Editing Duct tape (section)

==History==
[[Image:AS17-137-20979.jpg|thumb|Wheel fender extension to keep down lunar dust improvised using duct tape during the [[Apollo 17]] mission]]

The first material called "duck tape" was long strips of plain non-adhesive [[cotton duck]] cloth used in making shoes stronger, for decoration on clothing, and for wrapping steel cables or electrical conductors to protect them from corrosion or wear.<ref name=Freeman2010>{{cite news |last=Freeman |first=Jan |title=Tale of the tape |newspaper=Boston Globe |date=March 14, 2010 |url=https://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2010/03/14/tale_of_the_tape/ |access-date=September 27, 2012 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121018012538/http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2010/03/14/tale_of_the_tape/ |archive-date=October 18, 2012 }}</ref> For instance, in 1902, steel cables supporting the [[Manhattan Bridge]] were first covered in [[linseed oil]] then wrapped in duck tape before being laid in place.<ref name=OED1902>{{Cite news |url=http://eagle.brooklynpubliclibrary.org/Default/Scripting/ArchiveView.asp?skin=BEagle&AppName=2&GZ=T&BaseHref=BEG%2F1902%2F11%2F21&PageSize=3&enter=true&Page=15 |title=Wrapping on Cables of New East River Bridge |page=15 |work=The Brooklyn Daily Eagle |date=November 21, 1902 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121017204729/http://eagle.brooklynpubliclibrary.org/Default/Scripting/ArchiveView.asp?skin=BEagle&AppName=2&GZ=T&BaseHref=BEG%2F1902%2F11%2F21&PageSize=3&enter=true&Page=15 |archive-date=October 17, 2012 }} "Considering... that 100,000 yards of cotton duck tape must be wrapped around the cable with neatness and exactitude, it may be imagined that this method of cable preservation is quite expensive."</ref> In the 1910s, certain boots and shoes used canvas duck fabric for the upper or for the insole, and duck tape was sometimes sewn in for reinforcement.<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Gw0xAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA27 |title=Increased Use of Fabrics by Shoe Trade |journal=Textile World Journal |date=March 27, 1920 |volume=LVII |number=13 |location=New York |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131215004421/http://books.google.com/books?id=Gw0xAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA27 |archive-date=December 15, 2013 }}</ref> In 1936, the US-based Insulated Power Cables Engineers Association specified a wrapping of duck tape as one of many methods used to protect rubber-insulated power cables.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v8mwoTvnA48C&pg=PA716 |page=716 |title=National Directory of Commodity Specifications |author1=United States National Bureau of Standards |author2=Paul A. Cooley |author3=Ann Elizabeth Rapuzzi |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |year=1945 |volume=178 |series=NBS special publication |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131211093713/http://books.google.com/books?id=v8mwoTvnA48C&pg=PA716 |archive-date=2013-12-11 }}</ref> In 1942, [[Gimbel's]] department store offered [[venetian blinds]] that were held together with vertical strips of duck tape.<ref name=Safire2003>{{cite magazine |last=Safire |first=William |author-link=William Safire |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/02/magazine/the-way-we-live-now-3-02-03-on-language-why-a-duck.html |title=The Way We Live Now: On Language; Why A Duck |magazine=The New York Times Magazine |date=March 2, 2003 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171019164016/http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/02/magazine/the-way-we-live-now-3-02-03-on-language-why-a-duck.html |archive-date=October 19, 2017 }}</ref> 

