Adhesive Tape

Hello. I’m Adhesive Tape, but you can just call me Tape. You’ve probably seen me in your classroom or in a drawer at home. I have a very important job: I love to stick things together. If you have a ripped page in your favorite book, I can fix it. If you draw a beautiful picture and want to hang it on the wall, I am the perfect helper. My favorite thing is to hold things in place, making sure they are safe and sound. But I wasn't always the clear, helpful friend you know today. My story started a long time ago with a very colorful problem. It all began in a busy shop filled with shiny, new cars that needed perfectly straight lines of paint. They needed a tape that could help them, but the ones they had were just too strong and were making a big mess.

Let’s travel back in time to the year 1925. A very clever man named Richard Drew worked for a company that made sandpaper. One day, he visited a shop where workers were painting cars. In those days, cars with two different colors were very popular. To make a straight line between the colors, the painters used a very strong tape. But here was the big problem. When they peeled the tape off, it would pull the fresh paint right off with it. Oh, what a mess. The painters were so frustrated. Richard saw their struggle and thought, “There has to be a better way.”. He knew he needed to make a tape that was sticky enough to stay on but gentle enough to come off without hurting the paint. He went back to his lab and started experimenting. He tried different kinds of paper and different kinds of sticky glue. It was not easy. His first tries didn't work very well, but he didn't give up. Finally, he created me. The very first version of me was a paper tape that painters could put on cars, paint their perfect lines, and then peel me right off without a single smudge. They called me masking tape.

I was very happy helping the car painters, but Richard Drew had an even bigger idea for me. A few years later, in 1930, he made a brand new version of me. This time, I was waterproof and you could see right through me. I was completely clear. He called this new invention Scotch Tape. This changed everything. Because I was see-through, I could do so many more jobs without covering anything up. I left the car shops and zoomed into homes, offices, and schools all across the world. Suddenly, I was helping people wrap birthday presents, mend broken toys, and put up posters of their favorite singers. I could hold a science project together or fix a little tear in a photograph. From helping paint fancy cars to helping you with your art projects, I have been sticking around for a long time. It all started because one person saw a problem and stuck with it until he found a solution. And I’m so glad he did, because now I get to help hold your world together, one sticky piece at a time.