Lentorama 2022: It Happened on Easter

Day 28: Post-it Notes hit the shelves

In 1968, Spencer Silver was trying to develop a super-strong adhesive for 3M. What he came up with was a low-strength adhesive, but one that was pressure-sensitive and reusable. Silver spent years presenting the adhesive to his colleagues, but without finding a way it could be developed into a saleable product.

In 1974, another 3M employee named Art Fry used the adhesive to solve a personal problem, using it to keep the bookmark in his hymnal in place. Fry decided to create a product out of this idea, and while his press and stick bookmarks didn't catch on, the notepads that we've come to know did, and Post-It Notes were launched to the American public on April 6, 1980.

Or at least that's the official story. An inventor named Alan Amron claimed to have developed the technology behind the Post-It Note in 1973, which he disclosed to 3M in 1974. A 1997 lawsuit led to a settlement, where Amron agreed to not press his claims if 3M agreed to not claim that they invented the Post-It Note. Amron brought another lawsuit in 2016 alleging that 3M breached their agreement by claiming that they invented the notes, but this suit was dismissed.