Adhesive tape is a backing material coated with an adhesive, used to bind or seal surfaces together. The earliest known adhesive tapes date to between 2500 and 3000 BC in Old Kingdom Egypt, where they were used in medical treatment; the practice is believed to draw on the early observations of Imhotep, the earliest known named physician. Ancient Egyptian practitioners applied tape to draw wound edges together as an alternative to stitching, making adhesive tape one of medicine's earliest wound-closure techniques.
Facts
Patent or First-Use Date SignificanceRichard Drew's cellophane adhesive tape, marketed as Scotch tape, was useful enough during the Great Depression that people used it to mend belongings instead of replacing them, launching 3M's growth into a wide range of new product lines beyond its original sandpaper business. 2 FAQs
Why is the transparent adhesive tape called Scotch tape?
The brand name is credited to a corporate legend in which a painter called 3M's bosses stingy Scotch bosses over a tape with adhesive only on its edges.
The name comes from a company story rather than a documented record. According to Encyclopedia.com, a prototype batch of Richard Drew's tape at 3M received an adhesive coating only along its edges, which was not enough to hold. An irked painter complained to his 3M sales representative about the company's stingy Scotch bosses, and company executives kept the word because they hoped it would suggest an economical product. The source calls this corporate legend, so it should be read as an anecdote. Once 3M saw that the whole strip needed adhesive, it began mass producing masking tape for auto painting and went on to make a transparent cellophane tape.
Connections
In Field
Source Adhesive tape (Wikipedia)
Sources
1. Drew Adhesive Tape Patent US1760820 (Google Patents)
Google Patents / United States Patent Officepatent header, US Patent 1,760,820Quote, patent header, US Patent 1,760,820
R. G. DREW ADHESIVE TAPE May 27, 1930.
2. Richard Gurley Drew (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia contributors, Wikimedia FoundationBiography section
In 1930 he came up with the world's first transparent cellophane adhesive tape (called sellotape in the UK and Scotch tape in the United States).
Biography section, Great Depression sentence
During the Great Depression, people began using Scotch tape to repair items rather than replace them.
View the Source Adhesive tape (Wikipedia)
In Field: Materials Engineering, Introduction
Adhesive tape is one of many varieties of backing materials coated with an adhesive.
In Group: Adhesives and Fastening Products, Lead paragraph
Adhesive tape is one of many varieties of backing materials coated with an adhesive.
View the SourceReader Challenges (0)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.