Velcro
Swiss electrical engineer George de Mestral invented his first touch fastener when, in 1941, he went for a walk in the woods and wondered why Burdock seeds clung to his coat and dog. He discovered it could be turned into something useful. He patented it in 1955 and subsequently refined and developed its practical manufacture until its commercial introduction in the late 1950s.
Vollmer (company)
The Vollmer Company was founded in 1946 by Wolfram K. Vollmer (1924–2010) and initially manufactured metal collar buttons. The German currency reform of June 1948 and subsequent economic growth led to a demand for plastic collar buttons and the company introduced plastic injection technology. Vollmer also began to develop plastic model railway accessories and presented a patented catenary system for HO scale model toy trains at the 1949 Nuremberg Toy Fair. By 1954, the company had begun production of HO-scale model houses. In the 1970s Vollmer had a large enterprise that included American models as well as European models.