Today electrical tape is simply, “another form of insulation”. The original electrical insulating tape was made of cloth tape impregnated with Chatterton’s compound; an adhesive material manufactured using Gutta-percha. This type of tape was often used to insulate soldered splices on knob and tube wiring. It was commonly referred to as “friction tape”, and had the unique property of being sticky on both sides. Because of this, no matter how it was used it stuck to itself very readily.