Post-It Notes are a universal part of life. We use them to leave ourselves reminders, to encourage loved ones, to mark passages in a book. Originally yellow, they now come in a wide variety of colors and sizes. But did you know the unique adhesive that makes Post It Notes possible was created by accident?
In 1968, Spencer Silver, a chemist working at 3M, was tasked with creating a super strong adhesive. What he created was a super weak adhesive, seemingly a failure. The new weak adhesive did have an interesting property. It could be removed from and reattached to a surface without losing its stickiness. Years later Silver’s colleague, Art Fry, had an epiphany at choir practice. It was Fry’s habit to mark that week’s music selections with scraps of paper. To his annoyances these scraps had a tendency to fall out when he opened his hymnal, causing him to lose his place. One day at practice, he asked himself if it was possible to create a bookmark that would stick to the page but could be removed without tearing the paper. Fry and Silver worked together to create a prototype. Fry pushed through many challenges of manufacturing and marketing to get Post It Notes distributed to the public, making them the office supply staple that they are today.
Post-It Notes are not the only everyday item in our life to be at least partially invented or discovered by accident. In the same drawer as your Post-Its, you may find super glue. In 1942, Dr. Harry Coover, working for Eastman Kodak, was trying to develop plastic gun sights. Instead, he created the super sticky, strong, and quick adhesive that we now know as super glue.
Teflon, which is used as a non-stick coating, was also discovered by accident by Roy Plunkett studying refrigerants for Dupont.
Matches, dry cleaning, safety glasses, and microwave ovens also fall into this category.
So many things we take for granted that make our lives more convenient, comfortable, or efficient could have been viewed as failures or wasted time. I am grateful for all of these out of the box thinkers who were curious about things that others overlooked and saw possibilities where other would see failure. Take some time today to be curious and explore. Try something new. You never know what may come of it.
Crystal Kelly is a feature writer for Bizarre Bytes with those unusual facts that you only need to know for Trivial Pursuit or Jeopardy or to stump your in-laws.
