In AD 105 paper was invented by a guy named Ts’ai Lon, a Chinese guy.  Lon started taking pieces of rags, tree bark, and rolled fishnet.  Then he put it to soak in a little bit of water.  Then using a very heavy club, he pounded all of those things into pulp.  He poured it into a mold.  When the pulp had dried, he had invented the first sheet of paper.  Up until 1800’s paper was made out of rags.  Every sheet was made by and the best paper maker could only make about 750 sheets a day.  Around the middle of the 19th century, an American guy named William Tower invented the means of making paper from wood pulp.  And that is what we use today.  In 1841 the envelope was invented.
 

 By now everyone probably knows what Post-it notes are. They are those small self-stick notepapers.  Teachers use them a lot. But guess what?  Post-it notes weren’t even a planned product!  Weird, huh?

 A guy that was named Spenser Silver was working in the 3M research laboratories. It was 1970 and he was trying to find a strong adhesive (a sticky substance).

 He did get something, but it was very weak, instead of very strong.  No one knew what to do with it, but Silver didn’t get rid of it.

 One Sunday, four years later, another 3M scientist, Arthur Fry, was singing in his church choir.  He always sued markers to find his place in the hymnal.  But they always fell out.

 Then he remembered Silver’s adhesive.  He put some on his markers and ...wow!  It worked!  It didn’t damage the paper when you pulled it off, and it would stick on easily!  So 3M started distributing Post-it notes nation-wide in 1980, which was ten years after Silver had developed the weak adhesive.