The Story of One Ethnic Stereotype That Stuck

The Scots did not invent Scotch tape. But their reputation for thriftiness did spawn the name.

The story begins in the 1920s, when two-tone cars were “in” and manufacturers had to address the problem of maintaining clean, crisp borders between the colors. They often glued newspaper to the cars because the paper had sharp, straight edges. This worked well, except for the fact that the newspaper would not come off easily.

At the time, 3M Co. was selling sandpaper to car manufacturers, and its salespeople heard about the difficulties in the paint shop. There was a great potential market here, it seemed, for a sticky tape that could peel off easily.

Chemist Richard G. Drew rose to the challenge. He knew that rubber cement was sticky yet could easily be peeled off a surface. He coated one side of a paper strip with the material and was satisfied to see that, with a little pressure, the paper now stuck to surfaces but could be removed readily.

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Drew figured that the tape could be produced cheaply, especially if the glue were applied only to the edges. After all, there seemed no need to waste glue on the whole width of the tape. The car painters thought the newfangled tape was a great idea--until they started to use it.

In practice, there wasn’t enough glue to hold the tape firmly in place. The painters, reverting to an ancient stereotype about the extreme thriftiness of the Scots, told the salesman unceremoniously to “take the tape back to those Scotch bosses of yours and tell them to put adhesive all over the tape!”

The problem was quickly remedied, but the stigma could not be eliminated. Workers still called the improved product “Scotch” tape, and 3M was stuck with the name.

When the glue was applied to clear cellophane, see-through Scotch tape was born. Today, there are more than 400 different varieties of pressure-sensitive tape. Various glues are used, but most fall into the “acrylic” family of polymers.

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These are not designed to be removed as easily as, say, masking tape, and they adhere strongly because they can produce numerous microscopic suction cups when pressed on a surface.

That can be a problem, as in the case of adhesive bandages. Taking these off can be a painful experience. But there may be a solution in the offing.

Researchers in Britain have developed a new bandage with an adhesive that can be deactivated by light. When an opaque backing is peeled away, light initiates a reaction in which side groups on the polymeric acrylic molecules link, destroying the adhesive character. A camera flash removes the bandage in a flash.