A Short History Of Glue
A metaphor on Fellowship
Fellowship is really about the glue that holds us all together isn’t it?
What brought me to this thought was a story that came across my desk as I was writing about fellowship.
Over the last week, a story has been trending about a woman who used heavy-duty Gorilla Glue spray on her hair to keep it in place after running out of her Got2B glued hairspray. The woman, who’s been dubbed “Gorilla Glue Girl,” says she washed her hair 15 times to no avail.
For some reason, this story went viral in a way that many other similarly interesting “Oops, I did what I wasn’t supposed to do” stories have not.
As a read yet one more story about this woman I looked around my home office and realized I had close to ten adhesive products scattered in various boxes. This does not include any types of tape. There was rubber cement, Elmer’s glue All, Wood Glue (which looks like Elmer’s), crazy glue, super glue, contact cement, epoxy, and of course, Gorilla Glue.
This got me to thinking about glue in general and its history in particular. I’m a writer and an activist. Imagine any great political thinker or activist? What would they have done without the most utilitarian and basic organizing, delegating, and efficiency tools?
Glue!
Technically speaking, glue just one of the names applied to any liquid or paste that makes one thing stick to another thing. Also called an adhesive, cement, or mucilage, or paste, it is any non-metallic substance applied to one or both surfaces of two separate items that binds them together and resists their separation. The use of adhesives offers certain advantages over other binding techniques (tape, sewing, etc.).
Glues may be found naturally or produced synthetically.
The First Glues
The earliest human use of adhesive-like substances was approximately 200,000 years ago when Neanderthals produced tar from the dry distillation of birch bark for use in binding stone tools to wooden handles.
The earliest known use of adhesives was discovered in central Italy when two stone flakes partially covered with birch-bark tar and a third uncovered stone from the Middle Pleistocene era (circa 200,000 years ago) were found. This is thought to be the oldest discovered human use of tar-hafted stones.
The birch-bark-tar adhesive is a simple, one-component adhesive. A study from 2019 showed that birch tar production can be a very simple process — merely involving the burning of birch bark near smooth vertical surfaces in open-air conditions. Although sticky enough, plant-based adhesives are brittle and vulnerable to environmental conditions. The first use of compound adhesives was discovered in Sibudu, South Africa. Here, 70,000-year-old stone segments that were once inserted in ax hafts were discovered covered with an adhesive composed of plant gum and red ochre (natural iron oxide) as adding ochre to plant gum produces a stronger product and protects the gum from disintegrating under wet conditions. The ability to produce stronger adhesives allowed middle Stone Age humans to attach stone segments to sticks in greater variations, which led to the development of new tools.
More recent examples of adhesive use by prehistoric humans have been found at the burial sites of ancient tribes. Archaeologists studying the sites found that approximately 6,000 years ago the tribesmen had buried their dead together with food found in broken clay pots repaired with tree resins. Another investigation by archaeologists uncovered the use of bituminous cement to fasten ivory eyeballs to statues in Babylonian temples dating to approximately 4000 BC.
“Friends are part of the glue that holds life and faith together. Powerful stuff.”
Jon Katz
The first references to adhesives in literature appeared in approximately 2000 BC. The Greeks and Romans made great contributions to the development of adhesives.
In Europe, glue was not widely used until the period AD 1500–1700. From then until the 1900s increases in adhesive use and discovery were relatively gradual. Only since the last century has the development of synthetic adhesives accelerated rapidly, and innovation in the field continues to the present.
In 2000, a paper revealed the discovery of a 5,200-year-old man nicknamed the “Tyrolean Iceman” or “Ötzi”, who was preserved in a glacier near the Austria-Italy border. Several of his belongings were found with him including two arrows with flint arrowheads and a copper hatchet, each with evidence of organic glue used to connect the stone or metal parts to the wooden shafts. The glue was analyzed as pitch, which requires the heating of tar during its production. The retrieval of this tar requires a transformation of birch bark by means of heat, in a process known as pyrolysis.
The first references to adhesives in literature appeared in approximately 2000 BC. Further historical records of adhesive use are found from the period spanning 1500–1000 BC. Artifacts from this period include paintings depicting wood gluing operations and a casket made of wood and glue in King Tutankhamun’s tomb. Other ancient Egyptian artifacts employ animal glue for bonding or lamination. Such lamination of wood for bows and furniture is thought to have extended their life and was accomplished using casein (milk protein)-based glues. The ancient Egyptians also developed starch-based pastes for the bonding of papyrus to clothing and a plaster of Paris-like material made of calcined gypsum.
