How the Post-it Note Was Invented by Accident
Small post-it notes can be seen everywhere: if you forget the meeting time, post one! Suddenly had a whimsical idea, posted one! Need to leave a message, post one! But you may not know that such a convenient post-it note was invented by two accidents.
In 1966, Spencer F. Silver obtained a Ph.D. and entered the 3M Company. His research group was tasked with developing a stronger adhesive. The properties of an adhesive depend on the molecular structure.
One day in 1968, Dr. Silver was doing an experiment. He put into the reactants a chemical reagent that would polymerize the molecules, but occasionally put in a little more than usual. Suddenly, he found that the previously prepared particles did not dissolve as expected, but dispersed in the solvent. Dr. Silver found it very novel, so he made a further attempt. In the end, instead of making a stronger adhesive, he made a weaker one. This adhesive is very viscous, but it is very easy to peel off. After peeling off, it can be used repeatedly.
Initially, 3M management was not interested in the new adhesive because it was no stronger than existing adhesives. Even Dr. Silver himself doesn't know how to market it.
However, he insisted that his invention was useful, it must be a solution to some problem. The question is what is that problem? Over the next few years, Dr. Silver went out of his way to introduce his adhesives to those around him, so much so that they dubbed him "Mr. Perseverance."
Dr. Arthur Fry, who was working at 3M at the time, heard about it from another colleague, so he went to listen to Dr. Silver's report and learned about the properties of this adhesive.
Dr. Fry enjoys singing and is a member of the local church choir. Every Wednesday night, he goes to choir practice. In the process of practicing, he often uses some scraps of paper as bookmarks. However, the pieces of paper kept falling down, so that he couldn't find his own lyrics. In order to solve this problem, Dr. Fry thought, is it possible to stick the bookmark on the lyrics book without damaging the pages when it is torn off? By chance, he thought of Dr. Silver's invention.
The next day, he asked Dr. Silver for a sample, made a sticky bookmark, and tried it out at his next practice session. He found that the bookmarks worked well, but left a little residue when they were torn off. In order to keep the adhesive on the bookmark, Dr. Fry made some improvements. After that, he sent this new bookmark to his colleagues for trial use, but the effect was not very good.
Once, Dr. Fry thought of a problem while writing a report, so he tore off a little sticky bookmark and wrote it on, and then pasted it on the cover of the report. His boss wrote the response on a bookmark and posted it back to him on a report. Suddenly, Dr. Fry thought of a new use for sticky bookmarks—sticky sticky notes.
Afterwards, Fry Boshi's research team made some samples and sent them to colleagues of 3M Company for trial. This time the response was good. After a difficult initial marketization, the little post-it note became a necessity in the office within a few years and was sold all over the world.
Today, when we tear off the post-it note, can we still remember that this little yellow piece of paper was produced by two accidents: Dr. Silver accidentally discovered a weaker adhesive when he was developing a strong adhesive; While practicing in the choir, the doctor came up with the idea of putting bookmarks on the pages of books.
As for why the most common post-it notes are yellow, it is said to be because of another accident.
The post-it research team needs some small pieces of paper, and the laboratory opposite happens to have some small yellow pieces of paper. When they wanted more, the scientist in the opposite laboratory told them, "If you still want a small piece of yellow paper, you can buy it yourself." So the post-it research team went and bought little yellow pieces of paper. As a result, the original post-it notes were yellow.
Until now, the most classic post-it note is still yellow.
