Unexpected Origins of Everyday Products
I’m not an inventor. There, I said it, it’s out in the open. Truthfully, I doubt anyone ever figured I was, so nobody’s disappointed with my statement. When we picture an inventor, we imagine Caractacus Potts from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang or Doc Brown from Back to the Future. You know, people who seek to solve problems by creating a solution for the problems they are trying to solve. Some of our most commonly used household items, though, were not the result of a sought-after solution. Today I’m going to tell you the unexpected origin stories of Post-It Notes, bubble wrap, cornflakes, and tea bags. Somewhere down the road, I’ll explore Super Glue, the Slinky, and chocolate cookies. Let’s dive in!
Post-It Notes
I use Post-It Notes several times a day. I don’t know how I’d live without them, but I suppose at one time I did. Since their invention in 1968, they’ve been a ubiquitous staple in nearly every office and in many homes. It’s so handy, isn’t it, to be able to stick a temporary note up on a mirror or a door where someone can read it, remove it, and discard it. For this handy reminder tool, we owe our gratitude to the 3-M corporation and senior scientist Spencer Silver.
3-M wanted to create stronger adhesives to add to the product line, and that was what Silver was hoping he created. What he created, instead, was a low-tack adhesive. It could be applied to a paper, which could be stuck onto a surface, removed, re-stuck somewhere else, and removed again. During this time, the company really couldn’t figure out what to do with it. In 1974, one of Silver’s colleagues had a flash of inspiration to use the adhesive to create bookmarks that would stay in the hymnal without damaging the pages. This led to the creation of a prototype for the notes, which the team at 3M began using internally to write messages to each other.
Today’s reusable adhesive notes were not an overnight sensation. When hey were released in 1977 as Press ‘n Peel Notes, people thought they were interesting, but they really didn’t see any practical use for them. Press ‘n Peel Notes were a commercial flop. It would have been really unfortunate if 3-M had given up, but in 1979, the company rebranded the notes as Post-It Notes and provided samples of packages to try out. That was a brilliant move, because in April of 1980, Post-It Notes hit store shelves and became an overnight sensation.
Putting the product in the hands of potential customers was a brilliant move, because these handy notes became a self-advertising tool. Imagine in 1979 someone hands you a document with a Post-It Note attached that asks you to read, sign, and return. As fascinating as the document may be, the thing that catches your attention is that little sticky note that you can pull off without damaging the document, add your own note to it, and reattach to the document. Bang! A new customer is acquired.
I’m sitting here on my couch 44 years later with a Post-It on my laptop containing a list of the most important things I need to accomplish today. There’s one on my desk in the study that has my Monday morning tasks. I used to leave notes for my kids around the house in various places. There’s a tiny note in my scripture study journal reminding me, “Start with a prayer.” One of my biggest fears is running out of these wonderful notes that came to us as a failed experiment.
Bubble Wrap
One of the most fun days I ever had with each of my children was introducing them to bubble wrap. There’s something absurdly satisfying about popping those plastic air bubbles, either individually or by the handful. (However, accidentally rolling over a sheet of bubble wrap in your office chair can be a bit disconcerting.) As it turns out, bubble wrap had its origins in an interior design application.
The year was 1957, and the atmosphere was postwar America. Plastics were expanding rapidly in use in many industries and homes. Two engineers, Alfred Fielding and Marc Chavannes, were trying to create a three-dimensional textured wallpaper using two shower curtains sealed together with intentionally captured pockets of air. The era brought in bold new innovations in design and decor, and textures in wall coverings were a part of that trend. Unfortunately, the idea did not meet with broad commercial approval from consumers.
The two inventors were undeterred. They tried to market their product as a greenhouse insulator. However, the product as designed and produced was not as thick as the plastic sheets used in horticultural applications, and it wasn’t resistant to ultraviolet rays. As a result, the bubbly plastic product wasn’t a viable contender against the products already in use for that purpose.
Still not ready to give up, Fielding and Chavannes founded Sealed Air to continue their search for a market for their bubble wrap product. Finally, in 1960, a marketing manager for the company recognized the protective properties of the wrap and pitched it to IBM as a protective packaging product for shipment of their new computer. IBM’s use opened up opportunities to other companies to use bubble wrap as protective shipping packaging.
While a lot of packing is using other materials now, I believe that bubble wrap is still the best for protecting breakable objects, and, fortunately, it’s still widely used. I still love popping those bubbles.
