Velcro is an acronym formed by the union of two French terms: (vel) ours Y (cro) chet. The compound expression can be translated as “Velvet hook”. It is a trademark which refers to a system for hold or close something with two strips that adhere when they are in contact.
Beyond the Mark in question, registered in 1951, today it is known as velcro to method to close and open something with ease, simply by making two strips of different fabrics touch each other or separate.
It is worth mentioning that this system of opening and closure receives different names in our language, depending on the country, as can be seen below: in Argentina, abrojo; in Bolivia, scrash; in Colombia, magic closure; in Cuba, stew, sticker and glue; in Spain, self-adhesive closure; in Guatemala, “Pega Pega”; in Mexico, contactel, mozote, and “hook and loop”; in Nicaragua, apegatinal; in the Dominican Republic, cadillo. In most of these regions, on the other hand, using Velcro is also correct.
For Velcro to work, a strap must have tiny hooks which, when pressed against the other tape, close and engage between the fibers of this second tape. In this way, the grip occurs.
Take the case of a trousers that adjusts through a velcro system. At the waist, you should have two strips glued or sewn to the fabric: one with hooks and the other with tangled fibers. When the person you put on the pants and you want to adjust or close it, you must join the two velcro strips and press so that they join. The moment you want to take off your pants, you just need to separate both strips.
Velcro is currently used in clothing, footwear, handbags, belts, gloves Y wallets, among others products. Its function is always to allow to close or adjust something in a simple way, without the user wasting time: it is enough for them to press and separate the velcro strips for the system to work.
When reviewing the history of velcro, we find a very curious fact: it was not the human being who invented it, starting merely from his imagination, but rather it is an imitation of the properties of the burdock seed, a plant, which has hundreds of protrusions that we could call “hooks”, which adhere naturally to the loops tiny that cover the hair of people and animals or clothing.
In 1941, George de Mestral, an engineer from Switzerland, was in the middle of the field with his dog and paid attention to these particularities for the first time. seeds. Thanks to this arbitrary event, Mestral decided to start working on a system that would replicate the wonderful ability that burdock has to adhere to other surfaces.
His first job was closing hook and loop for clothing, although over the years this system began to be applied in various fields, ranging from the field of medicine to the military, through gardening items. Despite the particularities of each product, it is important to note that the fundamentals of the mechanism are always the same.
Velcro is just one example of how much the nature to solve problems of all kinds in our societies: although human beings tend to think that they are above other species, they depend on many of them for many of the pillars of their organization. Dance, song, pigments, mirrors, flight and food preservation methods, such as refrigeration, are other inventions inspired by nature.
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