Scotch Tape

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Scotch Tape denotes the line of adhesive tapes manufactured by 3M as part of the company's Scotch brand.

The precursor to the current line of tapes was originally developed in the 1930s by inventor Richard Drew to seal a then-new transparent material known as cellophane[1]. Although it is a trademarked brand name, it is often improperly used in the U.S. as a generic term for any transparent adhesive tape.

Use of the term "Scotch" in the name has a pejorative origin. In order to cut production costs, 3M attached the adhesive only to the edges of the tape. A remark was made by a St. Paul area automobile detailer[citation needed] that the stingy Scotch bosses need to put more adhesive on it - the name has stuck ever since. Scotty McTape, a kilt-wearing cartoon boy, was the brand's mascot for two decades, first appearing in 1944. The familiar plaid design was introduced to the packaging soon afterwards in 1945.

The Scotch® brand and Scotch® Tape are registered trademarks of 3M.

3M branded audio tape (cat. no. 996)
3M branded audio tape (cat. no. 996)

The company also used the name "Scotch" for its (mainly professional) audiovisual magnetic tape products[2], until the early 90's when the tapes were branded solely with the 3M logo. Eventually, in 1996, 3M pulled out of the magnetic tape business, selling all its assets to Quantegy (which itself is a spin-off of Ampex).


  1. ^ http://www.3m.com/brands/scotch/anniversary/images/ScotchHistoryFinal.pdf
  2. ^ http://www.aes.org/aeshc/docs/3mtape/soundtalk/soundtalkbull12.pdf

Advanced Search
Included Web Search Engines


Safe Search

close

Top Matching Results

Occasionally Search.com will highlight specialized results that are based on the context of your query. Examples of specialized results include specific links to news, images, or video.

Top Matching Results may highlight information from other Search.com pages, content from the CNET Network of sites, or third party content. The listings are based purely on relevance. Search.com does not receive payment for listings in this section but our partners that provide this data may get paid for listing these products.

Sponsored Links

This section contains paid listings which have been purchased by companies that want to have their sites appear for specific search terms and related content. These listings are administered, sorted and maintained by a third party and are not endorsed by Search.com.

Search Results

Search.com sends your search query to several search engines at one time and integrates the results into one list which has been sorted by relevance using Search.com's proprietary algorithm. You can customize the list of search engines included in your metasearch from the preferences.

The search engines that are used in your metasearch may allow companies to pay to have their Web sites included within the results. To view the Paid Inclusion policy for a specific search engine, please visit their Web site. Search.com does not accept payment or share revenue with any search engine partner for listings in this section.