science

Perkins Paste

Perkins Paste is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Perkins Paste rather than just read about it. In short: Perkins Paste was an Australian brand of adhesive. Although not designed specifically for children, its quick drying, non-toxic formula made it safe for school use.

Key takeaways

Perkins Paste belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Perkins Paste to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Perkins Paste from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Perkins Paste was an Australian brand of adhesive. Although not designed specifically for children, its quick drying, non-toxic formula made it safe for school use. The glue was sold commonly in small, 60-gram, fuchsia-coloured, cylindrical plastic tubs with white plastic lids that incorporated the flat, spatula-like applicator. The paste was a thick white solid paste, made from boiled potato dextrin.

Company history Perkins Paste was owned and started by Maurice Bertram Jeffery, a commercial artist who found himself unemployed during the Great Depression. Production began in 1934 in Albion Street, Surry Hills and ceased during the 1980s. It became a cultural icon, akin to Vegemite or the Tim Tam biscuit. Many users of the product recall eating Perkins Paste during their primary school years.

Popular culture A track called 'Perkins Paste' has been recorded by the band Bleeding Jelly Eyes. On 11 March 1993, Perkins Paste was mentioned in the NSW Legislative Assembly during debate on the 'State Environmental Planning Policy No. 3 - Castlereagh Liquid Waste Disposal Depot'. The then Member for Ermington implied that the then Member for Blacktown had rearranged information contained in Water Board memoranda: "out with the scissors, out with the Perkins Paste, and out with the truth". In 2003, Perkin's Paste was mentioned in a newspaper report concerning the youth creative arts festival 'Noise' in Melbourne. The digital revolution was likened to Perkins Paste as a form of creativity (of DIY, cutting and pasting) available to everyone.

Travel writer Susan Kurosawa recalled, in a 2007 newspaper article, her mother's use of Perkins Paste: I have a photograph of the young Susan, on board the old Arcadia in the late 1950s, en route from Southampton to Sydney, at an equator-crossing ceremony. I appear to be wearing a hula skirt and a discouragingly small bra made from two segments of a cut-up egg carton. Around my neck is a chain of coloured bath cubes. My hair is a mermaid's tangle of toilet-roll twists and I am holding an upside-down broom as a makeshift trident. I have a vague memory of the terror I felt when my mother set off to make this costume at an on-board creative arts class. What that woman couldn't do with a few rolls of crepe paper, a couple of decommissioned coat-hangers and a pot of Perkins Paste isn't even worth considering. A t-shirt showing the Perkins Paste label was previously available from REMO. Australian Urban Culture side-note: Eating small amounts of Perkin's Paste was a "rite of passage" in most Australian Primary Schools during the 1970s.

Notes

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Perkins Paste

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Perkins Paste claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Perkins Paste before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Perkins Paste ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Perkins Paste

In research: Perkins Paste appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Perkins Paste in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Perkins Paste is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1934 establishments in Australia, Adhesives, Australian brands, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Perkins Paste outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Perkins Paste in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Perkins Paste means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Perkins Paste out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Perkins Paste in simple terms?

Perkins Paste was an Australian brand of adhesive. Although not designed specifically for children, its quick drying, non-toxic formula made it safe for school use.

Why does Perkins Paste matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Perkins Paste?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Perkins Paste.