Harry Coover, "Mr. Krazy Glue" passes away @ 94

[Saddle Bronc 124]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-12879603

Harry Coover, creator of Super Glue, dies aged 94

2011/03/28 06:54 ET

Harry Coover received the National Medal of Technology and Innovation in 2010

The creator of Super Glue, Harry Coover, has died in Tennessee, aged 94.

Dr Coover, who died on Saturday, discovered the well-known adhesive by accident, while working for Eastman Kodak, his grandson Adam Paul said.

An assistant at the company noticed that two new refractometer prisms were glued firmly together by the substance.

Dr Coover and a colleague first realised the potential of the glue in 1951, according to the Super Glue Corporation website.

Cyanoacrylate, the chemical name for this glue, was actually discovered some years earlier.

During World War II researchers were looking for materials to make clear plastic gun sights. The website said researchers dismissed it for that purpose because it stuck to everything.

President Barack Obama awarded Dr Coover the National Medal of Technology and Innovation in 2010.

Dr Coover became vice-president of the chemical division for development at Eastman Kodak, where the team he worked with achieved more than 460 patents. He gained a place on the National Inventors Hall of Fame in Ohio in 2004.

Dr Coover was born in Newark, Delaware, and gained a degree in chemistry from Hobart College in New York and a PhD from Cornell University.