What is about the most boring topic you can think of? Could it be a discussion on glue? Well it just might turn out that glue is not a boring topic after all. Webster's Dictionary online describes glue this way,  any of various strong adhesive substances; especially : a hard protein chiefly gelatinous substance that absorbs water to form a viscous solution with strong adhesive properties and that is obtained by cooking down collagenous materials (as hides or bones) b: a solution of glue used for sticking things together 2: something that binds together. The art of gluing things goes back to the time of the cavemen. They would boil down animal fat and bones and then use the glue that they had created to help hold spears and clubs together. No one actually knows how long glue has been in use, but it goes back to the dawn of man. You have to wonder how it was ever discovered? Maybe when a meal was being prepared, such as boiled ox, someone left it on too long and got a gelatinous material and it was sticky, who knows? Anyway that was the start of glue. There aren't many inventions that we can trace back that far. Glue must have been here many thousands of years before anyone even thought of the wheel. What I have stated above is subject to some controversy.

As time went by, people discovered that fact that there were other sticky substances out there. Archeologists have found that a different type of glue was used a little later. It was found that some ancient people had used tree sap to repair their household items. The ancient Egyptians had a form of glue that many think was made from milk, but they also used gum in place of glue for many different purposes along with animal glue. One of those being during mummification. They would take the strips of linen that they wrapped the mummys in and coat the inside with the gum to make it stick to the body. The Egyptians would preserve some things that were important to them such as certain types of boxes by decorating them and then covering them with a layer of glue and covering the glue with bee's wax. The ancient Egyptians were big users of glue and animal glue was the most popular type.

The Babylonians used a glue that was more like a tar. It was used to glue statues together, among other things. This sort of reminds me of the type of glue that is black in color and comes in a stick. You heat it up and it becomes very sticky and will even glue china together and when it dries, it bonds so strong that the plate feels like it was never broken. Of course you can see the repair unfortunately.

It is not surprising that the usage of glue took a leap forward during the time of the ancient Greeks. .If we go back to the 5th century B.C. we find that the linothorax, which was a cuirass (body armor that covers from neck to waist) was made of layers that were glued together. These people were trusting their very lives to glue. The materials that were used to create this armor and the exact method of manufacture seem to be lost in the annals of history, but there is much speculation. The primary glues of the ancient Greeks were animal glue and fish glue.

Every time I talk about the Romans and find out something new, I get more amazed. Somehow the Romans discovered a super glue, a glue so strong that it is still holding things together today. This glue was so good, that the Roman soldiers used to use it to repair their battle equipment. When a Roman soldier would receive silver laurel leaves, he would mount it on his helmet using this glue and it would stay there, maybe forever. In 1986 traces of this glue were found on a helmet that was was dug up near the German town of Xanten. The glue that was found was just as strong today as when it first dried. When the glue was analyzed, it was found that it was created from bitumen, bark pitch and animal grease. Knowing ingredients is not always enough to allow you to recreate something like this, as the researchers have found out. They think that other inorganic material might have been added to make it stickier, such as soot, sand and quartz, but they just can't be sure of that or even the proportions. By the way, this glue must have been in common usage because plates have been found that were broken and then glued back together with it.

Glue was used by the Mongols. The Mongols carried a bow that was short and small by the standards of the time, but it was far more powerful than any other bow around. It was so powerful that the arrows that were fired from it could pierce armor. Why was this bow so powerful? The reason was that it was a composite that was glued together. It had a range of 350 yards which was at least 100 yards further than the famed English long bow. The different layers of bone and wood were glued together with fish glue. This incredible glued bow had only one drawback. If it was used in the rain, it would fall apart. Lucky for the Mongols, their enemies didn't realize this or that is when they would have attacked.

Today we have scientifically produced and artificially created super glues. For any of you out there that have ever gotten any of them on your bare hands, you know how super that they are when applied to human skin. If one takes the glue known as "Super Glue" and applies it to 1 square inch, that square inch bond will be able to hold over one ton. So what is in this glue that makes it so strong? The answer is cyanoacrylate. This substance is an acrylic resin and dries extremely fast. It is triggered by tiny amounts of hydroxyl ions which are found in water and almost every object has at least tiny amounts of this on it. Not all modern glues work this way. For example, a glue which is the carpenter's favorite is Elmer's glue. The glue contains water and polyvinylacetate latex and when you use it to glue two surfaces together, the water eventually evaporates leaving the latex material to bond the objects together. There are many other modern glues available today and many under development. One that is being experimented with comes from sea creatures such as barnacles that can attach themselves to the bottom of ship and are extremely hard to get off. Most modern aircraft are now made of composites and contain a large amount of glue.

Will any modern glues outlast the Roman glue that is still working? That is a very good question even though I asked it myself. Can you imagine that the Romans could develop their super glue without the aid of scientists and labs? Will our high tech stuff meet the test of time? All I know is this, I watched a building being built in New York City about 15 years ago. The building was special at that time because the stone facade on the outside was glued to it. Within 2 years, it started to fall off and it had to be bolted on, which really looks terrible, to say the least. Too bad there were no ancient Romans around to help.