When adhesive tape is found as evidence at a crime scene, it is the forensic scientist’s job to match it to its source with little or no knowledge of tape construction.
When Richard Drew of 3M developed creped paper masking tape in 1925, he began a revolutionary change in the way we live. From that first step, taking us from the over-a-century-old, cloth-backed, pressure-sensitive tape for surgical use to the many and varied industrial tapes that followed, Drew’s tape changed how we make and do things. It is used in the manufacturing process, in the finished product, or on the packaging of just about everything in our daily lives.
Adhesive tape has served in the most noble of our endeavors. A roll of coated cloth adhesive tape known as "mission tape" goes on board every American mission into space. It was that tape that helped jury-rig the carbon dioxide filter that saved the lives of three astronauts on the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission.