Copyright © Françoise Herrmann
You are listening to Velcro from Sound of Stereo by the group EP Zipper…
Of course you would never suspect that one side of Velcro(R) is called the hook-side and the other side is called the loop side and that this is a translation of the original components of the word Velcro fusing “velours” and “crochet” in French. Velcro(R) was invented in 1948 by the Swiss electrical engineer, George de Mestral....
This is one of the advantages of being a patent translator; you will never again look at the most mundane objects with the same eye or innocence. In fact you may never look at the world in the same manner… Almost EVERYTHING is a patent! You already know about your Nike or Addidas sports shoes with shock-absorbing sole systems, but how about your wick-away shirts, your warm Synchilla(TM) jacket and your Gortex(TM) windbreaker to prevent you from getting soaked in the rain? What about your toothbrush and its 8,800 rotations and 20,000 pulsations per minute of brushing, giving you a dentist teeth clean every morning, noon and evening, your dental floss, the Zip-lock bag for your sandwhich at lunch, or all the zippers on your pants and dresses, the no-tear shampoo for your baby? If the item is not “patent-pending” it is surely already patented in the US, or elsewhere. Look at labels and you will start to notice that we live in a patented world!
Oh BTW, just in case you are wondering about Velcro(R): the “hook side” is the smooth side, and the fuzzy pile side is the “loop side”. :-)
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