How Duck Tape Became Famous

If you hack things in the real world, you probably have a roll or rolls of duct tape. Outside of the cute brand name, many people think duck ribbon is malapropism, but in truth it's the type of fabric traditionally used in our favorite ribbon: cotton duck. However, as we'll see, it's not entirely wrong to call it duct tape either. Whatever you call it, a fabric material has an adhesive backing and is coated with something like polyethylene.

In fact, the original tape was not adhesive at all. They were simply strips of cotton canvas used for several purposes, including making shoes and wrapping steel cables like those placed in 1902 at the Manhattan Bridge. In 1910, tape was made with adhesive on one side and soaked in rubber, used in hospitals for dressing wounds. In May 1930, Popular Mechanics advised melting rubber from an old tire and adding rosin to create a compound for coating cotton tape, among other things.

Duck Tape needed a champion

In case you've lived in a cave most of your life, here's the type of tape we're talking about. ("Duck Tape" by Evan-Amos.)

Duck Tape didn't really become famous, however, until World War II. It was a worker at a munitions factory in Dixon, Illinois, named Vesta Stoudt. Her job was to pack the ammunition boxes, and she realized that the way they were sealed would make it difficult for the soldiers to open them quickly.

She designed a cloth tape with a tab that would seal boxes adequately but come off quickly when needed. She showed it to her management and government inspectors, but nothing came of it.

Some people may have given up, but not Vesta. She went to the top, writing President Roosevelt a letter in 1943. The president forwarded it to the munitions department of the War Production Board. They wrote to Vesta a few weeks later to inform her that they liked the idea and thought it had "outstanding merit".

Vesta received the War Worker's Award for its idea, and Revolite, part of Johnson and Johnson, was commissioned to manufacture a suitable cotton sealing tape. The duck ribbon, as we know it, was born.

It's really stuck

Once it made its mark on ammo boxes, it quickly became standard issue for repairing military equipment. Back home, soldiers wanted more duct tape for home repairs, so it became a popular hardware item. The Melvin A. Anderson Company acquired the rights in 1950 and made a silver version and marketed it for duct wrapping - duct tape as duct tape. (Although ironically, modern science has shown that it's basically the only thing you shouldn't use for this purpose.)

In 1971, the company was sold and became Manco, and it has since gone through several other ownership changes...