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107 points sohkamyung | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.201s | source
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aaron695 ◴[] No.44006410[source]
> Duct Tape

NASA says gray tape.

You'll find some documents say duct tape, but here it was gray, transcript -

https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/static/history/alsj/...

"space-age baling wire" I think is velcro

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allknowingfrog ◴[] No.44007573[source]
Did "duct" tape become the standard nomenclature at some point? I learned many years ago that "duck" really is the correct term, because the tape was originally made of cotton duck cloth.

Lots of people assume that "duck" is actually the misunderstanding, and that it must be a slurring of "duct", but there's no history of using duck tape on ducts. It's the wrong tool for the job, and the wrong name for the material. I'm surprised to see that sources like the NYT and Wikipedia are using "duct tape" as the preferred term.

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jedbrooke ◴[] No.44008132[source]
there is also a pretty popular brand “Duck Brand” duct tape likely adding to the “duck vs duct” confusion
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1. kube-system ◴[] No.44008190[source]
And the company that started selling the tape for ducts and calling it "duct tape" is the corporate predecessor of that same company.