HAPPY 88th BIRTHDAY TO ARTHUR FRY, CO-INVENTOR OF THE POST-IT NOTE: Fry didn’t actually invent the not-so-sticky adhesive used in post-it notes. That was his fellow 3M employee chemist Spencer Silver. But Silver wasn’t sure what to do with it. Fry’s contribution was to come up with a use.
The story goes that Fry sang in his church choir, where he would frequently use pieces of paper as bookmarks, which would sometimes fall out. One Sunday in 1973, it occurred to him that Silver’s adhesive used on a small piece of paper would make a great bookmark.
Yes, it does. And sometimes invention is the mother of necessity rather than the other way around.
Here’s George Jones to sing about it.
(Full disclosure: There is also another person who claims he, not 3M’s team, was the true inventor. 3M disagrees, and happily it’s not my job to sort this out.)