Where would the world be without scotch tape? When something rips, you tape it, no harm done. If there was no scotch tape you wouldn't be able to hang pictures or signs on the wall. And that just wouldn't be right. Read on to find out just who invented scotch tape and why.

The inventor of scotch tape was Richard Drew. He invented it in 1927. He made scotch tape because there was a problem with painting cars. Sound silly? Not quite. You see, when people wanted there cars painted at that time, they usually wanted them 2-colored. That was what was popular. To get a nice look on that second color, they had to protect the first color, usually with newspaper or butcher paper. But if glue was used to get it to stick onto the car, when they took it off, the paint would come with it. This was a serious problem. Richard Drew, seeing this problem, promised to make something that could help solve it.

   Of course tape was already invented, but that was also a problem. It also took the paint along with it. So Richard Drew wanted to make a kind of tape that doesn't stick like that. He took 2 years to experiment with oils and things, and of course, the paper they would be applied to, to make the tape. Many times his attempts failed, and after a while he thought he'd have to give up. But then he found some left over crepe paper that he knew would be a GREAT backing for the tape he was to invent. He used the oils and things with his crepe paper and... BEHOLD! The new masking tape!

 Scotch Tape, the Name

   Now, how was the name scotch tape invented? Well, the name "scotch" is the slang word "cheap". Well, the people using scotch tape on painting cars said it needed more adhesive on it, because it was only on the side of the tape, so it didn't stick very well. The workers yelled "Take this "scotch" (scotch means greedy) tape bake to the "scotch" bosses that you have and tell them to put adhesive all over it!" Well, the name stuck. From then on the new masking tape was Scotch Tape.