Glue backed or impregnated [[adhesive tape]]s of various sorts were in use by the 1910s, including rolls of cloth tape with adhesive coating one side. White adhesive tape made of cloth soaked in rubber and [[zinc oxide]] was used in hospitals to bind wounds, but other tapes such as [[friction tape]] or [[electrical tape]] could be substituted in an emergency.<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5SgDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA925 |page=925 |title=Friction Tape Used for Plaster Strips |journal=Popular Science |date=December 1916 |last=Sommer |first=Otto |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131215063822/http://books.google.com/books?id=5SgDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA925 |archive-date=2013-12-15 }}</ref> In 1930, the magazine ''[[Popular Mechanics]]'' described how to make adhesive tape at home using plain cloth tape soaked in a heated liquid mixture of [[rosin]] and rubber from [[inner tube]]s.<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nuMDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA856 |page=856 |title=Rubber and Rosin Make Compound for Many Uses |journal=Popular Mechanics |date=May 1930 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131215002231/http://books.google.com/books?id=nuMDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA856 |archive-date=2013-12-15 }}</ref>

In 1923, tape pioneer [[Richard Gurley Drew]] at [[3M]] invented [[masking tape]], a paper-based tape with a mildly sticky adhesive intended to be temporarily used and removed rather than left in place permanently. In 1925, this became the ''Scotch'' brand masking tape. In 1930, Drew developed a transparent [[cellophane]]-based tape, dubbed [[Scotch tape]]. This tape was widely used beginning in the [[Great Depression]] to repair household items.<ref name=Carey>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XKiGgl36bkgC&pg=PA98 |pages=98–99 |last=Carey |first=Charles W. |title=American Inventors, Entrepreneurs, and Business Visionaries |publisher=Infobase Publishing |year=2009 |isbn=978-0816068838 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131213054111/http://books.google.com/books?id=XKiGgl36bkgC&pg=PA98 |archive-date=2013-12-13 }}</ref> Neither of these inventions was based on cloth tape.<ref name=Carey/>

The ultimate wide-scale adoption of duck tape, today generally referred to as duct tape, came from ordnance worker [[Vesta Stoudt]]. Stoudt was worried that problems with ammunition box seals could cost soldiers precious time in battle, so she wrote to President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] in 1943 with the idea to seal the boxes with a fabric tape prototype which she had tested.<ref>[http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1943/10/24/page/1/article/couldnt-keep-her-idea-down "Couldn't Keep Her Idea Down"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150506050728/http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1943/10/24/page/1/article/couldnt-keep-her-idea-down/ |date=2015-05-06 }}, 24 October 1943, Chicago Tribune</ref> The letter was forwarded to the War Production Board, which put Johnson & Johnson on the job.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.kilmerhouse.com/2012/06/the-woman-who-invented-duct-tape/ |title=The Woman Who Invented Duct Tape |last1=Gurowitz |first1=Margaret |date=June 21, 2012 |website=KilmerHouse.com |publisher=Johnson & Johnson |access-date=10 January 2014 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140111053805/http://www.kilmerhouse.com/2012/06/the-woman-who-invented-duct-tape/ |archive-date=11 January 2014 }}</ref> The [[Permacel|Revolite]] division of [[Johnson & Johnson]] had made medical adhesive tapes based on duck cloth from 1927, and a team headed by Revolite's Johnny Denoye and Johnson & Johnson's Bill Gross developed the new adhesive tape,<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m6QsJPZcWUUC&pg=PA131 |pages=131–132 |last=Petroski |first=Henry |author-link=Henry Petroski |title=Small Things Considered: Why There Is No Perfect Design |publisher=Random House Digital |year=2004 |isbn=1400032938 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131210000856/http://books.google.com/books?id=m6QsJPZcWUUC&pg=PA131 |archive-date=2013-12-10 }}</ref> designed to be ripped by hand, not cut with scissors.

