DescriptionBoot or shoe zipper, C-curity brand, made by the Automatic Hook and Eye Company, southwest corner of Adams and Eleventh Streets, Hoboken, circa 1905-1913. Cloth, stamped metal and handworked metal; overall length (including pull ring) 10-1/2" x 15/16" wide. Unused (no stitching marks that would be associated with application to footwear.) This condition suggests it was possibly a salesman's sample. See: Zipper: An Exploration in Novelty. By Robert Friedel. NY & London: W.W. Norton, [1996]. (This work discusses its history, how it was marketed plus many other aspects.) The company name and brand, C-curity, DO NOT appear on the object. The object was not called a zipper in the period that it was made. This object is also not among the first zippers made. IT IS a very early example of the ones made by the men who were inventors and innovators and their Hoboken company associated with developing the methods of manufacture, production and marketing of the first practical zippers. MARKINGS The front of the slider is stamped "Pat." below the ring with dates stamp to the sides of each channel for teeth (chain / hooks). One left side carries date: Aug.19.93 This date is incorrect. It should be August 29, which was the date that two 1893 patents were issued to Whitcomb L. Judson (March 7, 1846 – December 7, 1909) for “Shoe Fastening” U.S.P. 504,037 and “Clasp Locker or Unlocker for Shoes” U.S.P. 504,038 (see notes or reference images for all pages of these patents and others referred to in this record.) Whether this discrepancy in the 1893 The right side of the slider carries the date: Apr.25.05 This is the 1905 date of Judson's last patent related to a zipper, "Separable Fastener" U.S.P. 788,317. The 1905 patent date establishes an early date. A late date is suggested by the Gideon Sundback patent of 1913: SEPARABLE FASTENER. Patented April 29, 1913. U.S.P. 1,060,378. (Application filed April 2, 1908.) (GIDEON SUNDBACK, OF HOBOKEN, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNOR TO AUTOMATIC HOOK AND EYE COMPANY, A CORPORATION OF NEW JERSEY.) The diagram for this patent depicts a slider that corresponds almost exactly to that seen on the object here. Since Judson's 1893 patents would have expired in 1910 (17 years), and they were not superseded by Sundback's 1913 patent (or a patent pending with 1908 file date) marked on it, the date range might be narrowed to 1905-1910. ---- PDF on file including all object views and patents.