The Post-it began as a failed super-glue and a choir singer's hymnal bookmarks

science & techWikipedia1968–1980 · 3M, Minnesota, USA

The Post-it began as a failed super-glue and a choir singer's hymnal bookmarks

the gist

The Post-it Note came from an accidental failure. In 1968 the 3M chemist Spencer Silver was trying to make a strong adhesive and instead created a weak one that stuck lightly and could be peeled off. It had no use until about 1974, when his colleague Art Fry, who sang in a church choir, got tired of bookmarks falling out of his hymnal and used the weak glue to make bookmarks that stayed put and didn't damage the pages. The product was launched in the late 1970s and became a staple of offices worldwide.

so what

The Post-it is a classic example of serendipity: a solution looking for a problem. It shows the value of letting researchers follow odd results.

fun fact

3M's policy of letting staff spend a portion of work time on their own projects is credited with helping such inventions.

more on this

background

A Post-it note (or sticky note) is a small piece of paper with a re-adherable strip of glue on its back, made for temporarily attaching notes to documents and other surfaces. A low-tack pressure-sensitive adhesive allows the notes to be easily attached, removed, and even re-posted elsewhere without leaving residue. The Post-it's signature adhesive was discovered accidentally by a scientist at 3M. Originally small yellow squares, Post-it notes and related products are available in various colors, shapes, sizes, and adhesive strengths. As of 2026, there are at least 30 documented colors of Post-it notes. 3M's Post-it has won several awards for its design and innovation.

Post-its are versatile and can be used in various settings for various purposes. They are commonly used in classrooms and workplaces but can also be found in art, media, and social media. Post-its have also been used as tools for public engagement and persuasion.

From Wikipedia: Post-it note (CC BY-SA 4.0) ↗

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Bladner32, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

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historyThe Public Domain Review1909 · United States

D. W. Griffith’s A Corner in Wheat (1909)

the gist

In 1909 D. W. Griffith made a 14-minute film about a speculator who corners the wheat market and doubles the price of bread. A farmer sows his field while a 'Wheat King' gambles in the Chicago wheat pit; bakers raise the loaf from five cents to ten and the poor line up for bread. Griffith cut back and forth between the farm, the feast and the breadline, a technique called parallel editing, so audiences saw both ends of the economy at once. The film drew on Frank Norris's stories and on a real scheme: months earlier Chicago financier James Patten had cornered wheat, sent bread prices up and made about $5 million, roughly $185 million today.

how it works

To corner a market, a trader buys up most of the available supply and the futures contracts that promise more. Anyone who has to deliver the commodity must then buy from the cornerer at whatever price is demanded. The trader profits until the stock is released or the scheme collapses.

so what

A century on, it still shows how markets can be rigged by someone who controls supply, and how the people at either end, farmers and eaters, pay for it. It also helped establish editing as a way to argue a point, not just tell a story.

the bigger pattern

Corners have recurred whenever supply could be locked up, from the Hunt brothers' attempt on silver in 1979 to 1980 to the 'Black Friday' gold panic of 1869. Many such schemes end by collapsing, and the response is often new rules on speculation.

fun fact

In the film the Wheat King dies by falling into a grain elevator and being buried in the wheat he hoarded, an ending borrowed from Norris's novel The Octopus.

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