28/03/2011 12:46
Harry Coover, Super Glue inventor, dies at 94
Harry Wesley Coover, best-known as the inventor of Super Glue, has died at his home in Kingsport, Tennessee at the age of 94, CNN reports.
Coover got the idea for Super Glue during a lab accident while working for Eastman Kodak. He was studying compounds for use in optically perfect gun sights and impact-resistant jet canopies when an assistant complained that new refractometer prisms were wrecked because they got glued together.
In fact, cyanoacrylate - the chemical name for the glue - was rejected by researchers at first because it bound everything together. But Coover saw its potential.
The glue was first sold as a commercial product in 1958, according to the Super Glue Corp.'s website. It has since become synonymous with curiously powerful adhesives.
Coover was awarded the National Medal of Technology and Innovation last year for his work.