Posted on 01/29/2019 2:40:35 PM PST by Red Badger
We had a seminar with one of the guys at mmm who invented the post it note. They considered the project a failure, as they were looking for a high tensile low temperature adhesive.
The post-it-note story is absolutely fascinating.
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You’re right. White Out was too. The woman was an executive secretary and also an artist. She used white tempera paint to paint over typing errors. People she worked with tried to buy some from her because it was so good. It turned out, her son was one of the Monkees - don’t know which one - probably because she was a big time millionaire by that time.
Kitty litter was another great invention. A woman raised show cats. Her husband had a manufacturing business that had tons of clay stuff that they were paying to have carted away from his plant. The wife used the clay stuff as kitty litter at cat shows. The other cat owners wanted some. The rest is history.
Cyanoacrylate. Excellent wound closer if the wound is cleaned properly. That was its intended purpose. I use it on wood laminate rings, and cuts. Belt sand it off the fingers every time I work with it. Nasty stuff.
It works best on skin cracks and damaged human nail structures. involved with battlefield trauma. It can close a secured gut wound for transport. Grows out of untreated wound in a day or so.
We have better stuff now.
Swimmin' pools, movie stars...
About 1973, I stored superglue in a file cabinet of small transparent plastic drawers. Eventually, you couldn't see the tube because of all of my fingerprints—never made the connection.
BTW, I worked in the same building that housed a police laboratory that did fingerprints...D'Oh!
The only thing I can reliably get super glue to stick together is my fingers.
True
Penicillin wasn’t intentional.
What’s great about all of these inventions — penicillin, bubble wrap, Post-Its, Pla-Doh, etc. — is that the inventors were able to see the possibilities when their “intended” use failed.
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