The 3M Company, originally founded in 1902 as a mining and manufacturing company, is an American corporation based in Maplewood, Minnesota. Richard G. Drew, a lab assistant in 1925, invented masking tape, which was a critical step towards 3Ms diversification and first of many 3M Scotch pressure sensitive tapes. Of the more than 55,000 products the company produces, 3M Industrial Adhesives and Tapes and Hardware Divisions offer more than 400 varieties of tape and other spray adhesives, glue, dispensers and laminators.