Scotch
tape, whatever brand you use, is one of those things that you’ve used
for everything since you were a young child, from stopping the bleeding
to making the cat freak out. But how did it originate? And why is it
called Scotch tape, anyway?
The particulars are hard
to pin down, but everyone seems to agree that Scotch tape, the
now-famous brand, originated as a slur. Back in the ’20s, Scotch was a
synonym for “cheap.” Richard Drew, a 23-year-old research assistant at
Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing, was trying to create a
sticky-but-not-too-sticky adhesive tape for auto painters to use on
two-tone paint jobs. When he erred on the not-too-sticky side, one of
the car-painters asked, “Why so Scotch with the adhesive?” and a brand
name was born.
But the tape he came up with for making paint on cars was Scotch brand
masking
tape. The clear cellophane tape took some real work, but Richard Drew
developed that also, with the help of the product development team he
was promoted to supervise.
Read the story of how Scotch tape came about at the New York Times.
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