The Man Who Invented Scotch Tape

Post by cpwright » Wed, Dec 31, 2014, 3:12 PM UTC

kamaal wrote: post #2

>>so he bought the machine in parts in a series ... then constructed it himself. When Drew’s boss later found out what Drew he’d been up to, he rewarded him This is more or less impossible in any organization I know of today. There might be a few exceptions, but by and large 'Im going to prove them wrong' strategy will only attract enemies from the political cartels in middle management these days. You will be marked…

Post by rm445 » Wed, Dec 31, 2014, 5:34 PM UTC

RobertKerans wrote: post #10

smcl wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually we usually use the word "sellotape" for the clear "Scotch® Brand Cellulose Tape" they describe in the article, or certainly everyone I know does. The UK English term for "Scotch Tape" would usually be "masking tape" I think. I was also surprised to see they didn't cover why it was called "Scotch" tape in the article as I find it pretty comical even though I'm also Scottish.

Masking tape is the easy-to-remove paper tape you use for decorating, rather than the clear cellophane stuff. I've always known Scotch Tape to refer to Scotch Magic Tape, the slightly opaque, better-quality sellotape, rather than just generic sellotape. More expensive as well, so I always got told to use it carefully & in moderation when I was a kid. It has a little tartan-pattern strip of paper at the end of the rol…

Post by clarkm » Wed, Dec 31, 2014, 6:52 PM UTC

italophil wrote: post #12

arethuza wrote: post #5

As a Scot I was interested as to why it was called Scotch tape: The use of the term Scotch in the name was a pejorative meaning "stingy" in the 1920s and 1930s. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotch_Tape [NB In the UK the equivalent product is sellotape ].

Interesting. I always believed the name came from the 3M CEO at that time, William McKnight, who was of Scottish origin. There were other Scottish inspired product names as well. Today the 3M country club is still called Tartan Park.

Post by lttlrck » Thu, Jan 01, 2015, 2:16 PM UTC

r00fus wrote: post #27

barking wrote: post #14

Sellotape isn't perfected yet 1: the new start point after every dispensing should be easier to get hold of 2: when the tape starts to tear at an angle it can be really difficult to get back to a full width strip I wish the skunkworks would focus on these scourges :-)

Easily done: Perforate on an a regular interval/length - e.g., like paper towel rolls. The perforation would help resolve both issues. I assume we haven't seen exactly this because of the edge cases that it brings up.