Whitcomb L. Judson Whitcomb L. Judson Whitcomb L. Judson (March 7, 1846 – December 7, 1909) was an American machine salesman, mechanical engineer and inventor. Judson invented the zipper in the 1890s. Judson was born in Chicago, Illinois. According to the 1860 census, he lived in Illinois, and served in the Union army. He enlisted in 1861 at Oneida, Illinois in the Forty-Second Illinois Cavalry. Judson attended Knox College in his hometown Galesburg, Illinois. He was found in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1886. In 1886 and 1887 the Minneapolis city directory identifies Judson as a "traveling agent" — a traveling salesman working probably for
Olivia Judson Olivia Judson Olivia P. Judson (born 1970) is an evolutionary biologist and science writer. Judson is the daughter of science historian Horace Freeland Judson, and was a pupil of W. D. Hamilton. She graduated from Stanford University and gained a Doctor of Philosophy degree from the University of Oxford. Beginning in 1995 Judson worked for two years as a science writer for "The Economist" and she later joined Imperial College London, where she is now an honorary research fellow. In 1997, she wrote an "Economist" article named "Sex Is War!" which was awarded the Glaxo Wellcome Prize by the British