Ed Smylie, Who Saved the Apollo 13 Crew with Duct Tape, Dies at 95

> 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

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 I learned many years ago that "duck" really is the correct term, because the tape was originally made of cotton duck cloth.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.