On September 8, 1930, the American company 3M markets the "Scotch". It was invented by Richard Drew, a 31-year-old chemist who has worked in the factory in St. Paul, Minnesota for seven years, who for several years has specialized in the production of the world's first waterproof sandpaper, used in the automotive field. Precisely to allow painters to make the car decals so popular in those years and then separate the parts to be painted from the others, Drew developed a transparent and pressure sensitive cellophane adhesive tape. The etymology of the name will certainly not appeal to the Scots: it derived from an exclamation - "Scotch", Scottish, aka miser - launched by a first tape tester who complained to Drew because the tape did not adhere well due to an allegedly economical use of the material adhesive. But there is also a story of a more "accommodating" etymology. On the first packages, together with the definition of “scotch tape”, the image of a decoration of a Scottish fabric appeared. Perhaps not to hurt the susceptibility of the heirs of Braveheart ... Scotch will be marketed in Europe only in 1937. Drew died in 1980, the year in which 3M will always market the grandson of the scotch, the post-it.?
