Harry Wesley Coover Jr., known as the inventor of Super Glue, has died. He was 94.
Coover was working for Tennessee Eastman Company, a division of Eastman Kodak, when an accident helped lead to the popular adhesive being discovered, according to his grandson, Adam Paul of South Carolina. An assistant was distressed that some brand new refractometer prisms were ruined when they were glued together by the substance.
In 1951, Coover and another researcher recognized the potential for the strong adhesive, and it was first sold in 1958, according to the Super Glue Corp.'s website.
Cyanoacrylate, the chemical name for the glue, was first uncovered in 1942 in a search for materials to make clear plastic gun sights for World War II. But the compound stuck to everything, which is why it was rejected by researchers, the website said.
President Barack Obama honored Coover in 2010 with the National Medal of Technology and Innovation.
Link:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/27/harry-coover-dead-super-glue_n_841227.html
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