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Fry then suggested to Nicholson and Silver that they were using the adhesive backwards.  Instead of sticking the adhesive to the bulletin board, they should “put it on a piece of paper and then we can stick it to anything.”

This initially proved easier said than done, in terms of practical application.  It was easy enough to get the adhesive on the paper, but the early prototypes had the problem that the adhesive would often detach from the paper and stay on the object the paper was stuck to, or, at least, leave some of the adhesive behind in this way.  There was no such problem with the bulletin boards Silver had made because he had specifically made them so that the adhesive would bond better with the board than the paper. Two other 3M employees now entered the scene, Roger Merrill and Henry Courtney.  The two were tasked with coming up with a coating that could be put on the paper to make the adhesive stay bonded to it and not be left behind on whatever the paper was stuck to when it was removed, a task at which they were ultimately successful at achieving. Interestingly, because management at 3M still didn’t think the product would be commercially successful, they more or less shelved it for three years, even though the Post-It notes were extremely popular internally at 3M labs during that span.    Finally, in 1977, 3M began running test sale runs of the Post-It note, then called “Press ‘n Peel”, in a certain areas in four different cities to see if people would buy and use the product.  It turned out, no one much did, which confirmed in the minds of the executives that it wasn’t a good commercial product.

This time, the re-order rate went from almost nothing, in the previous attempt, to 90% of the people and businesses that had received the free samples.  For reference, this was double the best initial rate 3M had ever seen for any other product they’d introduced.  Two years later, the Post-It note was released throughout the United States.

So after 5 years of constant rejection for the adhesive and another seven years in development and initial rejection, Post-It notes were finally a hit and have since become a mainstay in offices the world over, today being one of the top five best selling office supply products in the world.

Another obstacle in the initial launch of Post-It notes was that, because it was a completely new type of product, it required the construction of new machinery to mass produce the Post-It note pads, which was initially prohibitively expensive for a product seen by many within 3M as destined for commercial failure.

Post-It notes received an upgrade in 2003 when 3M launched a new version of the Post-It note with super sticky glue that has better adhesion to vertical surfaces.

 Post-It notes are occasionally used in art-work.  One such famous example was in 2008 when Shay Hovell used 12,000 Post-It notes to create a replica of the Mona Lisa.  The most expensive Post-It note art piece was done by R.B. Kitaj and sold for £640 (about $1000) in 2000.

Five years later, the company found a place to put that sticky…and it stuck.  Worldwide distribution began in 1980 and since then no one has quite been able to re-create it. 

There’s only one other Post-it plant in the world and it’s in France, which supplies Europe.  Every other Post-it note in the world comes from Cynthiana, Kentucky.  It started as a fluke in 1968 when a research scientist working for 3M – a copy machine company then – came up with the famed sticky.

“If you look on the back of the package, you’ll see Made in the USA,” Ann Getting, Plant Manager for 3M in Cynthiana said.  “You’ll know it was a 3M Cynthiana product.”

“Most people will be within three yards of a 3M product nearly all of the time, day and night,” Getting said.  “And not even know it.”

Now 3M makes more than 1,000 Post-it products for more than 150 countries. The original color remains the best-seller and it was a fluke too–the scrap paper that scientist used to test the sticky for the first time just happened to be yellow.

“We’ve been successful because of the people in Kentucky,”

“That’s the secret of this plant…to change and adapt to meet customer needs. We keep improving so we have a future right here in Cynthiana.” Getty said.

Creating false eyelashes, the eyebrow pencil, lip gloss, and pancake make up, Factor created a whole new language for screen cosmetics.

He died on 30 August 1938 at the age of 59.

His son Frank took the name Max Factor JR and continued to be involved with the company until the 1970s, seeing the company create make up shades for US Marines during the second world war, offer male products such as shampoo and aftershave and launch its first female fragrance in 1955.

In the 1970s, the third generation of Factors rose to senior positions but wanted to focus on their own interests, leading the firm to first be bought by Revlon and then Proctor & Gamble in 1991.

Credited as the father of modern make up

It was in 1927 that Max Factor introduced his first cosmetics to be sold to non-theatrical consumers.

Another key development in the make up world was the invention of waterproof mascara for the film 'Mare Nostrum' in 1926.

By the 1920s, Max's sons were heavily involved in the business with Davis working as general manager and Frank helping his father to develop new products.

Thus, the motion picture industry, then beginning in Hollywood, beckoned. He settled in Los Angeles with his family in 1909 and got a job with the Pantages Theatre.

By 1914, he was perfecting make up for the movies.

He formed flexible greasepaint, which was the first make up created for film.