In the late 1800's a company in America was blowing up Mountains to get at the valuable rocks and minerals contained therein. One day somebody noticed that a residue of the explosion was a sticky goo. He wiped some of this goo onto a piece of card to examine it more closely and noticed it also contained small particles of grit, also a by-product of the explosion.

So what? Well, some time later he noticed that the goo had dried and with it the grit was stuck fast. He picked it up and noticed that if he ran it against a wooden surface it had the effect of smoothing it.

He has stumbled across sandpaper.

It that moment the company changed its destiny. It was now moved to become a sandpaper manufacturer. This shift required that they continually search for improved glue for sticking the sand and grit to the paper.

They even had a laboratory for such investigations. One day, so the story goes, the boss was on a tour of the facility and asked one worker what he was doing.

"Well, I'm tasked with finding the worlds best sticky stuff", "let me see", asked the boss. "well" said the worker, rather nervously, "I've sort of found the worlds best NON sticky stuff instead". To break the stunned silence, the worker pulled out a pad of paper which had a strip of the new non sticky glue along one edge. "See", he said as he posted it to the boss and then removed it. The boss still stunned, looked at the place on his suit where the note had been and brushed it lightly with the back of his hand to confirm that no sticky stuff remained.

Still stunned and in silence the boss and his party moved on.

Undeterred, the worker was determined he was on to something and so sent samples of his 'notes' all around the office. They were and instant hit. As soon as they had run out everyone wanted to know where they had come from so they could order some more.

The rest as they say is history.

3M (The Minnesota, Mining and Manufacturing Company) launched its world famous 'Post It Notes' in the 1980's.