Their new unnamed product was made of thin cotton duck coated in waterproof [[polyethylene]] (plastic) with a layer of rubber-based gray adhesive (branded as "Polycoat") bonded to one side.<ref name=Safire2003/><ref name=Jumbo>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/jumboducttapeboo00berg |url-access=registration |page=[https://archive.org/details/jumboducttapeboo00berg/page/10 10] |title=The Jumbo Duct Tape Book |first1=Jim |last1=Berg |first2=Tim |last2=Nyberg |publisher=Workman Publishing |year=2000 |isbn=0761121102 }}</ref><ref name=Inventions>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rVQfBSlAZvAC&pg=PA22 |pages=22–23 |first1=David John |last1=Cole |first2=Eve |last2=Browning |first3=Fred E. H. |last3=Schroeder |title=Encyclopedia of Modern Everyday Inventions |year=2003 |publisher=Greenwood Publishing |isbn=0313313458 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131213155533/http://books.google.com/books?id=rVQfBSlAZvAC&pg=PA22 |archive-date=2013-12-13 }}</ref><ref name=Manco>{{cite web |url=http://www.duckbrand.com/Duck%20Tape%20Club/history-of-duck-tape.aspx |title=History of Duck Tape |publisher=Duck Brand |access-date=August 27, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120812084402/http://www.duckbrand.com/Duck%20Tape%20Club/history-of-duck-tape.aspx |archive-date=August 12, 2012 |df=mdy-all }}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Genericide: When a Brand Name Becomes Generic|url=http://www.cbc.ca/ageofpersuasion/episode/season-5/2011/05/06/season-five-genericide-when-a-brand-name-becomes-generic-1/|work=Age of Persuasion|publisher=CBC|access-date=14 May 2011|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110514150320/http://www.cbc.ca/ageofpersuasion/episode/season-5/2011/05/06/season-five-genericide-when-a-brand-name-becomes-generic-1/|archive-date=14 May 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zFimLDoTkZQC&pg=PA18 |page=18 |last=Steele |first=Randy |title=Tale of the Tape |journal=Boating |date=July 2003 |quote=In 1942 research scientists at Johnson & Johnson sandwiched a layer of mesh fabric—cotton duck—between a top layer of green polyethylene plastic and a bottom layer of rubber glue, and pressed them together. |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160424075143/https://books.google.com/books?id=zFimLDoTkZQC&pg=PA18 |archive-date=2016-04-24 }}</ref> It was easy to apply and remove and was soon adapted to repair military equipment quickly, including vehicles and weapons.<ref name=Jumbo/> This tape, colored in army-standard matte [[olive drab]], was widely used by the soldiers.<ref name=Forbes>{{cite journal |url=https://www.forbes.com/2006/03/14/tools-duct-tape_cx_de_0315ducttape.html |title=The Other Greatest Tool Ever |last=Ewalt |first=David M. |journal=Forbes |date=March 15, 2006 |access-date=August 27, 2012 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120911010636/http://www.forbes.com/2006/03/14/tools-duct-tape_cx_de_0315ducttape.html |archive-date=September 11, 2012 }}</ref>
After the war, the duck tape product was sold in hardware stores for household repairs. The Melvin A. Anderson Company of [[Cleveland, Ohio]], acquired the rights to the tape in 1950.<ref name=Inventions/> It was commonly used in construction to wrap air ducts.<ref name=Forbes/> Following this application, the name "duct tape" came into use in the 1950s, along with tape products that were colored silvery gray like tin ductwork. Specialized heat- and cold-resistant tapes were developed for heating and air-conditioning ducts. By 1960, a [[St. Louis, Missouri]], HVAC company, Albert Arno, Inc., trademarked the name "Ductape" for their "flame-resistant" duct tape, capable of holding together at {{convert|350|–|400|°F|°C}}.<ref>{{cite magazine |magazine=Heating & Air Conditioning Contractor |title=advertisement: Arno Ductape |volume=52 |pages=88, 97 |publisher=Edwin A. Scott Publishing |year=1960}}</ref>

