Hey Google, your fly’s open!

Today’s Google Doodle is a fun interactive celebration of Swedish-American engineer Gideon Sundbäck, best known for his work in the development of the zipper.

In 1906, Sundbäck got a job at the Universal Fastener Company in Hoboken, NJ. The Universal Fastener Company was launched in order to manufacture a new “clasp locker” device that debuted at the Chicago World Fair in 1893.

By 1911, Sundbäck had impressed management as well as married the plant-manager’s daughter – all helping him grab the role of head designer. In 1913, he unveiled what we think of as the modern zipper. He spent the next several years making changes to the design, eventually designing the machine to manufacture his new product as well.

While the zipper didn’t see universal adoption until the 1930s, once it did, well, you know the rest. Can you imagine a world without zippers?

Today’s Google Doodle celebrates his birthday with a classic coil zipper. Sundbäck, who died in 1954, would have turned 132 today.

If you click the Google homepage, the zipper will unzip to your search results automatically. If you click and hold on the slider, you can have a little but of fun.

Other recent Google Doodles include a fabulous Earth Day graphic on Sunday all across the world. Yesterday, Google honored the 30th anniversary of the ZX Spectrum computer as well as St. George’s Day with an awesomely retro Doodle.