Home > Notre information

The first adhesives were natural gums and other plant resins or saps. It was believed that the Sumerian people were the first to use them until it was discovered that Neanderthals as far back as 50,000 years made adhesives from birch bark. The discovery of 6000-year-old ceramics brought evidence to archaeologists about the first practical uses and ingredients of the first adhesives.

 

Most early adhesives were animal glues made by rendering animal products such as horse teeth. During the times of Babylonia, tar-like glue was used for gluing statues.

 

The Egyptians made much use of animal glues to adhere furniture, ivory, and papyrus.

 

The Mongols also used adhesives to make their short bows, and the Native Americans of the eastern United States used a mixture of spruce gum and fat as adhesives to fashion waterproof seams in their birchbark canoes.

 

In medieval Eurasia, egg whites were used as glue to decorate parchments with gold leaf. The first actual glue factory was founded in Holland in the early 1700s. In the 1750s, the English introduced fish glue. As the modern world evolved, several other patented materials, such as bones, starch, fish, and casein, were introduced as alternative materials for glue manufacture. Modern glues have improved beyond recognition, with improved flexibility, toughness, curing rate, and chemical resistance.