From AD 1 to 500 the Greeks and Romans made great contributions to the development of adhesives. Wood veneering and marquetry were developed, the production of animal and fish glues refined, and other materials utilized. Egg-based pastes were used to bond gold leaves incorporated various natural ingredients such as blood, bone, hide, milk, cheese, vegetables, and grains. The Greeks began the use of slaked lime as mortar while the Romans furthered mortar development by mixing lime with volcanic ash and sand. This material, known as pozzolanic cement, was used in the construction of the Roman Colosseum and Pantheon. The Romans were also the first people known to have used tar and beeswax as caulk and sealant between the wooden planks of their boats and ships.
In Central Asia, the rise of the Mongols in approximately AD 1000 can be partially attributed to the good range and power of the bows of Genghis Khan’s hordes. These bows were constructed with laminated lemonwood and bullhorn bonded by an unknown adhesive.
In Europe, glue fell into disuse until the period AD 1500–1700. At this time, world-renowned cabinet and furniture makers such as began to use adhesives to hold their products together. In 1690, the first commercial glue plant was established in The Netherlands. This plant produced glues from animal hides. In 1750, the first British glue patent was issued for fish glue. The following decades of the next century witnessed the manufacture of casein glues in German and Swiss factories. In 1876, the first US patent (number 183,024) was issued to the Ross brothers for the production of casein glue.
The first US postage stamps used starch-based adhesives when issued in 1847. The first US patent (number 61,991) on dextrin (a starch derivative) adhesive was issued in 1867.
Natural rubber was first used as material for adhesives starting in 1830, which marked the starting point of the modern adhesive. In 1862, a British patent (number 3288) was issued for the plating of metal with brass to obtain a stronger bond to rubber. The development of the automobile and the need for rubber shock mounts required stronger and more durable bonds of rubber and metal. This spurred the development of cyclized rubber treated in strong acids. By 1927, this process was used to produce solvent-based thermoplastic rubber cements for metal to rubber bonding.
Natural rubber-based sticky adhesives were first used on a backing by Henry Day (US Patent 3,965) in 1845. Later these kinds of adhesives were used in cloth-backed surgical and electric tapes. By 1925, the pressure-sensitive tape industry was born. Today, sticky notes, Scotch tape, and other tapes are examples of PSA (pressure-sensitive adhesives).
A key step in the development of synthetic plastics was the introduction of a thermoset plastic known as Bakelite phenolic in 1910. As a side note my heiress girlfriend back in the early 1980s was the granddaughter of Belgian-American chemist Leo Baekeland who invented Bakelite. Within two years, phenolic resin was applied to plywood as a coating varnish. In the early 1930s, phenolics gained importance as adhesive resins.
The 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s witnessed great advances in the development and production of new plastics and resins due to the First and Second World Wars. These advances greatly improved the development of adhesives by allowing the use of newly developed materials that exhibited a variety of properties. With changing needs and ever-evolving technology, the development of new synthetic adhesives continues to the present.
However, due to their low cost, natural adhesives are still more commonly used.
Stick around for the takeaway. That should hold this post together
The Takeaway
Among the most common factors that could contribute to the failure of glue, to do what it’s supposed to do are; sunlight, moisture, cold, heat, humidity, physical stresses beyond the glues capability, poor application techniques that may weaken the adhesive, and solvents that deteriorate or dissolve the glue. Other problems can arise when the adhesive is used for the wrong purpose, such as using Gorilla Glue to keep your hair in place.
The entire takeaway metaphorically describes some of the challenges we experience in creating human fellowship in all of its forms.
Author: Lewis Harrison is a serial entrepreneur, writer, teacher, public speaker, and seminar leader. He focuses on problem-solving, self-improvement, personal development, and sharing love with the world. He has suffered from depression earlier in his life.
“I am the former host of a talk radio show on an NPR affiliated station in NY. I have a bottomless passion for the application of game theory in decision-making. My game theory/business website is AskLewisGameTheory.com.”
“I am always exploring trends, areas of interest, and solutions to build new stories upon. Again, if you have any ideas you would like me to write about just email me at LewisCoaches@gmail.com”.
……………..Lewis
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