The chemist who invented super glue

By KENNETH KWAMA

Dr Harry Wesley Coover, the man who invented Super Glue was working for Tennessee Eastman Company, a division of Kodak, when an accident led to the discovery of the popular adhesive.

In 1942, as a chemist with Eastman Kodak, Coover was tasked with developing a plastic rifle sight for use in World War II. One of the compounds he tested was cyanoacrylate (the chemical name for the glue), was incredibly durable but had one annoying drawback.

"The damn problem was everything was sticking to everything else," he told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in 2005. "We had a hard time using it in molds."

The inventor stopped working with the compound because it was too bothersome, but found himself in the thick of things again in 1951, while testing a heat-resistant combination of chemicals for use in aircraft windshields when he remembered his encounter with glue.

jet cockpits

He was then working with a researcher named Fred Joyner — a critical hand that was helping him in the laboratory by testing hundreds of compounds in search of a temperature — resistant coating for jet cockpits.

According to the New York Times, when Joyner spread the 910th compound on the list between two lenses on a refractometer to take a reading on the velocity of light through it, he discovered he could not separate the lenses.

"His initial reaction was panic at the loss of the expensive lab equipment. He ruined the machine," A man described as Dr Paul said of the refractometer. "Back in the ’50s, they cost like $3,000, which was huge," states www.nytimes.com.

When Coover’s colleague permanently bonded the lenses of the expensive optical instrument with a droplet of the liquid, instead of being bothered, it gave him a new idea.

Upon further investigation, he found that the compound solidified after coming into contact with trace amounts of moisture, creating an extremely strong polymer layer between two surfaces.

"It suddenly struck me that what we had was not a casting material but super glue," he said in 2005.

Dr Coover introduced his product to the public in 1958 on an episode of the game show "I’ve Got a Secret," hosted by Garry Moore.

They aptly named the glue Eastman 910 because its fast-acting adhesive was usually effective by the count of 10. The inventor was able to hoist Moore in the air as the host dangled from a set of glued pipes.

After its release, Eastman 910’s remarkable strength and sticky quality led to a wide variety of applications.

Beyond its practical uses, Super Glue became a fixture in slapstick comedy and popular culture.

Mininature dog

In the 1983 movie "The Man Who Loved Women," Burt Reynolds and a tube of Instant Krazy Glue become stuck to a white shag carpet and a miniature dog named Simba.

"At Georgetown University, doctors used Super Glue to glue leg fractures in rats, rabbits and dogs. Cosmetic surgeons have used super glue to reduce scarring. Forensic scientists have applied the glue to recover fingerprints at crime scenes. In the 1950s, it was used in the manufacturing of atomic weapons," states www.washingtonpost.com.

Of all its uses, Coover was most proud of its application in the Vietnam War. Many combat medics carried a spray version of his glue because it was a coagulant that could be applied to bloody wounds.

"There are lots of soldiers who would have bled to death," Dr Coover told Ohio’s Akron Beacon Journal in 2004. "It saved a lot of lives."

Coover was born March 6, 1917, in Newark, Delaware and had a very eventful childhood.

As a teenager, he was one day driving over a railroad crossing when his car was hit by a train. The accident sent him into a coma for several months. When he awoke, he had no memory of the crash or his life before he was 16.

Last month

He recovered and graduated in 1941 from Hobart College in New York. He then attended Cornell University, where he received a master’s degree in 1942 and a doctorate in 1944, both in chemistry. He died last month.

"His wife of more than 63 years, Muriel Zumbach Coover, died in 2005. Survivors include three children, Melinda Paul of Greensboro, Harry W. Coover III of Geneva, and Stephen Coover of Oak Ridge, a sister and four grandchildren, states an obituary posted on www washingtonpost.com.

The inventor retired from Eastman Kodak as vice president in 1984, but continued to work for many years as a consultant.

According to the Washington Times, throughout his career, Coover held more than 460 patents — a number of them were for variations of his glue.

When licensing agreements and different patents ran out, several companies began developing adhesives based on his original invention.

"There are also plenty of pranks involving Super Glue, including the liberal application of the adhesive to a toilet seat - a college-dorm staple," states the newspaper.

The inventor suggested that victims of such schemes should soak in warm water. If that doesn’t provide relief, he said, try nail polish remover.