A Sticky History of Superglue 

“Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit sniffing glue” -Airplane

This video was just an excuse for THG to make as many puns and dad jokes as possible. I groan in respect good sir.

Having grown up in the 70s, I always thought super glue came to the mass market with the commercial of the guy hanging from a hard hat he'd glued to the bottom of an I-beam.

I am a retired chemist. Among chemists, I have always heard the stress put on the a rather than the cryl in acrylate. So, it’s Acrylic acid (the parent compound from which the family takes its name), methyl Acrylate, ethyl Acrylate; not aCRYLic acid, methyl aCRYLate or ethyl aCRYLate.

My Grandfather (RIP) told me years ago after he had retired from working there as a plumber at the Rochester plant, that "Kodak" accidently invented super glue. So, it's cool to hear the full story. Thank you.

I’m going to stick with THG for as long as he’s on RU-vid, glued to the screen for each episode.

In 1969 I was privileged to get to tour Hamilton Standard's labs at NASA Houston where a family friend was working on the Lunar Backpacks the Astronauts wore while walking around on the Moon. I had never heard of Super Glue. My friend handed me a bottle of Eastman 910 and demonstrated its ability to bond two strips of metal together instantly. I was dully impressed and took the bottle back to Lackland AFB where I was attending Tech School. I demonstrated its amazing capabilities to a number of my fellow Airmen and never had one who had heard of Super Glue. Until watching this installment of the History Guy I believed Eastman 910 to be invented in the middle 1960s. Once again you have enlightened and entertained. Thank you.

The medical uses of Eastman 9-10 got a reference in the early Star Trek novel "Uhura's Song," with there being a surgical glue commonly used by the Federation called StitchIt 9-10.

At 67 I have been building plastic kit models since I was ten. In recent years, watching YT model channels, I learned to use Super Glue in certain applications, especially to attach photo etched brass parts to plastic. I have a couple tubes of Vet Bond CA glue for medical emergencies, but haven't needed to use it yet.

Back in the dark ages before quick-clot our Corpsman (medic) would treat cuts - sometimes pretty nasty ones - we picked up moving through the jungle with super glue. Wipe, disinfect it, wipe it again, pinch the cut together and super glue it. It worked pretty well. He always carried several tubes in his Corpsman kit. He bought them himself; it was not an issue item for Corpsmen. I’ve done it few times since. It tends to freak out my wife.

I worked for Borden Chemical where there was a room that was designed just for the packaging of 'Super Glue'. I only worked in that room once, it made me totally high and asked never to be assigned to that room again. It was no problem, there were many workers who liked the effects of working there.

Anecdote for you Lance, in my time in Marine Corps in Afghanistan we used super glue to re-bond cuts and small punctures from shrapnel (post removal if possible) as a way to keep wounds clean. I did multiple tours in Marjah/Marjeh where there is a large canal system we would have to cross often on patrols; any cuts or open wounds would burn and often form rashes from the dirty water and the glue helped mitigate that. We passed around the stories of WWII vets using it for wounds but apparently that may be less of a thing than we thought. Thanks for the video, a buddy and I were just reminiscing about this very subject a few days ago.

I accidentally gave my wife Superglue instead of Chapstick. She's still not talking to me.

"My kids are the worst. They put Krazy Glue in my Preparation H" -Rodney Dangerfield

As a balsa model airplane builder it changed the game. When you were at the field and broke your airplane you either got out the epoxy or went home. I have sat down and built one from start to finish in one weekend.

Been using Super Glue to close cuts for over 40 years. Better than any band-aid.

The surgical application in wartime was astounding. But while our side was gluing parts back together, the communists were using Yunnan Baiyao orally and topically to staunch bleeding. hard to stop a man who won't bleed out. Thank you, History Guy. I enjoy your hard work and efforts to bring forth the things that we all take for granted or just plain forgot.

