like most red-blooded americans i grew up believing there was no problem that couldn't be solved by duct tape i was told that it could be used to hold things to fix things to decorate things you name it one of my first jobs was stripping the wax off tile floors in big commercial buildings you use a lot of fans and extension cords and the cords get a lot of abuse so you're always taping up a cord and who needs electrical tape when you have duct tape right so these cords would then lay in the wet chemicals on the floor until you picked one up and got shocked it was considered part of the job everyone got three or four good shocks a night thanks to good old duct tape really back then the only way to really abuse the stuff was if you called it duck tape because folks would look at you like you were the biggest idiot on the job and then they go off and electrocute themselves again believe it or not though duct tape was originally called duck tape that's right that is not a mispronunciation that's what it was called it was developed for sealing ammunition boxes during world war ii the idea was that a waterproof tape may seal better and perhaps even be quicker to tear open so you could get your ammo out before you got blown up the war department passed the idea on to johnson and johnson and they developed a tape made from a specially woven canvas called duck duck is a dutch word that's spelled d-o-e-k and pronounced more like dark but in english we say whatever we want so duck applies not just to waterfowl but also to a cotton canvas cloth that could be made waterproof by coating it in wax or rubber it was already widely used to make things like tents and tarpon clothing you can even see it today on a lot of work wear such as carhartt so this was the perfect cloth for their new waterproof tape note that i said johnson and johnson developed it they didn't entirely invent duck tape the term was used as far back as 1900 to refer to strips of coated duck cloth that were used for things like repairing shoes or wrapping steel cables to prevent corrosion but the earliest versions didn't have adhesive on it so we wouldn't know it as tape today by 1910 there were some adhesive-backed cloth tapes on the market but the real miracle tape of that era was the clear stuff that later became known as scotch tape it was scotch tape not duct tape that depression-era households thought was a miracle they could fix everything with it wasn't until world war ii that adhesive coated cloth duct tape really went mainstream people liked it because it was waterproof and tough but you could still rip it apart with your fingers instead of cutting it with scissors the military used this stuff for everything including repairing vehicles and weapons their stories of them using it to repair helicopter blades it was even used in some cases as battle dressings gi's fell in love with their duct tape and when they returned home they clamored for more so naturally retail versions hit hardware stores and the duct tape craze was born in those days it wasn't the common silvery gray that we have today it was originally only available in military green but in the post-war world folks found among its many uses was sealing metal duct work so by the 1950s it had a new silver color to match the steel ducts and a new name duct tape this new name quickly became so synonymous with the stuff that everybody forgot it was once called duct tape in fact by the 70s a guy named jack call was able to trademark the largely forgotten original name and duct tape became a brand of duct tape if there is one thing though that really put this stuff on the map it was the apollo 13 crisis of 1970. things were looking pretty bleak for the three crew members of the craft until they used a roll of duct tape to convert an air filter and get themselves home safely so duct tape suddenly became as popular as tang the thing is duct tape is a lot better for taping up ducts than it is for ducts studies have shown that it quickly degrades on ductwork it's also pretty flammable and when it smolders it lets off noxious gases so many building codes actually prohibit its use for ductwork that's right you shouldn't use duct tape on actual ducts what can you use it on well pretty much anything else it seems because duct tape has become so much part of popular culture that folks proudly use it even in the most inappropriate ways as the saying goes if it should move cover it with wd-40 if it shouldn't move cover in duct tape and take your electrocution like a man i hope you found that interesting see you next time it's just a couple of cuts your ears will be fine right it will be if you have your isotunes bluetooth earbuds in because you'd already have your ansi certified hearing protection on because you're listening to your favorite music and podcasts and you're supporting a small family business at the same time please use the link below this video to learn more and to show them you 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