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In 1968, a researcher at 3M failed to create a super strong adhesive for use in the aerospace industry. While failed adhesive was incredibly weak, the researcher recognized two interesting features when applied to a surface. First, after stuck to a surface, it could be peeled away without leaving a residue. Second, the adhesive is re-usable.

The researcher and co-workers struggled for 5 years to find a marketable use for the unique weak, reusable adhesive. Finally, a use was demonstrated when the adhesive was coated on bulletin board and pieces of paper could be attached without tape or tacks and afterwards easily removed.  However, there was a problem, since coated surface of the board accumulated dust and other particles.

One of his church-going co-workers offered a break thorough idea based on his problems with paper markers accidentally falling out of his hymn book. They were using the adhesive backwards. They should put the adhesive on a piece of paper and then the paper could be stuck on any surface – and reused. With some improvements in the chemistry of the adhesion, the “Peel ‘n Stick” product was widely used within 3M but, when test marketed in four cities, seemed to lack customer appeal.

A year later, one more marketing effort was made when huge amounts of the product (now called Post-It Notes) were distributed to residents of Boise, Idaho. The resident loved the product and Post-It Notes soon became a commercial success with nation-wide release in 1977.

In 1856, Henry Perkin, a talented 18-year old student in London’s Royal College of Chemistry, failed in his attempt to synthesize quinine from coal tar for the treatment of malaria.

During his failure, he found that the extracted aniline could be partly transformed into a crude mixture which when extracted with alcohol produced a substance with an intense purple color (mauve). He was fascinated with this color, due to his interests in painting and photography, and carried out further off-campus experiments in his garden. One test indicated that silk cloth could be dyed and the dye remained stable when washed or exposed to light. After confirming the potential value of his finding with the owner of a major dye works in Scotland, Perkin applied for a patent.

His discovery essentially founded a new science-based industry – manufacture of synthetic dyes.

Until his discovery, dyes were natural substances extracted from plants and animals.

Source: “Mauve: How One Man Invented a Color That Changed the World”, S. Garfield, 2000