The Universality of Duct Tape

By Anastasia and Michael Tsouroupakis

We had intended on beginning a series of blogs about getting yourself ready for spring and posted the first of this series last week (see Spring Cleaning Just Ahead Mar 18/15) but when we sat down to begin writing this week’s blog, our city was under a cold weather alert! It’s been almost one week and the warmer weather of spring has yet to arrive. In light of this we thought it may be prudent to delay the second instalment and opted instead on writing a post about duct tape. Why duct tape you ask? Last week one of our sons ripped his new spring coat in a road hockey game with some neighborhood friends. He was devastated, and as I looked at the rip in dismay (he had worn the jacket a total of 20 min), my husband calmly walked to the garage and came back with a roll of duct tape. My son and I watched stunned as he took the jacket from my hands, cut a piece off and plastered in on top of the rip. He then handed it back to my son and sent him back outside. Game on!!!

“Duck” or “Duct” tape came into being during World War II when soldiers complained about how hard it was to open ammunition boxes out on the field, the seals were hard to break and not waterproof, the extra time it took to open the boxes could prove fatal. Duct tape was created with the durable and adhesive ability of the original fabric tape BUT this new tape was waterproof and could be easily cut by hand.

Is there anything duct tape can't fix? According to the Duct Tape Guys (Jim Berg and Tim Nyberg) who as of 2005 had written seven books about the virtues of duct tape (seriously I’m not making this up) "Two rules to get you through life: If it's stuck and it's not supposed to be, WD40 it. If it’s not stuck and it’s supposed to be, duct tape it!" (1).

Since its creation duct tape has become a staple in every household and has been used by everyone to fix something at one time or another. We were stunned to discover the wide ranging scope of its uses: it was used on the moon to repair a damaged fender on the lunar rover (works the same on a car fender), used to repair the Apollo 13 space module, re attaching the side view mirror to your car, hemming pants, curing warts, reinforcing the binding of a book, a temporary roof shingle, a lint brush, the list is endless. The more adventurous have managed to fashion wallets out of duct tape and our daughter has used it to help her fashion some new Barbie clothing, even the U.S. Department of Homeland Security under former President George Bush after 9/11 recommended that duct tape be included in every American's "disaster supply kit".

So whether you are an engineer, a do it yourself-er or a little boy who has ripped his brand spanking new spring jacket playing hockey, duct tape is a must for any tool box, toy box, sewing box, hockey bag, gym bag, household or work space.

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