Million-Dollar Ideas

In 1968, 3M scientist Dr. Spence Silver was working on a new kind of adhesive. However, the substance wasn't sticky enough and the product was shelved. Years later, Dr. Silver's co-worker, Art Fry, found the perfect use for the glue. While flipping through the pages of his church choir hymnal, Art became frustrated that the scraps of paper he used to mark certain pages kept falling out. Suddenly, Art had a brilliant idea. What if Silver's not-so-sticky substance was applied to paper—a bookmark that literally stuck in place without damaging the page? The Post-it Note was born, along with a whole new way of communicating.