In 1938, Spencer Silver, a chemist at 3M, was developing a strong adhesive for the aviation industry. But in the process, he came up with glue so weak, that the objects stuck using it could be repositioned several times. No one knew what to do with it and the idea was shelved.
Then in 1974, a 3M chemical engineer called Art Fry was having bookmark trouble. He had to bookmark pages in his hymn book and was annoyed when they constantly slipped out from their intended page. So, he decided to use some of Spencer's failed adhesive to secure them.
And he was pleasantly surprised with the results.
He said, "I thought, what we have here isn't just a bookmark. It's a whole new way to communicate."
He said, "I thought, what we have here isn't just a bookmark. It's a whole new way to communicate."
So Fry proposed that the glue be applied to small, canary-yellow 3M note slips. And that's how the ultra-productive Post-its (or sticky notes) were invented.
Correction: Spencer Silver originally discovered the adhesive in 1968, not 1938.
