Advertisement

If you have an ACS member number, please enter it here so we can link this account to your membership. (optional)

ACS values your privacy. By submitting your information, you are gaining access to C&EN and subscribing to our weekly newsletter. We use the information you provide to make your reading experience better, and we will never sell your data to third party members.

ENJOY UNLIMITED ACCES TO C&EN

Environment

Scotch Tape: An Innovation That Stuck

by Linda R. Raber
October 22, 2007 | A version of this story appeared in Volume 85, Issue 43

HONORED
[+]Enlarge
Credit: 3M
Benham (left) and Palensky unveil the commemorative plaque.
Credit: 3M
Benham (left) and Palensky unveil the commemorative plaque.

One of the most recognized products in the world—Scotch Tape—was invented by Richard G. Drew (1899–1980), a banjo-playing, engineering school dropout who had the good sense to apply for a job at 3M and the good fortune to get it. Last month, several hundred 3M employees and retirees gathered at the company's headquarters, in St. Paul, Minn., for a celebration of the designation of Scotch Tape as an ACS National Historic Chemical Landmark.

For ACS Board Chair Judith L. Benham, who presented the commemorative plaque to Fred J. Palensky, executive vice president of R&D and chief technology officer, and George W. Buckley, chairman, president, and chief executive officer, coming to the award ceremony was a homecoming. Retired after nearly 29 years of service to 3M, Benham told attendees she could have put her car on autopilot. "It still knows how to get here," she said.

Since the ACS Historic Chemical Landmarks program began 15 years ago, more than 50 landmarks have been dedicated. Each shows how chemists have expanded the frontiers of knowledge. The landmarks honor the development of life-saving drugs, like penicillin; advances in industry, like the invention of nylon; and creation of new products, like Scotch Tape.

The history of the invention of Scotch Tape started out with a brash promise. In 1921, Drew, a young lab assistant, was working on making waterproof sandpaper. Taking samples to a nearby auto body shop for testing, he identified a big problem that he believed he could solve—making auto painting easier.

[+]Enlarge
Credit: 3M
Credit: 3M

In the 1920s, two-tone paint jobs were high fashion for cars, and to create this look, auto painters had to mask off a portion of the car while the other part was painted. To do this, the painters glued old newspapers to the body of the cars with library pastes or homemade glue. This created the desired sharp demarcation between the two colors, but removing the glued-on newspaper frequently marred the finish, ruining the paint job and leading Drew to comment that in that auto body shop he heard "the choicest profanity I'd ever known."

Drew promised the auto painters that he could solve this problem. He had neither experience nor know-how, but he was optimistic. He spent two years experimenting with vegetable oils, resins, chicle, linseed oil, and glue glycerine. Finally, he developed a formula that was kept sticky with the addition of glycerine. For backing, he settled on crepe paper. The product he created, Scotch Masking Tape, adhered strongly to the painted surface, yet stripped off easily. It was a smashing success and the first of what are now more than 900 varieties of Scotch Tape.

Drew's second brand, invented in 1929, was first called Cellulose Tape and later renamed Scotch Transparent Tape. This was the innovation that put 3M on the map. Benham explained how this product had a significant positive impact on society, one of the requirements for landmark status.

"Introduced during the Great Depression, Scotch Transparent Tape quickly helped people prolong the life of items they could not afford to replace. The new tape was used to seal opened cans, mend torn pages of books, and fix broken toys," Benham said. "Banks used it to repair torn currency, and farmers used it to seal cracked eggs, for example. The possible uses for Scotch Tape, it seemed, were limited only by consumers' imaginations.

"Put simply, Scotch Tape became popular during the Depression because it answered a profound need: to prolong the usefulness of everyday, commonplace items," she continued. "With little disposable cash to buy new items, Americans had to make broken, torn, and damaged things last. Indeed, Scotch Tape was the perfect seal to bind a broken nation."

As a result of the product's success, 3M was one of the few companies in the world that didn't lay off employees during the Depression. During World War II, almost all of 3M's tape production was diverted to the war effort. Rubber shortages prompted the company to switch from rubber-based adhesives to synthetic acrylate adhesives, which maintained their clarity better and didn't yellow over time.

Drew, who died in 1980, was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame earlier this year. He never forgot how a little bit of sandpaper changed his life. "Would there have been any masking or cellophane tape if it hadn't been for earlier 3M research on adhesive binders for waterproof abrasive paper?" He once mused. "Probably not."

Advertisement

Article:

This article has been sent to the following recipient:

0 /1 FREE ARTICLES LEFT THIS MONTH Remaining
Chemistry matters. Join us to get the news you need.