I’ll be honest with you: when a friend of mine asked me the other day why the ‘Scotch tape’ was named that why i quickly answered that it’s because it comes from Scotland pretending to be sure about it. But because i wasn’t, when i got home i jumped on the internet to find the real reason behind the brand name. And oh boy, i was wrong: scotch tape is as American as baseball and apple pie. So why the name then?
Well, it’s all because of a stereotype. Here’s the surprising story of how scotch tape got its name.
Scotch tape, the famous transparent tape brand, was discovered in the 1930’s by Richard Gurley Drew, a 23-year old researcher at the University of Minnesota. At the time, Drew was working in a project in which he was trying to create a new, not-so-sticky adhesive tape for auto painters. In the 1920s, the term “scotch” was used to indicate “cheap”. So, when the young researcher got his new invention to car painters for test, one of them, who obviously wasn’t very happy with the stickiness of the new tape, asked “Why so Scotch with the adhesive?” (the article continues after the ad)
Based on the feedback he received from the auto painters, Drew went back to the lab, applied more adhesive to the tape and branded the product with the name of “Scotch.”
If you like what you read, then you will definitely love this one: Why Is London’s Metropolitan Police Named ‘Scotland Yard’?
Photo: Mike Mozart / Flickr
Sources: Who Made That Scotch Tape? | How Scotch Tape Was Invented
