Genius, according to Thomas Edison, is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. But with the invention of Post-it® Notes, Art Fry and Spencer Silver would soon rewrite that formula to genius = 1% imagination and 99% innovation.
Meet the Scientists
In 1968, Spencer Silver made an astonishing discovery – a high quality ‘low-tack’ adhesive that sticks to paper and to almost any other surface but wasn’t so sticky that it would damage those surfaces when it was pulled off. Trouble was it was a solution to no particular problem.
But five years later, Art Fry did have a problem for Silver’s solution. While singing at his church choir, Fry grew frustrated with the pieces of paper he used as bookmarks because everytime he stood and opened his hymnal to sing all of it ended up on the floor. “My mind began to wander during the sermon,” Fry confessed. “I thought about Spence’s adhesive. If I could coat it on paper, that [it] would be just the ticket for a better bookmark.”
And with this simple insight, Fry took to the labs of 3M and started tinkering around with Silver’s adhesive to produce the iconic Canary Yellow™ Post-it® Notes.
Sticky Science
How Spencer Silver described his revolutionary adhesive on the US patent he submitted in 1972 uses words like microspheres and ionic monomers may seem like he’s speaking Greek to some but simply put it’s a one-of-a-kind adhesive that ‘half-glues’ paper together without leaving residue or tearing the paper apart. But the best part about Silver’s adhesive is that it can be used more than once which gives Post-it® Notes its repositionable quality.
However, it would still take a while of perfecting its adhesive properties and overcoming technical considerations before Post-it® Notes were rolled out in the market. But as co-creator Art Fry puts it there’s nothing more that 3M loves than ‘to create a product that is easy for customers to use but hard for competitors to make.’
An Idea that Stuck
Now after almost 30 years since it first came out of the market, Post-it® Notes have become a quintessential part of any workspace, being hailed by no less than the MIT as ‘what is probably the most significant office supply product since the paperclip.’
From its signature Canary Yellow™ hue, Post-it® Notes are now available in more colors such as Neon, Ultra, Pastel and Sweet Pea as well as varying sizes from 2”x2” to 3”x5”. "It's like having your children grow up and turn out to be happy and successful," says Fry "When Post-it® Notes are still used after I am gone, it will be as if a part of me will live on forever."
