I do like the segment,The Orgins Of Everyday Thing which and idea rose to me to post in my Blog.I had a book which I purchase through Reader Digest years back on the subject and I belive we might be interested to learn how thing around us came about.So here another one that will interest you.
Believe it or not, the sticky stuff gets its name from an ethnic slur. When two-toned paint jobs became popular in the 1920s, Detroit car makers asked the 3M Company for an alternative to masking tape that would provide a smooth, sharp edge where the two colours met. 3M came up with 2-inch wide cellophane tape, but auto companies said it was too expensive. So 3M lowered the price by only applying adhesive along the sides of the strip. That caused a problem: the new tape didn’t stick—and company painters complained to the 3M salesman, “Take this tape back to your stingy ‘Scotch’ bosses and tell them to put more adhesive on it!” The name—and the new tape—stuck.
Scotch tape truly is an amazing thing. For years it has provided us with a quick and easy means of fastening a variety of materials. It is also a source of x-rays. Scientists got their first glimpse of the glory of scotch tape in the 1950s, in Russia, when they realized that removing tape from a glass surface in a vacuum releases x-ray radiation. A study was recently published in Nature that showed scotch tape is capable of emitting more x-rays than anyone realized.
When you peel up a piece of that sweet sticky tape, electrons will jump to the surface of the tape. As they reach the surface they begin to slow down, causing an emission of x-rays (accelerating or decelerating charges emit electromagnetic radiation).
Don’t let this phenomenon scare you away from using tape, however. The x-rays are only emitted when the tape is peeled in a vacuum. The researchers at UCLA are hoping that this someday may provide a means for cheaper x-ray machines where electricity may not be a viable source of power.
Who knows what other super powers your office supplies may be hiding?
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