The history of adhesive tape: In 4000 B.C. earthenware pots where mended with an adhesive substance made from the sap of trees. The earliest written records of adhesives dating back to 2000 B.C describe simple instructions for the preparation of fish glue. Glue spread on material was used as sticky traps and for hunting, but the first commercial way it occurred during 1845. Dr. Horace Day, a surgeon used a rubber adhesive applied to strips of fabrics to make a new invention called Surgical Tape. In 1923, Richard Drew joined the 3M company located in St. Paul, Minnesota. At the time, 3M only made sandpaper. Drew was product testing 3M’s Wet/Dry Sandpaper brand sandpaper at a local auto body shop, when he noticed that auto painters were having a hard time making clean dividing lines on two-color paint jobs. Richard Drew was inspired to invent the world’s first masking tape in 1925, as a solution to the auto painter’s dilemma. In 1942, Duct Tape was developed by Johnson and Johnson during World War II. The troops needed a waterproof tape that could seal considers and repair equipment. The cloth tape was coated with Polyethylene and Duct Tape was born. The full understanding of adhesion and adhesive tapes continued to evolve and will only lead to new adhesive tape in the future. Today, there are too many adhesive formulations and applications to name. It is interesting that our discovery and adhesive tape history all started with tree sap!