- Brand
- 3 M, Scotch
- Origin
- United States
- Invention Story
- The invention of Scotch tape, a brand under 3 M, can be traced back to the 1920s in the United States. At that time, two-tone car finishes were popular, and a technician named Richard Drew visited an auto paint factory. He overheard painters complaining about the difficulty of using paste to separate the two paint colors. The paste would either not stick well enough or damage the car body if applied too much. Feeling sympathetic, Drew promised to create a tape that could be used to mask off the two colors. After two years of experimentation, he successfully invented a tape that had strong adhesive properties, did not leave residue, and did not damage the paint surface. And that's how Scotch tape was born.