How Velcro was Invented

February 3, 2015
George de Mestral, a Swiss inventor, wanted to improve the ordinary zipper. He looked
for a better and easier way to fasten things. Georges thinking was inclusive as he was
always trying to connect all sorts of things with the essence of fastening (e.g., how
do windows fasten, how does a bird fasten its nest to a branch, how do wasps fasten
their hives, how do mountain climbers fasten themselves to the mountain and so on).
One day he took his dog for a nature hike. They both returned covered with burrs, the
plant like seed-sacs that cling to animal fur in order to travel to fertile new planting
grounds.
He made the analogical-metaphorical connection between burrs and zippers when he
examined the small hooks that enabled the seed-bearing burr to cling so viciously to
the tiny loops in the fabric of his pants. The key feature of George de Mestrals thinking
was his conceptual connection between patterns of a burr and patterns of a zipper. He
bounced what I mean is that he had to take chances as to what aspects of a burr
pattern matter, and what doesnt. Perhaps shapes count, but not texturesor vice
versa. Perhaps orientation counts, but not sizesor vice versa. Perhaps curvature or its
lack counts and so on until he got it.
Patterns are fitted together like words in a phrase or sentence. A sentence is not the
sum of its words but depends on their syntactic arrangement; A dog bites a man is
not the same as Dog a man bites. Likewise, an original idea is not the sum of
combined

thoughts

but

depends

on

how

they

are

integrated

together.

De Mestrals thinking inspired him to invent a two-sided fastener (two-sided like a

zipper), one side with stiff hooks like the burrs and the other side with soft loops like
the fabric of his pants. He called his invention Velcro, which is itself a combination of
the word velour and crochet. Velcro is not a burr + a zipper. It is a blend of the two into
an original idea.
Perception and pattern recognition are major components of creative thinking. Russian
scientist, Mikhail Bongard, created a remarkable set of visual pattern recognition
problems where two classes of figures are presented and you are asked to identify the
conceptual difference between them. Try the following patterns and see how you do.
Below is a classic example of a Bongard problem. You have two classes of figures (A
and B). You are asked to discover some abstract connection that links all the various
diagrams in A and that distinguishes them from all the other diagrams in group B.

THOUGHT EXPERIMENT

One has to think the way de Mestral thought when he created Velcro. One must take
chances that certain aspects of a given diagram matter, and others are irrelevant.
Perhaps shapes count, but not sizes or vice versa. Perhaps orientations count, but
not sizes or vice versa. Perhaps curvature or its lack counts, but not location inside
the box or vice versa. Perhaps numbers of objects but not their types matter or
vice versa. Which types of features will wind up mattering and which are mere
distracters. As you try to solve the problem you will find the essence of your mental
activity is a complex interweaving of acts of abstraction and comparison, all of which
involve guesswork rather than certainty. By guesswork I mean that one has to take a
chance that certain aspects matter and others do not.
Logic dictates that the essence of perception is the activity of dividing a complex scene
into its separate constituent objects and attaching separate labels to the now
separated parts of pre-established categories, such as ovals, Xs and circles as
unrelated exclusive events. Then were taught to think exclusively within a closed
system of hard logic.
In the above patterns, if you were able to discern the distinction between the diagrams,
your perception is what found the distinction, not logic. The distinction is the ovals are
all pointing to the X in the A group, and the ovals area all pointing at the circles in the B
group.
THOUGHT EXPERIMENT

The following thought experiment is an even more difficult problem, because you are
no longer dealing with recognizable shapes such as ovals, Xs, circles or other easily
recognizable structures for which we have clear structures. To solve this, you need to
perceive subjectively and intuitively to make abstract connections, much like Einstein
thought when he thought about the similarities and differences between the patterns of
space and time, and you need to consider the overall context of the problem.
Again, you have two classes of figures (A and B) in the Bongard problem. You are asked
to discover some abstract connection that links all the various diagrams in A and that
distinguishes them from all the other diagrams in group B.
Thought Experiment
Scroll down for the answer.
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ANSWER: The dots in A are on the same side of the neck in the illustration. The dots in
B are on the opposite sides of the neck.
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