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 guest bloggers filled in for Judson while she worked on a new book, "Dinosaur Eggs for Breakfast", and she then had been on a "sabbatical" from blogging beginning June 29, 2010. In 2009, she appeared in an episode of PBS's "Nova" called "What Darwin Never Knew" which discussed DNA connections to evolution. Judson has supported a possible future campaign to completely wipe out a species of mosquito which carries dengue fever. 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