In 1971, [[Jack Kahl]] bought the Anderson firm and renamed it Manco.<ref name=Inventions/> In 1975, Kahl rebranded the duct tape made by his company. He was able to trademark the brand "Duck Tape" and market his product complete with a yellow cartoon duck logo. Manco chose the term "Duck", the tape's original name, as "a play on the fact that people often refer to duct tape as 'duck tape{{'"}},<ref name=Levinson>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/guerrillamarketi00levi_0 |url-access=registration |page=[https://archive.org/details/guerrillamarketi00levi_0/page/249 249] |first1=Jay Conrad |last1=Levinson |first2=Seth |last2=Godin |title=The Guerrilla Marketing Handbook |publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt |year=1994 |isbn=0395700132 }}</ref> and as a marketing differentiation to stand out against other sellers of duct tape.<ref>[http://www.sbnonline.com/article/112357/ "John Kahl finds the formula of product, people and partners adheres to success for ShurTech"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151208102750/http://www.sbnonline.com/article/112357/ |date=2015-12-08 }}, 1 November 2014, Smart Business</ref><ref>[http://www.shurtech.com/about-us/ "ShurTech About Us"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151127145201/http://www.shurtech.com/about-us |date=2015-11-27 }}</ref> In 1979, the Duck Tape marketing plan involved sending out greeting cards with the duck branding, four times a year, to 32,000 hardware managers. This mass of communication combined with colorful, convenient packaging helped Duck Tape become popular. From a near-zero customer base, Manco eventually controlled 40% of the duct tape market in the US.<ref name=Manco/><ref name=Levinson/> Acquired by [[Henkel]] in 1998,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.duckbrand.com/about|title=How Duck Tape was Named|access-date=19 January 2025|publisher=Duck Brand}}</ref> Duck Tape was sold to [[Shurtape Technologies]] in 2009.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.shurtech.com/about-us/ |title=ShurTech Brands |website=shurtech.com |access-date=29 January 2017 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170318042559/http://www.shurtech.com/about-us |archive-date=18 March 2017 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.shurtape.com/company-history |title=Shurtape Technologies |website=shurtech.com |access-date=29 January 2017 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170224121736/https://www.shurtape.com/company-history |archive-date=24 February 2017 }}</ref>
Shurtape introduced a strong, weather-resistant version called "T-Rex Tape".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.trextape.com/|title=T-Rex Tape - Strong, Weather-Resistant Duct Tape|access-date=19 January 2025|publisher=T-Rex Tape}}</ref> "Ultimate Duck", which had been Henkel's top-of-the-line variety, is still sold in the United Kingdom.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.ducktape.co.uk/products/ultimate-duck-tape-black/|title=ULTIMATE DUCK TAPE|publisher=Ducktape|access-date=19 January 2025}}</ref> Ultimate Duck, T-Rex Tape, and the competing [[Gorilla Tape]] all advertise "three-layer technology".

After profiting from Scotch Tape in the 1930s, 3M had produced military [[materiel]] during World War II and by 1946 had developed the first practical vinyl [[electrical tape]].<ref>{{cite book |title=A century of innovation: the 3M story |page=129 |publisher=3M Company |year=2002 |isbn=0972230203}}</ref> By 1977, the company was selling a heat-resistant duct tape for heating ducts.<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ieIDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA123 |page=77 |title=Home Energy Guide: Insulation |journal=Popular Mechanics |date=September 1977 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131013011425/http://books.google.com/books?id=ieIDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA123 |archive-date=2013-10-13 }}</ref> In the late 1990s, 3M's tape division had an annual turnover of $300&nbsp;million and was the US industry leader.<ref>{{cite journal |journal=The Journal of Employee Ownership Law and Finance |title=Manco Duck Tape |volume=9 |page=14 |publisher=[[National Center for Employee Ownership]] |year=1997}}</ref> In 2004, 3M released a semi-transparent duct tape, with a clear polyethylene film and white fiberglass mesh.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/en_US/3M-Company/Information/Resources/History/ |work=Company Information |title=History |publisher=3M |access-date=August 27, 2012 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120901161011/http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/en_US/3M-Company/Information/Resources/History/ |archive-date=September 1, 2012 }}</ref>