Clag is an Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n brand of glue

Glue

This is a list of various types of glue. Historically, the term "glue" only referred to protein colloids prepared from animal flesh. The meaning has been extended to refer to any fluid adhesive....

 made by Bostik

Bostik

Bostik is an international adhesives company, a subsidiary of the French oil and gas company Total S.A., head-quartered at Paris. The company was created as Bostik Findley in 2001 after the merger of Bostik and Ato Findley, following the merger of their parent companies, Total Fina and Elf...

.

Although a range of glue products are today marketed by Bostik under the Clag name, the most recognised product is "Clag Paste", which is most commonly sold in iconic red 150-gram bottles that have been relatively unchanged for over thirty years.

History

Clag was first trademarked in 1898 by Joseph Angus, manufacturer, of 216 Nicholson Street, North Fitzroy, Melbourne. The National Archives of Australia holds the original trademark application - a digitised version is available online (see References). The exact composition of the original paste is unknown but is thought to have been starch-based.

Use in Australian Schools

Australian schools commonly request that parents purchase Clag paste for their children as part of the stationery lists that are circulated before each school year. The main reason for this is Clag's reputation for safety and ease of use. The bottle includes a brush recessed into the lid that children find relatively easy to handle, and the packaging does not contain any small components that children might swallow.

The main ingredient of Clag is wheat starch dissolved in a water base, meaning that children can safely swallow the glue without incident. Many Australian adults nostalgically recall eating Clag paste as schoolchildren; in fact numerous Jewish schools discourage Clag paste for this reason, owing to the biblical prohibition on consuming wheat products during passover.

It feels cold to touch and when applied to paper, it sometimes alters the colour of what is on it and causes paper to warp, owing to the high water content of the glue. There is an Australian slang usage of the word "clagged" derived from the characteristic of Clag Paste and can be used in place of the words, "clogged", "congested", "restricted" or "stuck".