As a retired mechanic, I use super glue on cuts, works great, also it can be used as a home made plastic by using bicarbonate of soda and super glue, sets to a rock hard plastic like substance that can be filed great for fixing plastic gears. Superglue and cotton wool also works too.

1970 I had my earlobe repaired after it was torn during a rugby game. The nurse used some fast acting "Super Glue", it did burn a little bit but fixed the earlobe instantly.

Being from Kingsport Tennessee I've always been fascinated and kind of proud that "super glue" originated here at the then Tennessee Eastman...now Eastman chemical company. Excellent history for those who don't know!

Cyano instant bonders absolutely revolutionized the building of balsa model airplanes. It truly was a miracle bonder compared to the old model airplane cements that required at least an over-nite curing...It's medical use is less known but very important. Thank you for a great video.

This is probably a new high for the History Guy pun count.

The name is Bond. Cyanoacrylate Bond.

My son split open the area around his eyebrow when he was about 8. The doctor glued the wound shut... but in the process glued her glove to his skin as well. The poor kid had to endure the pain of the glued glove being removed on top of everything else... He didn't shed a tear.

Thank you. I worked in science laboratories and did field work. Super glue saved our projects many times when things broke apart. Thanks again.

My father worked at Kodak 60’s-80’s, designed the molds for the super 8 and 126 film cartridges. Anyway, he would bring a lot of different things home one of them was Eastman 910, in the late 60’s. Fast forward a few years, I was working on something with both a small tipped soldering iron and 910. For “giggles” I decided to stick the hot tip of the iron in the glue, and boy was I surprised. I was blinded, and I just started to cry. Didn’t know it would make tear gas.

I think most folks have used super glue and/or every type of tape to close off self inflicted wounds. And for a lot of us, when we do we always think the line from Predator “I ain’t got time to bleed” if not saying it aloud.

Keeping an open tube of super glue in the fridge does keep it fresh for years.

I always enjoy your videos. I had a brothet-in-law that worked for NASA for a time. He relayed to me a story about a satellite they were launching that had to have the antenna mounted once orbit was reached. They were stymied until they put a small capsule on the antenna mount filled with super glue and activater in separate compartments in the capsule. When the assembly mechanism slammed the antenna into place, the capsule would shatter and, viola, within a few seconds the antenna was permanently mounted! I think he help come up with that solution, as he was quite proud of it.

I especially like it for small wounds. Just wipe out the blood, squeeze in the Super Glue and you're back to business.

…pull out a crinkled little tube…that’s probably now solid…

As a Rochester, NY resident and former Kodak employee, I thoroughly enjoyed this video.

I remember the commercials in the 1970s for Krazy Glue & the guy holding onto his hard hat bonded to an I-beam girder flailing his legs about. After watching RU-vid, I learned about using Baking Soda with Super Glue to make small plastic like repairs & increasing the strength of bonds with small metal pieces, but in general stronger bonds overall.

Just a few hours ago I was looking up the history of wood glue out of sheer curiosity and now I get super glue too. Thank you!

On a British Time Team television episode it was demonstrated how Anglo-Saxons made glue, during the "Dark Ages."

🔔 THG: Once again your stick-to-it-tive-ness in endeavoring to try to regularly put out an interesting video will have your audience glued to their seats!

Mr History Guy, you should do an episode on the history of yourself the history guy! What got you into history and why is it such a strong love with all things history!? Obviously it is history that deserves to be remembered!

I love Loctite 404; it's saved my bacon on the job many times in the last 35 years!!!

When I was a toddler in 1968, I had hernia surgery. They superglued me together!

I tried to slice open one of those infernal plastic blister packs, but I got a little careless and sliced the tips of 3 fingers open. No matter what I did they would not stop bleeding. Hours later I finally got the flow slowed enough to grab my Superglue from my truck and close the wounds. They stayed closed, and to this day I can't see the scars.

