Tuesday, October 11, 2022

Duct Tape or Duck Tape

 It's duct tape.  That is not open for discussion.  It was invented during WWII as a general purpose adhesive tape.  After the war it was used as a building material, to connect ventilation ducts.  These days, better tapes exist, so duct tape has become a redneck fix-all.  I have several rolls in my shop.

There is a Duck Brand tape, but even they admit that the type is duct tape.  It's right there on the label.

It was never used for taping ducks.  That would be cruel.

2 comments:

Carl Bussjaeger said...

It was "duck tape" before it was duct.

"The first material called "duck tape" was long strips of plain non-adhesive cotton duck cloth used in making shoes stronger, for decoration on clothing, and for wrapping steel cables or electrical conductors to protect them from corrosion or wear.
[...]
Glue backed or impregnated adhesive tapes of various sorts were in use by the 1910s, including rolls of cloth tape with adhesive coating one side."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duct_tape#History

Old NFO said...

I just call it 100mph tape... :-)