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Post-it notes grew out of what failed experiment?
3M chemist Spencer Silver made a weak, reusable adhesive in 1968. Colleague Art Fry later used it for bookmarks.
In 1968 Spencer Silver, a chemist at 3M's central research laboratory, was looking for a very strong adhesive for aerospace use. He instead produced one that stuck to surfaces but could be peeled off cleanly and reused. It was made of tiny acrylic spheres that touch only at points, so it grips lightly. At first nobody knew what to do with it, and Silver spent years promoting it internally through seminars.
The turning point came in about 1974, when Art Fry, a 3M product development engineer who sang in a church choir, got frustrated that paper bookmarks fell out of his hymnal. He recalled Silver's adhesive and tried it on markers, which stayed in place without damaging pages. Combined with 3M's tradition of letting employees spend part of their time on their own projects, the idea grew into a product.
The first version, 'Press 'n Peel', was test-marketed in 1977 with limited success, and sales took off after 3M distributed free samples in Boise, Idaho in 1978-1979. It launched nationally as Post-it Notes in 1980. The canary yellow color is said to have been chosen because scrap yellow paper was what the lab had on hand.