Arthur Fry

Arthur Fry ( born August 19, 1931 in Owatonna, Minnesota) is an American inventor and scientist. He is co-inventor of Post-It sticky notes, which are manufactured by 3M and sold in 2006 in more than 100 countries.

Fry was born in Minnesota and lived in Iowa and Kansas City. He studied Chemical Engineering at the University of Minnesota.

Already in 1953, he worked as a product developer at 3M, which at that time were still called "Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company." He worked there until he went in the 1990s in retirement. The product for which it was known, was invented in the 1970s. Fry attended a seminar of another 3M scientist, Spencer Silver, part, where it came to a novel adhesive, the Silver was invented in 1968. Silvers had discovered an unusual molecular structure that adhered strongly enough to stick to objects, but was weak enough to glue only temporary. At this time, Silverlight was still looking for a marketable purpose for this invention.

Fry should have been sitting in a church, when he remembered the perfect application. He sang on weekends in a church choir, where he used pieces of paper as a bookmark. When you open the book it fell out this often. On a Sunday, in 1974 it occurred to him that Silver's adhesive could be used to make better bookmarks. On paper the bookmarks would be liable in the book, without damaging the pages.

It took some years until this concept came to fruition, partly due to technical problems in production, on the other doubted the management of marketability of the product.

1980 came post-its on the national market in 1981 called the 3M Post-Its as the stand-out new product. 1986 Fry was " enterprise developers " awarded by 3M as "corporate researcher ." Fry is also a member of the " Carlton Society and Circle of Technical Excellence " from 3M.

Fry lives in Saint Paul ( Minnesota).