Spencer Ferguson Silver III was an American chemist and inventor who specialized in adhesives.
10 Facts About Spencer Silver
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2.
Spencer Silver's father was an accountant while his mother was a secretary.
3.
Spencer Silver started working in 1968 on trying to create a strong adhesive that could be used for aircraft construction.
4.
In 1974, Arthur Fry, a chemical engineer in the tape division at 3M, attended an internal seminar held by Spencer Silver, who was promoting his adhesive's properties.
5.
Fry developed bookmarks using Spencer Silver's adhesive, preventing them from leaving residue, and sought to interest others within the 3M company in them.
6.
Spencer Silver worked for over 30 years at 3M rising to a position of a corporate scientist before retiring in 1996.
7.
Spencer Silver received several awards for his work, including the 1998 American Chemical Society Award for Creative Invention and induction into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2011.
8.
In 1965 Spencer Silver married Linda Martin, a computer programmer whom he met when she was an undergraduate working part time at the University of Colorado Boulder's chemistry department and he was pursuing his PhD at the same university.
9.
Spencer Silver was a painter who pursued art seriously after his retirement, working on oils and pastels on canvas and acrylics to create abstract paintings.
10.
Spencer Silver died at his home in St Paul, Minnesota, on May 8,2021, from ventricular tachycardia.