The words glue and adhesive are often transposed, being used to describe the same products. While they do both do the same job (i.e. sticking things together!) historically glue was the first to market, being formed from organic materials such as tree sap and egg white. Adhesives came later, mostly being chemical based, such as PVA (information on this can be found in our PVA adhesives project).
It is said that glues made from tree sap have been found in artifacts almost 200,000 years old but Wikipedia say that the first written records of glue production are only about 2000 years old. Evidence of glue made from animal parts is prolific amongst Egyptian, Roman and Greek history where it was used to glue furniture joints together.
The range of adhesives today is vast, Adhesives have got stronger and stronger and todays synthetic adhesives are even used to hold parts of airplanes together. Construction adesives such as Gripfill, Sticks Like Sh*t, No More Nails etc from adhesive companies such as Unibond, Araldite, Loctite, Evostik
Example of a well known super glue
The most common use of glues and adhesives in the home improvement sector however, remain in carpentry where modern construction glues are as strong as the timber itself. Wall tile adhesive is used a great deal as are a great many grab adhesives, impact adhesives, hot melt adhesives and flooring adhesives.
Superglue ( as with many great inventions, was discovered by accident by the Kodak film company) and PVA are the two most used adhesives at home but our projects explain the use of stronger construction adhesives and epoxies which can be sued to make improvement and repairs which will last a lifetime.