I’m sitting here today outside at Sweet Rosies II patio enjoying the first day of summer, and a wonderful lunch. This is a great spot to do both, and yes it is another one of those local businesses I frequent. What does this have to do with duct tape? Almost nothing. If I wasn’t reading Did Monkeys Invent The Monkey Wrench, it would have nothing to do with it.

So what’s the history of duct tape? Everyone knows it, uses it, has a roll or two lying around, but where does it come from? For this you can thank Johnson & Johnson, the Band-Aid people. in 1930 they invented a tape they called Drybak. I was a white waterproof cloth tape used in hospitals. It was after World War II when it aquired its gray color and was named duct tape. The proliferation of air-conditioning took off about then and it was found to be a great tape to seal ducts. It was the Manco Co. (now Henkel) that coined the brand Name Duck Tape, since that’s what so many people called it anyway. The adhesive is great, but what I think really makes it work so well is the cloth backing. That keeps it flexible, yet strong and easy to work with.  

On our shelves you will find both Duck and duct tape in a wide variety of sizes and colors. We have small rolls, huge rolls, colored and clear rolls and even camo! One word of warning - don’t buy the cheap stuff. You’ll find it here and there, really low priced. You get what you pay for, and it doesn’t last long and leaves a huge amount of sticky goo behind.

So now you know. Next time you grab your roll for any one of its thousands of uses you won’t have to wonder just why it’s called duct tape. By the way, I think that it’s quite ironic that many of the cheap rolls are actually labeled, not for use on duct work!

-Clark