3M’s Press ‘n Peel Bookmarks were rebranded as Post-it in 1980 and became a huge success. The patent expired in 1997, but the yellow color is still registered. A blogger suggested rotating the pad to prevent curling. Spencer Silver invented the reusable, pressure-sensitive adhesive in 1968 while trying to create a super-strong adhesive. The idea for sticky notes came when a colleague used a prototype to tag favorite songs in his hymnal. The yellow color was unintentional but stuck.
3M launched its first line of sticky notes as Press ‘n Peel Bookmarks in 1977, but results were lukewarm. Three years later, the product was rebranded as Post-it and the concept soon struck gold. The company’s patent expired in 1997, but the distinctive yellow color of the original product is still registered. However, many Post-it users have noticed that the notes tend to curl from the bottom when stuck to a wall or computer monitor, possibly due to the grain of the paper. In 2013, a clever blogger named Martin Schapendonk touted a fix: Rotate the pad and write with the sticker on the side. When you remove a post-it note when the adhesive is on the side, rather than the top, it tends to sit much flatter.
Spencer Silver’s Notable Work:
Spencer Silver, a 3M scientist, had the idea for a reusable, pressure-sensitive adhesive in 1968. Instead, he was attempting to invent a super-strong adhesive.
For years, Silver’s idea was a response to a problem that hadn’t yet been identified—until a colleague started using prototype sticky notes to tag favorite songs in his hymnal.
The color of the original sticky notes was not intended. The team behind Post-its started using yellow waste paper during development and the idea stuck.
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