It turns out that dried super glue is nonconductive to electricity... a liquid that can be applied to insulate a surface. In 1975, I used Eastman 910 to coat a connector pin that was shorting out to the shell of a circular connector in the cockpit of an F4 Phantom jet fighter. The jet was loaded with weapons on 5-minute air defence alert, so it was important to get it back in operational status. As far as I know, that repair held up over time.

I first came across Eastman 910 in 1968. We used it to tack down glass reticules to metal bases to scribe lines. when it was time to remove the piece a sharp tap with a hammer on the base the glass would pop right off. Today I use it in my hobby machine shop to tack difficult to hold pieces prior to mechanical workholding. Useful stuff.

I’m glued to the screen watching this !

This was a super episode, I was glued to the screen 🤙

I thought I might find this one a bit tacky but I stuck with it and was glued to my seat!

I’m a lifetime mechanically inclined person and am always ‘fixing’ stuff…I must say that I’ve had mixed results with both negative, limited, and full success with superglue.

Cyano acrylates are used in automotive clear coats, the two part process is why car finishes are so durable and fade resistant. Since the vapors are toxic, applicators must use a carbon filtered mask to absorb the fumes.

I always carry some in my toolbox. If it's a clean cut, it's all you need.

THG,.... you're killing me with these puns! 😆😅🤣 I mean, really, I'm coming unglued!

I put a few tubes of Superglue in my first aid kit and camping gear.

I gained instant respecrt when 50 years ago I super glued my finger to my nose.

The Sticky Sweethearts have a song about this. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on glue!

As someone who buys 1.1 pound bottles of CA by the CASE, I appreciate this.

Another Super episode of history that deserves to be remembered.

Adhering to one man's word isn't easy for me, but sometimes a name sticks. THG is one of those names.

What many people don't know is that Kodak was more of a Chemistry company than a camera company. They made most of their money making and developing film. And sir is chemistry.

I really am astonished to hear about its forensic application in fingerprints. All the other stuff talked about are basically the kind of things you typically do with glue, sticking stuff together. So nothing that is all that astonishing, even if impressive. But that use with CVD to show fingerprints really blew my mind.

Whenever I got a paper cut, I used super glue to seal it. Better than any band-aid. I never had any skin irritation.

Well, you handled that stick subject well. Thank you, THG, for another great story of a piece of history that we did not know we needed to know.

This channel is so amazing, I love history of anything. Thank you 😊

I could sprnd so many hours just looking up more in depth history as a result of these shorts! These shorts make the world fascinating to me!

Our detectives used super glue to lift prints at the Department I retired from.

My first exposure to this was in the late 1960s. I went to work for a manufacturing subsidiary of AT&T. The tool and die department had tiny dark bottles from Kodak that I was told cost $80 per bottle and were only half full when new. My weekly pay at the time was ~$83.

Fantastic story telling, as usual! 👍 Very interesting topic too. Thanks for making these videos. 🤗

No mention of the popularity of use that came with 1980’s Krazy Glue commercials with a guy hanging from his hard hat?

