Inspired by the British Museum’s “Stuff That Defines Us: A History of the World in 100 Objects,” Padua360 shares with readers the origins of certain objects and how they play a role in life today.
Everyone knows what Post-Its are: square sticky pieces of paper that are great for on-the-go messages. However what most people don’t know is how they were created.
Two scientists, Spencer Silver and Art Fry, invented Post-it Notes together, although unintentionally. Spencer Silver was born in San Antonio, and in 1679 he became a Senior Chemist for 3M’s Central Research Labs specializing in adhesives technology. While working as a senior scientist in 3M’s corporate research lab, he was trying to develop a very strong adhesive. However in his attempts, he developed a super-weak adhesive rather than a super-strong one. Because Silver had no use for his invention, he held seminars within 3M, for scientists, in hopes that someone would have a use for the weak adhesive. After five years of trying to sell the product, Silver gave up, but did not discard it.
Art Fry was also a scientist working at 3M. He was born in Minnesota, and showed signs of becoming an inventor as a child. He attended University of Minnesota, and began working for 3M while he was a student in 1953, in New Product Development. One day when Fry was singing in his church choir, his page marker fell out of his hymnal. He kept thinking that this was very annoying, and he just wanted a page marker to stay in the book.Then Fry had an idea: the super-weak adhesive! He remembered going to a seminar advertising a weak adhesive, and so he went into the lab the next day and applied a small layer of the adhesive to one edge of a piece of paper. The result was great; his page marker stuck to his book without ruining the pages.
With this great idea, 3M launched the product in 1977. The product failed however, because no one knew or had tried the product before. One year later they decided to hand out free samples, and 90% of consumers said they would purchase the product. By 1980 the product was being sold nationwide. Today the product is sold internationally and has been a huge success. Over the years Post-It has come up with more ideas to sell their product, and now there are several different versions of the product. In any given drug store you can find: Post-It Notes, Labels, Bulletin Boards, Pens with notes attached for easy access, easel pads and craft paper. Post-Its have expanded greatly and is now a very successful company.
