It’s a Total Fluke We Have Post-It Notes

How many post-it note pads do you have on your desk or in that kitchen drawer with all the pens and other junk? Do you have various colors and are they on your refrigerator at home or on the bottom of your computer monitor? Maybe even on your bathroom mirror?

Even though we don't technically need them for reminders or brainstorming because everything can be put into our phones or computers the Post-It is definitely an innovation that stands the test of our technical times.

I use them all the time and although yellow is the most popular color in general, it's nice to mix it up with pink and blue, too. You just glance up and there's the reminder or message in pretty colors.

However, it's a total fluke that we have them. Thank goodness for happy accidents.

The fluke didn't happen overnight whether happened over a few years which makes it a happy accident times three.

FLUKE #1

To start, it's thanks to Dr. Spencer Silver who was a scientist with the company 3M. According to the Idea Wake website, in 1968 he was trying to invent a strong adhesive to use on aircrafts. Instead he created the low-tack sticky stuff that is easily removable from surfaces without leaving any residue.

It was ruled a failure since this wasn't the goal.

FLUKE #2

Fast forward to 1974 where another 3M scientist named Art Fry would always use scraps of paper to mark his church hymnals however they always fell. This is when he had a total ah-ha moment. He collaborated with Dr. Silver and together they used that adhesive on those scrapes of paper.

FLUKE #3

Of course being scientists and having the backing of 3M, they decided to create tiny, stickable notes. The fluke if you will comes from that iconic yellow that is their trademark color.  At the time it was the only color scrap paper they could find in a lab next door that had piles of it.

According to the Post-it website, they were originally called Press-n-Peel and didn't take off that well until a blitz campaign in Boise in 1980. That's when they became an overnight success with the name Post-it.