27 May is National Cellophane Tape Day, a day to celebrate this amazing adhesive tape that’s clear and shiny and used to seal some of the greatest treasures this world has ever seen!
Cellophane Tape, often called Scotch Tape or Sellotape, has been used for sealing letters, wrapping presents, putting up notes and attaching things to homework assignments. It’s companion is the stapler, and it lives on the desks of office workers and teachers alike. It has one scientific property that seems like magic – it is always sticky.
Cellophane tape was invented in the 1930s and had one purpose, to put a seal on an amazing new substance called cellophane. Cellophane is a special type of plastic product – the crinkly, crackly substance that is used to make bags for candy, crackers and many other foodstuffs? Yes, that is cellophane, but it is not plastic, it is made from processed cellulose, just like paper!
Richard Drew developed the first brand of cellophane tape and called it Scotch Tape, which now bears a very recognisable trademark of red, black and green tartan. The term came about when a body-shop painter, who was testing one of the first tapes announced in frustration, “Take this tape back to those Scotch bosses of yours and tell them to put more adhesive on it!” At that time, Scotch was slang for being stingy.
Although Scotch Tape was the first (and still the best, many would say) cellophane tape on the market, there are hundreds of brands available today.
The ways to use cellophane tape are surprisingly boundless, and it does have some neat properties unknown to most people. For instance, in 1953, it was revealed that, if you take cellophane tape and put it in a vacuum, then peel it off, it will fire off X-rays. Further research showed that this emission of X-rays was enough to leave an X-ray of a finger on photo paper.
Use today to find some new and creative way to use this amazing adhesive, but if you do not feel like searching for something, you can use it to seal an important document or tape someone’s eyebrows together.
Use #NationalCellophaneTapeDay to post on social media.
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