What do you think of this fact?
On the edge of your monitor, in your textbook, on the fridge: Post-it Notes stick everywhere. And all because a glue didn’t do what it was supposed to.
The glue nobody needed
In 1968, according to MNopedia, the online encyclopedia of the Minnesota Historical Society, Spencer Silver was a scientist at 3M’s headquarters in Maplewood. His goal was a strong adhesive. What he got was the opposite: a glue that held on, but could be peeled off and stuck back down again.
Silver still thought his discovery was useful. According to MNopedia, he spent about five years looking for an application. The problem: nobody really knew what to do with a glue that didn’t hold properly.
Saved by a church choir
The answer came from his colleague Art Fry. Fry sang in a church choir and was annoyed that his paper bookmarks kept falling out of his hymnal. He remembered Silver’s adhesive and thought: a bookmark that sticks a little but leaves no marks would be perfect. MNopedia dates that idea to 1973.
The bookmark became a note. The product was originally called “Press n’ Peel”. In 1977, 3M started its first market tests in several major cities.
The Boise Blitz
Things really took off in 1978 with a big test campaign in Boise, Idaho, known as the “Boise Blitz”. 3M handed out free samples there. According to MNopedia, about 90 percent of the people who tried the product said they would buy it. In 1980, the sticky notes went on sale across the United States.
So twelve years passed between the glue that went wrong and the finished product on the shelf.
Bonus fact: In 2004, the Museum of Modern Art in New York showed a Post-it Note from its collection in its “Humble Masterpieces” exhibition.
Sometimes a lab’s biggest hit is a glue that knows when to let go.