Who Invented Post-it Notes?

Although the actual invention of the Post-It Note itself was the work of another inventor, Art Fry, Silver invented the "low tack" mildly adhesive backing that made Post-It notes possible. He did this in 1968 and by the 1980s, Post-It Notes could be found in offices and schools around the world.

Spencer Silver began working for the 3M company as a new product developer in 1953. He earned a doctorate in organic chemistry in 1966 and soon took a position as a Senior Chemist at 3M's Central Research Laboratory where he worked for the rest of his career. He helped invent many new products for 3M, but he came up with his most famous invention, the glue for Post-It Notes, in 1968. This adhesive was revolutionary in a couple of ways. It was strong enough to adhere to most surfaces, yet weak enough to come off of those surfaces without doing any damage to them. Furthermore, it took several uses before the invention lost its adhesive qualities.

Unfortunately, Silver was not as good at marketing as he was at inventing. He thought his product would best be used as a spray or as a surface for bulletin boards. 3M ultimately rejected those ideas, however, and might have shelved the invention altogether if it had not been for another employee, Art Fry who realized the adhesive's potential. Five years later, Fry attended a seminar about the adhesive given by Silver. After being thus introduced to the product, it did not take him long to invent the Post-It Note. The story of how this happened is fairly famous.

It so happened that Art Fry sang in the choir at his church. One Sunday, after being frustrated that his bookmarks always fell out of his hymnal, making him loose his place, he began thinking of ways to remedy the problem. During the sermon, he came upon the idea of using Silver's adhesive to secure the bookmarks. He passed his idea to his supervisors who were initially worried that consumers would think these "reusable bookmarks" wasteful, but they eventually gave it their support after samples of the product distributed to 3M employees proved wildly popular.

It took several years to develop machines to manufacture the product, but Post-It Notes were introduced across the country in 1980. Less than two years later, they could be found in offices around the world.

Art Fry and Spencer Silver were both honored for their contributions to this humble invention and continued to work at 3M for many years. They received numerous awards from 3M and the engineering community. They did not receive any special compensation for their invention, however, although it has earned 3M millions of dollars and continues to be a significant source of revenue.