Harry W. Coover Jr. | Super Glue inventor, 94

Harry Wesley Coover Jr., 94, known as the inventor of Super Glue, died Saturday at his home in Kingsport, Tenn.

Mr. Coover, a native of Newark, Del., was working for Tennessee Eastman Co., a division of Eastman Kodak, when an accident helped lead to the discovery of the popular adhesive, his grandson Adam Paul said. An assistant was distressed that some new refractometer prisms were ruined when they were glued together by the substance.

In 1951, Mr. Coover and another researcher recognized the potential for the strong adhesive, and it was first sold in 1958, according to the Super Glue Corp.'s website.

Cyanoacrylate, the chemical name for the glue, was first uncovered in 1942 in a search for materials to make clear plastic gun sights for World War II. But the compound stuck to everything, which is why it researchers rejected it, the website said.

President Obama honored Mr. Coover in 2010 with the National Medal of Technology and Innovation. - AP