Corn Flakes
Many years ago we had a rooster that I named Rambo, because he was tenacious in the face of obstacles. Rambo was a living embodiment of that iconic rooster on the Kellog’s Corn Flakes box, and the tie-in for my Unexpected Origins story is also connected to a book and a movie both titled The Road to Wellville. They tell a mostly-fictional story of visitors to the Battle Creek Sanitarium, which is not a fictional place, run by Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, who is also not fictional.
In the 1890’s, Dr. Kellogg and his brother Will were experimenting with wheat, not corn, as a cereal product. One night a batch of wheat dough for bread was left overnight, and it slightly fermented. Kitchen staff tried to salvage the dough by rolling it out, but instead of producing bread, it resulted in thin, crispy flakes. Will kept experimenting, and he found that a corn-based dough produced a crisper and more appealing flake than the wheat did. (I disagree, I like wheat flakes much better, but I’m basing it on currently available wheat flakes. They may not bear much resemblance to the original wheat flakes Kellogg discovered.)
Dr. Kellogg promoted a healthy diet that was bland in taste and texture, believing that such a diet would curb sexual desires and improve overall wellness. I don’t know if there was an actual physiological connection between libidinous inhibition and a bland diet, but I think that dietary boredom would either introduce general malaise or induce visitors to seek any possible diversion.
In 1906, the brothers founded the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company, and the success of Corn Flakes led to the creation of the Kellogg Company. Corn Flakes are still an important piece of the company’s cereal lineup, for historical significance, but unfortunately, the “Core Six” brands for the company do not include Corn Flakes, which account for only about 4.4% of sales.
Somehow that just doesn’t feel right.
Tea Bags
I don’t drink “tea,” meaning the Pekoe and Black Tea blends that we think of when we say “tea,” but I do drink herbal infusions packaged in the same type of tea bags used for “tea.” Herbal tea, they call it, although there’s seldom any actual “tea” in “herbal tea.” It’s still enough to make me glad that we have tea bags, which have their own interesting origin story.
Before tea bags, people brewed tea either using infuser devices (some type of metal container with holes that held the tea leaves while allowing hot water to circulate freely through the device and he leaves) or by placing the tea leaves directly in the teapot. In the second method, the leaves would flow out of the spout and the tea-drinker placed a strainer over the teacup to strain out the loose leaves. It worked, but I can see it as a problem desperately seeking what should have been a very easy solution.
Somewhere around 1908, an importer named Thomas Sullivan packaged some tea samples in silk bags, rather than the normal containers used for tea, and sent them out to potential customers. It never occurred to him that his customers would brew the tea in the sacks. He actually intended that they would empty the tea into their traditional pot or infuser and brew it as they normally did. When they reported back to him how much more convenient “his” new method was, a light bulb went off, and he began experimenting. His was not the first attempt at simplifying the tea-brewing process, though.
Roberta Lawson and Mary Molaren had created a tea leaf holder and applied for a patent in 1901, and it resembled today’s tea bags. The first machine-sewn tea bags came to market in 1904, but it was Sullivan’s samples that created the real demand. His offerings were made from gauze, which was less expensive than the silk he used for the samples, and it also allowed for better flow of the water through the tea leaves. In 1930, the first heat-sealed paper tea bags were introduced, which is what we see today.
There are tea purists who look with disdain on tea bags, but here in the United States, somewhere between 71% and 75% of all tea consumed is brewed from tea bags. I need it easy, so when I make my herbal tea, it’s in a bag.
Your Turn
While it is said that necessity is the mother of invention, we saw here some things we use every day that were the result of solving some other problem. It makes me wonder how many of our everyday items might have unusual origins. What do you know about that I didn’t mention? I’d like to add them to a future piece. This may even become a series, because I know there are a lot more to discover!
Check out these links for more of what I talked about here.
The Invention of the Post-it® Note | National Inventors Hall of Fame®
What was bubble wrap invented for? (europlas.com.vn)
The History Of Corn Flakes Is Even Worse Than You Knew – The Takeout
Origin of the Tea Bag | Love Of Food Chef Tips (sodexo.com)
My photography shops are https://www.oakwoodfineartphotography.com/ and https://oakwoodfineart.etsy.com, my merch shops are https://www.zazzle.com/store/south_fried_shop and https://society6.com/southernfriedyanqui.
Check out my New and Featured page – the latest photos and merch I’ve added to my shops! https://oakwoodexperience.com/new-and-featured/
Curious about safeguarding your digital life without getting lost in the technical weeds? Check out ‘Your Data, Your Devices, and You’—a straightforward guide to understanding and protecting your online presence. Perfect for those who love tech but not the jargon. Available now on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Your-Data-Devices-Easy-Follow-ebook/dp/B0D5287NR3
