George de Mestral was a Swiss amateur mountaineer. In the summer of 1948, he decided to take his dog for a nature hike. They both returned covered with plant burrs (seed-sacs that cling to animal fur in order to travel to fertile new planting grounds).

An idea was born in Mestral's head as he closely examined how the hooks on the burrs stuck to his soft pants. He decided to invent a two sided fastener, one with stiff hooks like the burrs, and the other with soft loops like the fabric of his pants. He called his invention Velcro, a combination of the words velour and crochet.

As with many new inventions his idea was met with laughter. But soon Mestral was selling over sixty million yards of Velcro per year. Today it is a multi-million dollar industry.

© 2007 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)