HOW A CHOIR SINGERS IDEA LED TO THE INVENTION OF THE UBIQUITOUS POST-IT NOTES?

In 1968, an American undergraduate student named Art Fry who worked with a company called 3M, invented Post-It Notes-small pieces of paper that can be stuck to any surface, but leave no mark when they are peeled off. The company had been researching a super glue. An adhesive had been invented but its sticking power was so weak it was dismissed as a failure. Fry, who was a choir singer, used the weak glue to make flags for his hymn book. The flags could be removed when needed without damaging the paper, and reused many times.

Post-It Notes became all the rage among Fry’s colleagues, but it was not until 1980 that 3M began selling pads of notepaper with a strip of adhesive along one edge for office use. It was an instant success.

The chemist who actually invented the adhesive was Spencer Silver, Fry’s senior colleague at 3M. He did not know what to make of it until Fry accidentally discovered its utility.

Picture Credit : Google 

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