The curing process of CA super glues is begun and accelerated by the presence of moist air or residual moisture on the surfaces being glued which even includes the microscopic pores in what might appear to be smooth shiny metal. It also reacts with biological organic materials such as cellulose and wood fibers, lint and skin cells, all kinds of stuff that floats around in the air (a cotton ball saturated with CA glue will smolder nasty fumes and perhaps even burst into flame). Once you open the bottle or tube, moisture invariably gets inside of it and the product will start to slowly cure; but even unopened bottles and tubes will apparently have some kind of moisture or organic contaminants introduced during the manufacturing and bottling process, and so the glue will eventually harden and cure inside the container even if you haven't opened it. Sadly most manufacturers do not date the bottles with a "use by" date or date of manufacture and I've been unable to look up batch numbers online to decipher when the glue was made; therefore It's always best to buy such glues from a place that is likely to have high tumover and unlikely to be selling glue that sat in a distributor's warehouse for a couple of years before going to your local dollar store. I like the Titebond CA glues sold at Woodcraft or online, which are available in waterthin and medium viscosity formulations; most garden variety superglues are too thick, and I've never found a use for the "gel" formulations. Anybody who works with super glue regularly should get a bottle of the special debonding solvent which will allow you to separate fingers that have been glued together. You can also buy accelerators usually in a spray bottle which will cure the CA glue and heartbeat but be aware that most of them have solvents that may damage a painted or plastic finish, so use cautiously. There are also CA glue formulations that will cure slowly on their own but cure immediately when exposed to an ultraviolet light flashlight which can be really useful for gluing things together that need a bit of strength to hold them fast at the edges but allowing the glue inside a thick crack to cure more slowly. Guitarists and guitar repairmen in particular have found numerous uses for super glues. If a bone or plastic nut on your guitar chips are loose as a chunk you can build it back up with baking soda and super glue (the thin formulations work much better than the thicker, ordinary mini tube type supergkue) and cut, sand and file as needed to restore the string grooves. Fingerstyle guitarists sometimes reinforce their fingernails with super glue and silk (Martin Simpson, one of the best guitar players on the planet does this); But be aware that super glue can become nearly burning hot in contact with skin and organic material so use caution. For other guitar related uses of superglue, watch Ted Woodford's channel on RU-vid.

'They didn't find anything strong enough to hold together the Roman Empire'... OOOHH!! Sick burn! (J/k- i laughed. THG can be very funny/punny! Great vid, great channel 👍)

I have two 227ml bottles of BSI cyanoacrylate along with two smaller bottles I refill, one thin, one medium viscosity. All of them in zipper bags full of silica gel and kept in the fridge. The silica gel removes any moisture and prevents premature polymerization. The low temperature in the fridge greatly inhibits polymerization caused by any moisture that does come in contact with the cyanoacrylate. That way the stuff lasts for years and I never get it curing in the bottle before I get a chance to use it. Keeping fairly large quantities of cyanoacrylate on hand has reduced the price by about 500% and gave me the opportunity to use it for repair of composite materials and making small composite parts with carbon fibre, aramid and fibreglass. If I could keep it from polymerizing prematurely I'd buy it in 208 litre polyethylene drums. The stuff is awesome.

This is a good companion piece to your episode on duct tape.

My beer-drinking stepbrother and myself always created some good cheer in the neighborhood bars we frequented years (and years?) ago by super-gluing our first round empties to each other. MOST of the bartenders enjoyed the prank. After a while we got others involved and made some GRAND beer-amids. haha Great memories!

I'm a plumber and I always have super glue in my first aid kit. Pinch the wound closed and put a drop on it and you're good to go.

I have a guitar, which I painted in superglue. The finish came out beautiful. The glues dried so thinly, it created a very light weight… If I could post a picture, I would. It is a really great guitar.

I discovered that the type made for attaching false fingernails is especially handy and useful. It goes on with a brush, gives you a little time before it sets, and it doesn't irritate the skin. Plus, the little bottle lid screws down tightly, so it doesn't dry up so fast between uses.

I have had cyanoacrylate glues around, and while they have their applications, they aren't the be-all and end-all of adhesives. I built a 2 meter Carl Goldberg "Gentle Lady" sailplane in 1997 and other than the wing spar joint, I used exclusively CYA glue to build this thing, and it is still flying. YES you will stick your fingers together; Acetone stops this. Great video!

Eddy Murphy in 'Beverly Hills Cop ' showed how a fingerprint can be made visible using super glue.

Used "cure", rather than "dry"... That's an attention to detail that gets a like!

I had never heard of super glue until the 1970's. A hobby shop I used to go to had what was called Zapp back then. Loved the stuff.

You’re Awsome, always enjoy your videos, thanks for all over them over the years! Keep ‘em coming.

