Spencer Silver, an Inventor of Post-it Notes, Is Dead at 80 (nytimes.com) 39
Spencer Silver, a research chemist at 3M who inadvertently created the not-too-sticky adhesive that allows Post-it Notes to be removed from surfaces as easily as they adhere to them, died on Saturday at his home in St. Paul, Minn. He was 80. From a report: His wife, Linda, said that he died after an episode of ventricular tachycardia, in which the heart beats faster than normal. Mr. Silver had a heart transplant 27 years ago.
Since their introduction in 1980, Post-it Notes have become a ubiquitous office product, first in the form of little canary-yellow pads -- billions of which are sold annually -- and later also in different hues and sizes, some with much stickier adhesives. There are currently more than 3,000 Post-it Brand products globally. Dr. Silver worked in 3M's central research laboratory developing adhesives. In 1968, he was trying to create one that was so strong it could be used in aircraft construction.
He failed in that goal. But during his experimentation, he invented something entirely different: an adhesive that stuck to surfaces, but that could be easily peeled off and was reusable. It was a solution to a problem that did not appear to exist, but Dr. Silver was certain it was a breakthrough. "I felt my adhesive was so obviously unique that I began to give seminars throughout 3M in the hope I would spark an idea among its product developers," he told Financial Times in 2010. Dr. Silver promoted his adhesive for several years within 3M, a company known for its innovative workplace, so assiduously that he became known as "Mr. Persistent."
Since their introduction in 1980, Post-it Notes have become a ubiquitous office product, first in the form of little canary-yellow pads -- billions of which are sold annually -- and later also in different hues and sizes, some with much stickier adhesives. There are currently more than 3,000 Post-it Brand products globally. Dr. Silver worked in 3M's central research laboratory developing adhesives. In 1968, he was trying to create one that was so strong it could be used in aircraft construction.
He failed in that goal. But during his experimentation, he invented something entirely different: an adhesive that stuck to surfaces, but that could be easily peeled off and was reusable. It was a solution to a problem that did not appear to exist, but Dr. Silver was certain it was a breakthrough. "I felt my adhesive was so obviously unique that I began to give seminars throughout 3M in the hope I would spark an idea among its product developers," he told Financial Times in 2010. Dr. Silver promoted his adhesive for several years within 3M, a company known for its innovative workplace, so assiduously that he became known as "Mr. Persistent."
ahem (Score:3, Funny)
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Hmm..
Lemme make a note of that.
No, no, no that ain't right (Score:5, Funny)
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Amazing transplant (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Amazing transplant (Score:5, Funny)
At least the heart stuck.
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At least the heart stuck.
That made me lol...
FYI, we all peel stickies off the stack the wrong way. Peel it up and it will fall off. Peel it off the stack sideways and it will stay where you put it.
That's the most important thing I learned from my Agile certification.
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I wish people who do agile code spent less time learning how to peel Post-It notes off the stack and more time learning how to allocate stuff on it properly.
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What's so amazing about that? 27 years ago was 1994, which was itself already 27 years after the first heart transplant was performed.
1994 wasn't exactly the Stone Age.
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Googling around, I found a study where 25% of transplant patients lived 20 years. Because this is actually a fairly rare transplant for obvious reasons, it was not a huge study. To the extent that you can draw conclusions from small studies, the big risk factors were female gender and diabetes. We know he wasn't female, and we can only guess about diabetes but this would indicate that he was otherwise healthy and the transplant didn't get rejected hard in the early going. It might be a situation where p
Apocryphal? (Score:5, Interesting)
There's a story floating around that Post-It Notes were invented when Dr. Silver applied the adhesive to sheets of paper and left them in a 3M office. A secretary found them and had been using them the way most do now. When she ran out, she had to hunt down who left the pads and asked for more, and hence a product was born. Snopes seems to back it up. [snopes.com]
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I saw a great interview with Dr Silver where he described there was far more to this story. 3M is a company where development needs to be presented to a "board" of sorts in order for a product to get approval. He presented the product not knowing what its application was and it was summarily rejected. After the secretaries created the need for it, he presented it again this time in smaller block form and was again completely rejected. Since the secretary and a few other people in the office had been asking
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I, too, remember this documentary (and the anecdotes) and I, too, cannot find a mention of it on the web. (Maybe it exists only on Laser Video Disc somewhere . . .) I remember it as a documentary specifically of the methods used by 3M, as a large company, to remain innovative and flexible, and emphasizing the value of that "board" to support the creation of new products in markets 3M wasn't already in.
TPS reports. (Score:2)
Dr. Silver promoted his adhesive for several years within 3M, a company known for its innovative workplace, so assiduously that he became known as "Mr. Persistent."
I think most of us know people like that.
Minnesota Mining (Score:3, Interesting)
Older people in Minnesota refer to the 3M company as Minnesota Mining. The three Ms are 'Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing'.
It can be a great company to work at. Or a bad deal, like it is for my millineal nephew who seems to be working an eternal internship there as a contract employee.
Re:Minnesota Mining (Score:5, Funny)
My uncle worked for 3M. Used to get me defective street signs to hang in my room. My pride and joy in my teenage years was the one that said "Speed Humps Ahead" that I hung over my bed. Sadly, that was a lie. There were no humps, speedy or otherwise.
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>It can be a great company to work at.
One day in grad school I got a call saying that they wanted to interview me.
This was from the stat department; I was working on (and now have) a Ph.D. jointly in Economics and Statistics, but had never considered a statistics job.
Anyway, the secretary called asking if I could come over for it. Now.
"uhm, I'm dressed like a grad student today, in shorts and t-shirt."
Not a problem, get over.
They were quite interested in my unusual background, but when they found out th
He was found stuck to monitor, (Score:2)
I hope... (Score:4, Insightful)
...they arrange for all the family and friends that attend his funeral to write why he was special to them on Post-It notes and stick them in his casket before they close it.
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actually, the plan is for the pall bearers to peel back the hood of the coffin for the viewing . . .
Accuracy (Score:3)
In the name of accuracy. Silver invented the adhesive that was used on the PostIt notes. Art Fry is the one who had the idea to use the adhesive on paper that could be pulled off and restuck multiple times. He is more of the direct inventor of the PostIt.
He lived 27 years on a transplanted heart? (Score:4, Informative)
So, he had a heart transplant 27 years ago, and lived to 80?
That's quite a testament to modern medicine!
Looking it up, it looks like the record for living with a transplanted heart is 33 years [bbc.com], so he came pretty close.
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A low profile case is Christopher Dale Reimer, who survived 51 years without a personality or sex.
I was hoping (Score:2)
Too bad, I was hoping he would stick around.
Thank you, thank you! No applause, just throw money.
That man is responsible (Score:5, Funny)
...for millions of password breaches.
And What He Treasured Most of All (Score:2)
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Sometimes it isn't the money that's important. Nice to have, without a doubt, but engineers are...different. I just like to build stuff.
A couple of products I had a part in, made it big[ish]. I remember sitting on a plane, leafing through the seat pocket catalog (can't remember the company name) full of gadgets you'd never buy, and coming across a product I'd designed the electronics for. Not exactly the cover of the Rolling Stone, but it felt good.
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Actually, I think Dr. Fry got wealthy from profit sharing on this.
At the time, 3M had a policy letting engineers work on *whatever* pet project they felt like.
Because sometimes, you know, some lunatic plays around with a worthlessly weak adhesive, and . . .
News ? (Score:1)
RIP Mr. Silver (Score:1)