I
have no idea why today is the day for cellophane tape—but
since someone, at some point, made it so, let's salute cellophane
tape inventor Richard Drew today!
Drew
had earlier invented masking tape to fulfill a particular customer's
needs. In the late 1920s, Drew found out that a customer needed a
waterproof covering for insulation batts. He had heard of someone
covering masking tape with cellophane to make it waterproof and
decided to try to make the tape itself out of cellophane.
Drew
ordered 100 yards of cellophane and set to work on how to apply
adhesive to one side so it could act as a tape. At first the adhesive
wouldn't spread evenly, but he fiddled around until he developed a
primer that would allow an even adhesive layer. Still, the cellophane
split far too easily inside the machines. Drew made adjustments to
the machinery. Finally, in September of 1930, Drew's first roll of
Scotch Cellophane Tape was sent to a customer. And it's been onward
and upward ever since.
Scotch
tape has been used in many weird and wonderful ways. For example,
farmers sometimes use this sort of tape to cover cracks in turkey
eggs—and the turkey hatchlings continue to develop normally and
then hatch. Scotch tape has been use to shield the Goodyear blimp
from corrosion and to repair airplane rudders. It's been used to
attach labels to horses and to pick up broken glass, to repair torn
money and to plug holes in balloons, to remove smudges from walls and
to lift fingerprints from surfaces.
It's
even been used in art!
Here
is a video of an artist “painting” with a variety of tape
products, and here is a photo gallery of amazing tape sculptures!
Also
on this date:
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