Why Is Duct Tape Called Duct Tape

Following this time the tape supposedly began to be called duct tape but the first mention of duct tape wasn t until 1960 and the new york times didn t call it duct tape until 1973.

Why is duct tape called duct tape. The original duck tape. So duct tape is the answer except for the fact that tape manufacturer manco now shurtech. Duct tape is used in the heating air conditioning industry to join and seal metal duct work hence the name. Over the years it has often gotten called duck tape just because of the similar sound.

Duck in this sense comes from the dutch word doeck which means linen cloth. This was when the color changed from army green to silver to match the color of the ductwork. Duct tape is cloth or scrim backed pressure sensitive tape often coated with polyethylene. This is total crap.

But if you look carefully it says duck tape brand duct tape. There are a variety of constructions using different backings and adhesives and the term duct tape has been genericized to refer to different cloth tapes with differing purposes. There is even a brand of duct tape called duck tape. It came in silver not green and was not used in wwii to waterproof ammunition cases.

A variation is heat resistant foil tape useful for sealing heating and cooling ducts produced because the adhesive on standard duct tape fails and the synthetic fabric reinforcement mesh deteriorates when used on heating duc. An interesting side note and another reason people may be confused about whether it s called duct tape or duck tape is that the backing of the original tape was a type of woven cotton called duck cloth.