Spencer Silver (Photo: 3M)
ST. PAUL, Minn – Spencer Silver, the inventor of the adhesive that would later become an integral part of 3M’s Post-it Notes, died Saturday, May 8, at his home in St. Paul. He was 80.
Silver was working on adhesives in a 3M lab in 1968 when he discovered an unusual formulation that didn’t act like other adhesives. The new adhesive was strong enough to hold paper together but could also be removed and would stick again, repeatedly without damaging the paper. Silver looked for applications for his adhesive for several years calling a “a solution waiting for a problem to save,”
Six years later 3M colleague Art Fry, developed the idea for what would become the Post-it Note. Fry’s goal at the time, according to 3M, was to “prevent paper bookmarks from falling out of his hymnal when he sang in church.”
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