How super glue was invented | Moments of Vision 8 - Jessica Oreck

395,396 views ・ 2017-02-06

TED-Ed


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

00:06
In a Moment of Vision...
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It's the 1940s, the height of World War II, Rochester, New York.
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A chemist by the name of Harry Coover is conducting research for Eastman Kodak.
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He and his team are looking for a clear plastic
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to produce precision gunsights for the military.
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They begin working with a family of chemicals called cyanoacrylates,
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but find, to their extreme annoyance,
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that the chemicals stick to everything permanently.
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The cyanoacrylates are discarded.
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After the war, Coover is working at Kodak's chemical plant in Tennessee.
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This time, he and his team are researching
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heat-resistant polymers for jet airplane canopies.
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They try cyanoacrylates, but find, to their great frustration,
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that the chemicals stick to everything permanently.
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Again, the cyanoacrylates are discarded.
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Coover, however, in a moment of vision,
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realizes that the quality that makes these chemicals so infuriating to work with
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is exactly what makes them valuable.
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He takes out a patent and begins marketing a super glue.
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Years later during the Vietnam War,
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field medics find that using super glue on an open wound
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instantly stops the bleeding,
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saving countless lives.
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Today, medical grade super glue is still used in surgery,
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but it's also a nearly indispensable household item.
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