----
---- — Oh boy, here comes Father's Day! Annually we are faced with the challenging task of selecting a thoughtful gift for dear old dad.
Dads are hard to shop for. They are so practical and sometimes a bit boring when it comes to gift possibilities. There is hope however which brings me to .… duct tape.
Go into any man's tool box or workshop and one is likely to find a partial roll of duct tape. Open the trunk of the car or look under the front seat of his trusty pickup and there it is, nestled in with discarded candy bar wrappers and potato chip bags. A man can survive quite nicely without a lot of frills but don't take away his duct tape.
For the five readers in northern Michigan who are not familiar with duct tape, it is a vinyl, reinforced, pressure sensitive, multipurpose, adhesive tape. Mostly gray or silver in color, this miracle product ranks right up there with sliced bread, bottled beer and the cast iron frying pan in its service to humanity.
Originally, it was called "duck" tape due to its water resistant nature. Water would roll off it like water off a duck's back. Invented in 1942 during World War II, its first job was to seal ammunition boxes to protect their contents from the elements of nature.
It didn't take long before our resourceful troops discovered other uses for this innovation.
During the air war over Europe, our planes made round-the-clock bombing raids launched from bases in England. The bombers and fighters would come back from their missions riddled with holes from anti-aircraft fire and enemy fighter attack. Rather than take our aircraft and crews out of service for repairs, ground crews quickly patched them with what they called "100 mile-per-hour tape" or duck tape. It held the damaged plane together for another mission and didn't blow off at speeds in excess of 100 mph.
Other uses included a quick fix for damaged firearms, jeeps, trucks, combat boots, leaking tents and ponchos worn by the GIs in the field. It has been used to restrain prisoners, bandage wounds and to secure cargo to keep it from shifting in transit. The applications were limited only by the creativeness of the user.
At the conclusion of the war, the troops came home but they didn't forget duck tape. Our country experienced a building boom to make way for the baby boomer generation soon to follow. Applications were found for the product in the construction trades, industry and the home workshop. In the building trades, it was primarily used to join sections of metal ductwork together thus preventing air loss and wind noise. It was during this time that the product name changed from "duck" to "duct" tape.
Duct tape is included in the NASA tool boxes that accompany our astronauts into space. Canoeists, kayakers, campers and fisherman make emergency repairs to their craft and equipment while on an outdoor adventures. A sportsman once said that if something is supposed to be stuck and it isn't, just duct tape it. Some product enthusiasts use it in craft projects and have created wallets, handbags and even formal wear all fashioned from duct tape.
Today, it is available in multiple colors to let the imagination and creativity run wild.
So there you have it; the story of duct tape. I'll bet there are many good tales that could be added to this brief history. The object of this dissertation however, was to assist you in a gift idea for that man in your life who has "everything." I'll leave the rest for you to figure out.
Ed Hungness and his wife owned their cottage on Fife Lake for six years before moving there after his retirement in 2005. He can be reached at edhungness@yahoo.com. For more of Ed's columns, log on to record-eagle.com/edhungness.