My sister's work as a physiotherapist was with amputees, and she would use Super Glue to repair their prosthetic limbs. She even glued her fingers together at least once! Old fashioned hide glue is still favoured by restorers of antique furniture as it can be reversed with gentle heat to loosen wood joints.

I keep a small tube in my 1st Aid kit, especially when I go camping and fishing. Ive heard some of the stories and remember the commercials about Super Glue. Fascinating stuff! PS: You forgot the one with the guy hanging from the ceiling that his helmet was glued to. 😂😂😂

I remember, late night TV viewing as a kid, usually before or after watching a Cal-Worthington and his dog Spot commercial, the iconic worker donning a steel-helmet glued to an iron beam suspended well above the ground with his feet dangling, as the narrator described the incredible bonding power of "Krazy-Glue", but wait, if you act now, you can get another tube free of charge (just pay shipping and handling) 😂😂😂

You could say that super glue has stuck around since its invention :P

I always keep this stuff handy to fix skin chaps on my thumbs - the ones that get caught when reaching into a pocket. Works a treat!👍🏻

Just one small nit, missed a syllable at the very beginning: Cyano-Acrylate ... sigh-ann-oh-a-cra-late.

Anyone who ever got involved with remote control cars learned real quick the importance of quality super glue to mount tires on wheels.

My X5's frame is glued in places instead of being welded. 130k miles and still solid.

I've been wrong for years regarding super glue, its origins, and wound care. Sure it sucks when you find out you've been wrong all this time, but that's what learning will always feel like I guess! Great video and very informative!

I was repairing typewriters in the 1972 when we were issued first generation super glue. I glued a quarter to the corner of a pool table using it . A year later it was still there, edges slightly battered from people trying to knock it off.

We paramotor pilots use superglue to repair carbon propellers and wood ones. The extra thin works excellent to wick into the carbon fiber layers. In addition, some you can use a dry filler material such as baking soda or special powders, where you lay down dry filler, soak with superglue, let it set, repeat to build it up pretty thick if needed. Sandpaper to re-profile.

As a general historian, the history guy cannot allow himself to become stuck to any particular era or subject.😉

Great video. During the mid 1970s we were using a new very expensive glue called Eastman cement to do very special projects. Never made the connection to Eastman Kodak.

My upper dentures broke in three places. I didn't have the money for a dentist to order me another one, so I used Super glue to glue the pieces back together and they look good as new. I do however am careful not to eat anything hard or crunchy, but I can live with that. Interesting history on super glue. Thanks!

I really enjoyed this. An excellent presentation on a very sticky subject.

My late mother was a young chemist who was working for Tennessee Eastman at the time Coover and Joyner discovered Super Glue, although she worked in a different laboratory. According to her, a group of young chemists, including herself and Joyner, would eat lunch together. She laughingly recalled Joyner was very excited about the significance of their findings, but the others, including Mom, sort of rolled their eyes and were skeptical at the time. Obviously, Joyner was proven correct as it became a very big deal in short order.

Harry Coover died at the age of 94, he stuck around as long as he could. In 1970, the surgeons glued birth defects at the bottom of my spine together with bone from the iliac crest of my hip and surgical grade cyanoacrylates. I got caught up a piece of industrial machinery, 3 years later. Surrounding bone cracked but the glued area held strong. The doctor was right, he said I wouldn't be able to break it.

This guy really makes even mundane things seem quite fun!!

So-called “surgical glue” is essentially a variant of super glue. My doctor told me I should put a tube in a first aid kit when I went hiking.

I was glued to my screen watching this! Thank you. 🙏

I kept some in the church balcony to repair my organ shoes when needed.

I use a lot of the stuff, as a clear coat repair , sealant, part component for plastic repair. It can be mixed with graphite, bicarbonate soda, wood carbon and even cocoa powder, cotton wool and paper to create a strong and lasting filler, fiber.