The origin of Post-it notes

Many of us use post-its every day, but who invented them and why did he do it?

Art Fry was a researcher at 3M and simultaneously sang at North Presbyterian Church of North St. Paul, Minnesota. In carrying out this activity he came across constantly a simple but annoying problem. During the celebration of Sunday Mass he used a hymn book, and within it he inserted leaflets used as a bookmark. However, these sheets used to fall each time the book was opened, becoming useless and frustrating the poor Fry.

However, as a researcher, he remembered the invention of a colleague at 3M, Spencer Silver, who had designed a sticker which was abandoned because its durability and resistance was too low. The idea was both simple and ingenious: it was necessary to make bookmarks sticky, but not too much, so that it was possible to remove them without tearing out the pages of books, making them unusable.

Easier said than done. Fry began to develop his own idea and after a year he began to distribute the first package to their colleagues so that would be used as bookmarks. It was a big surprise when he realized that the post-it notes were not used only as bookmarks, but chiefly to mark notes to attack on unfinished practicals.

So it was that Art offered his invention to the sales office, but was greeted with suspicion. However, thanks to his insistence, in 1977 the first test from 3M was made and in 1980 they began production and distribution of Post-its.

Now the Post-it is one of those inventions that has changed peoples lifestyles and that is the reason why Fry and Silver both entered in the list of the best Americans inventors.

Post-its now come in all shapes and sizes and are a favourite office product item.