The inventor of the Post-it Note has died. Dr. Spencer Silver, a research chemist at 3M, was trying to create an adhesive strong enough for use in aircraft construction. Though he failed at that, his various experiments produced a reusable adhesive that stuck to and easily peeled away from surfaces.
Dr. Silver tried to get 3M to take notice of his adhesive for years. Six years after he developed the adhesive, a chemical engineer looking to develop new products showed some interest. Art Fry worked in the tape division at 3M. He was frustrated that his bookmarks in his hymnal kept falling out. So he applied Dr. Silver’s adhesive and found that it held the bookmark in place and didn’t tear the pages when it was removed. The first Post-it was born.
Executives were skeptical of the product after testing it in various markets in the late 1970s. But they were ultimately convinced when one test revealed that 90 percent of receptionist in one market would buy the product.
3M introduced Post-it Notes in 1979. The adhesive was patented in 1972. In 1993 Art Fry received a patent for a method of making the Post-it.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/13/business/spencer-silver-dead.html
Featured Image Credit: “post-it notes” by Dean Hochman is licensed under CC BY 2.0