3M Scoch WetorDry Masking Tape
3M Scoch WetorDry Masking Tape
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Usage conditions apply
- Description
- Pressure sensitive masking tape was pioneered by Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company (later renamed 3M) in the early 1920s. While delivering sandpaper to an automotive shop, 3M lab technician Richard Drew saw a need for an easy to use tape to help painters apply masking material to cars. He told his bosses at 3M about the problem and was given permission to work on developing an adhesive tape that would hold well but release cleanly. After weeks of failed experimentation he was ordered to stop but kept working on creating a pressure sensitive tape anyway. Drew eventually triumphed and the result, Wetordry masking tape, was brought to market in 1925.
- The Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company was founded in 1902 as a mining operation, but soon began to use its minerals to make sandpaper. 3M continued its innovation in the next decades, going on to create such products as masking tape, reflective sheeting, synthetic fabrics, and sticky notes.
- Location
- Currently not on view (box fragments)
- Object Name
- box with masking tape
- Physical Description
- paper (overall material)
- blue (overall color)
- Measurements
- overall: 6 1/4 in x 6 1/4 in x 1 1/8 in; 15.875 cm x 15.875 cm x 2.8575 cm
- ID Number
- 2014.0063.08
- catalog number
- 2014.0063.08
- accession number
- 2014.0063
- Credit Line
- Gift of 3M Company
- See more items in
- Work and Industry: Production and Manufacturing
- Exhibition
- American Enterprise
- Exhibition Location
- National Museum of American History
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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