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In 1942 chemist Harry Coover was looking for a clear plastic for gun sights when his team made a compound that stuck to everything, and they set it aside as useless. In 1951 he met it again and realised it was an instant glue: what we now call superglue.

Invention history

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The story behind the card

The compound was a cyanoacrylate, a liquid that hardens within seconds when it meets the slightest moisture, even the water on skin or in the air. In 1951 Coover was leading chemists at Eastman Kodak in Tennessee who were testing heat-resistant plastics for jet cockpit canopies. When a chemist in the group ruined an expensive laboratory instrument by gluing its parts together, Coover saw a glue that needed no heat or pressure. Kodak put it on sale in 1958 as Eastman 910. During the Vietnam War, medics used a cyanoacrylate spray to slow bleeding in wounded soldiers until they reached hospital, and related glues are still used to close cuts and surgical wounds.

Türkçe oku
Kimyager Harry Coover'ın ekibi 1942'de silah nişangâhları için şeffaf bir plastik ararken her şeye yapışan bir madde üretti ve onu işe yaramaz diye bir kenara koydu. Coover 1951'de aynı maddeyle yeniden karşılaşınca bunun anında yapışan bir tutkal olduğunu anladı: bugün Japon yapıştırıcısı dediğimiz şey.

Bu madde bir siyanoakrilattı: En ufak nemle, hatta ciltteki ya da havadaki suyla karşılaşınca saniyeler içinde sertleşen bir sıvı. Coover 1951'de Tennessee'deki Eastman Kodak laboratuvarında, jet uçaklarının kokpit camları için ısıya dayanıklı plastikleri deneyen bir ekibin başındaydı. Ekipteki bir kimyager pahalı bir laboratuvar aletinin parçalarını bu maddeyle birbirine yapıştırıp aleti kullanılmaz hâle getirince Coover, ısı ya da baskı gerektirmeyen bir yapıştırıcı bulduklarını fark etti. Kodak onu 1958'de Eastman 910 adıyla satışa çıkardı. Vietnam Savaşı'nda sıhhiyeciler, yaralı askerlerin kanamasını hastaneye ulaşana kadar yavaşlatmak için siyanoakrilat spreyi kullandı. Benzer yapıştırıcılarla bugün de kesikler ve ameliyat yaraları kapatılıyor.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Cyanoacrylate
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