to passing animals. De Mestral worked for years with weavers in Lyon to copy the hooks and loops in fabric; nylon, sewn under infrared light, finally worked. He patented the system in the 1950s and named it Velcro, from the French velours (velvet) and crochet (hook). Textile experts at first laughed at it, and it only took off after NASA used it to hold objects in place in weightlessness on the Apollo missions. It is often cited as an early example of biomimicry, the practice of copying designs found in nature.

Türkçe oku
İsviçreli mühendis George de Mestral, 1941'de Alpler'de yürüyüşten döndüğünde köpeğinin tüylerine yapışan dikenleri merak etti. Mikroskopla bakınca dikenlerdeki minik kancaların tüylerdeki ilmeklere takıldığını gördü. Sonraki on yılını bu fikri cırt cırta dönüştürmekle geçirdi.
İsviçre, 1941

Dikenler, yol kenarlarında sık görülen dulavratotundandı. Bu bitkinin tohum başları, geçen hayvanlara tutunan minicik kancalarla kaplıdır. De Mestral, kancaları ve ilmekleri kumaşta taklit etmek için Lyon'daki dokumacılarla yıllarca çalıştı; sonunda kızılötesi ışık altında dikilen naylonla sonuç aldı. Sistemin patentini 1950'lerde aldı ve adını Fransızca velours (kadife) ile crochet (kanca) sözcüklerinden türeterek Velcro koydu. Tekstil uzmanları fikre önce güldü; cırt cırt ancak NASA'nın Apollo görevlerinde ağırlıksız ortamda eşyaları yerinde tutmak için onu kullanmasıyla yaygınlaştı. Doğadaki tasarımları taklit etme yaklaşımı olan biyomimetiğin erken örneklerinden biri olarak sık sık anılır.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Velcro
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