How Post-it Notes Were Accidentally Invented

What he created instead was an adhesive made of tiny acrylic spheres that stuck only at the points where they touched a surface. The result was a bond strong enough to hold papers together but weak enough that they could be pulled apart without tearing. Silver had invented a glue that didn't really stick.

For five years, Silver promoted his "solution without a problem" around 3M. He gave seminars. He talked to colleagues. Nobody could figure out what to do with an adhesive designed to come unstuck.

In 1974, a colleague named Arthur Fry attended one of Silver's seminars. Fry sang in a church choir and had a recurring frustration: the paper bookmarks he used to mark hymns in his hymnal kept slipping out or falling to the floor when he stood to sing. During what he later admitted was a rather boring sermon, Fry realized that Silver's adhesive could anchor a bookmark to a page without damaging the paper when removed. The two ideas clicked together.

Fry began developing prototypes. 3M test-marketed the product in 1977 under the name "Press 'n Peel" in four cities, but sales were disappointing. People didn't understand the product until they used it. The following year, 3M launched what became known as the Boise Blitz, giving away free samples to offices throughout Boise, Idaho. This time, more than 90 percent of recipients said they would buy the product.

Post-it Notes launched nationally in 1980 and reached Canada and Europe the following year. The canary yellow color was not a deliberate design choice—it was simply the color of the scrap paper available in the lab next door.

Silver's failed super-adhesive became one of the best-selling office products in history.