h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

A little-known fact about "duct tape" is that every roll of it has a very cute picture of an aquatic bird on it.

That's because it's Duck (-brand) Tape, not duct-tape.

Which is, of course, very useful if you ever want to do any of the amazingly useful things with it suggested
on this page. Especially if you don't live on the stage-set of "Brazil".

Actually, duck tape and duct tape are different, and they have both in most hardware stores (in Canada anyway.) Duct tape is supposed to be used for fixing heating ducts. Which is about the only thing it's not good for.

"DUCK TAPE" is one brand name of the product DUCT TAPE. Manco (a Henkel Company) is the manufacturer, and in 1985 renamed their product DUCK Tape, presumably because that is how most North Americans were asking for it in stores.

The tape came first, as others have said. It's also known as gaffer tape (mainly in the theatrical and film industries), and tank tape (by plumbers) .

In the (British)army it's known as Jungle Tape for some reason, although officially it's 'tape waterproof adhesive'. It was certainly useful in keeping many of my aged motor vehicles from totally disintegrating!