| George de Mestral's Burdock Spurs | |
|---|---|
| |
|
Origin |
George de Mestral |
|
Type |
Spiny Seeds |
|
Effects |
Unnatural adhering strength |
|
Downsides |
Surface texturing |
|
Activation |
Electrostatic Charge |
|
Section |
|
| [Source] | |
Origin[]
George de Mestral (June 19, 1907 – February 8, 1990) noticed on his vacation a bunch of prickly seeds bunched along his linen trousers and dog’s fur. The little buggers were so annoying, he examined them under the microscope to find the source of their adhesion. Turns out, thousands of microscopic hooks latched into anything fibrous or looped. Mestral wanted to recreate it for practical purposes.
One side of a fabric would contain hooks, the other had loops which would form a tight yet removable bond between both pieces. The early cotton tape versions failed to have properly sized mating parts or even durable fabric. But experiments showed nylon stitched using infrared was resistant to the elements and could be created to whatever thickness desired. His last structural hurdle was getting the correct hook shape for detachable cloth. The simplest answer was cut off the tops with a shear to make an open hook that could be separated from the loops. A decade after the idea, Velcro slowly trickled through the clothing industry to worldwide presence.
Effects[]
Whatever it touches sticks to anything else with great ease, sometimes annoyance. Thought to derive from stippling the surfaces into the hook-and-loop system seen in Velcro. Cause permanent change and destroys any smoothness. Often accompanied by a distinctly loud RIP each time pieces are separated.