Art Fry, Inventor of the Post-It Note
Aug. 24th, 2025 08:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ndrosenOn Thursday, I attended a gathering to hear from Art Fry, co-inventor of the Post-It Note(R). For a while, he attended a one room schoolhouse as a child; he went on to get a degree in chemical engineering. He disabused those present of the notion that his invention was an accident, and explained how he was in a church choir, and had a problem when the slips of paper in his hymnal fell out, so he set out to invent a bookmark that would stick, but not adhere strongly enough to rip the paper when removed. This involved using the microspheres that someone else at 3M had invented, and using the right primer. He needed precision coating, so he invented a new coating device. After that, there were problems with marketing, but the new product did in time catch on.
He also talked about how chemists can often cook. When he was thirteen years old, a golf course had a problem: they had had a good cook and manager, but he died, and with the war on, adults were in the armed forces or working in essential industries, so the golf course took on thirteen year old Art as their cook. Compare that to thirteen year olds today, some of whose parents won’t let them walk to the store alone! (Not that I’m blaming children these days; it’s their elders who are psychologically crippling them.)
Mr. Fry’s interlocutor announced that he had recently had a birthday; two days earlier, on Tuesday, August 19, he had turned ninety-four. We sang “Happy Birthday” for him, and I must say that he was in good mental and physical shape for a man in his nineties.
By the way, I did finish the Office Action I was working on Friday; I posted it for credit Saturday evening.
He also talked about how chemists can often cook. When he was thirteen years old, a golf course had a problem: they had had a good cook and manager, but he died, and with the war on, adults were in the armed forces or working in essential industries, so the golf course took on thirteen year old Art as their cook. Compare that to thirteen year olds today, some of whose parents won’t let them walk to the store alone! (Not that I’m blaming children these days; it’s their elders who are psychologically crippling them.)
Mr. Fry’s interlocutor announced that he had recently had a birthday; two days earlier, on Tuesday, August 19, he had turned ninety-four. We sang “Happy Birthday” for him, and I must say that he was in good mental and physical shape for a man in his nineties.
By the way, I did finish the Office Action I was working on Friday; I posted it for credit Saturday evening.
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Date: 2025-08-25 03:42 pm (UTC)And to be in good shape at 94! Good for him. My mom passed at 90, and it's difficult to say how good she was mentally. I think she was in good shape, but it wasn't easy holding a conversation with her as she was very deaf without good hearing aids.
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Date: 2025-08-26 07:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-08-26 03:42 pm (UTC)My mom's mother was three months shy of 96 when she passed, but like your grandfather, not in very good shape at the end. My mom's brother made it to 94, my mom to 90, and my dad just shy of 89. So I have some long genes out there, we'll see how that combines with my immune deficiency.
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Date: 2025-09-01 07:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-09-01 07:09 am (UTC)Heh. Thank you!