...that while attempting to develop a super strong glue, 3M employee Spencer Silver accidentally developed a glue that was so weak it would barely hold two pieces of paper together? However, his colleague Art Fry needed the glue. Fry sang with his church choir and marked the pages of his hymnal with small scraps of paper that often fell out. He used Silver's glue to hold the papers in place. Today we call this invention Post-it Notes.
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 7391568 | Luminous intensity distribution control device and display having the same A liquid crystal display apparatus including: a liquid crystal display element having a liquid crystal layer; a backlight apparatus arranged at one side of the couple of substrates of the liquid crystal display element; a polarizer arranged between the liquid crysta... | 06/24/2008 |
| 7351346 | Non-photolithographic method for forming a wire grid polarizer for optical and infrared wavelengths A method for forming a plurality of parallel metal lines on a substrate of thin film elastomeric material and a wire grid polarizer formed by such method. A sacrificial layer is formed by coating the substrate with a water soluble polymer while the substrate is stre... | 04/01/2008 |
| 7307725 | Surface inspection apparatus, polarization illuminating device and light-receiving device A surface inspection apparatus includes: a light source unit that emits a divergent light flux of predetermined linearly polarized light to be used to illuminate a test substrate; a first optical member that allows the divergent light flux of the predetermined linea... | 12/11/2007 |
| 7277141 | Optical bodies containing cholesteric liquid crystal material and methods of manufacture An optical body includes a substrate and a cholesteric liquid crystal layer disposed on the substrate. The cholesteric liquid crystal layer has a non-uniform pitch along a thickness direction of the layer and comprises a crosslinked polymer material that substantial... | 10/02/2007 |
| 7173760 | Luminous intensity distribution control device and display having the same A liquid crystal display apparatus including: a liquid crystal display element having a liquid crystal layer between a couple of substrates; a backlight apparatus arranged at one side of the couple of substrates; a polarizer arranged between the liquid crystal displ... | 02/06/2007 |
| 7159534 | Display unit having a center display A dial 21a is positioned in front of an LCD 21c, and has an inner periphery surrounding the LCD 21c. A pointer 21b is rotatable by a drive 21d positioned at a backside of the LCD 21c... | 01/09/2007 |
| 7087194 | K-type polarizer and preparation thereof A process for preparing a polarizer is described whereby a pre-polarizing article comprising an oriented, vinylalcohol polymer film layer, and an acid donor layer comprising a thermal acid generator, is exposed to radiant energy at a temperature sufficient to effect... | 08/08/2006 |
| 7063429 | Light-emitting display device using light-emitting element and electronic apparatus An electronic apparatus has a light-emitting element and a light-emitting portion. An output light from the light-emitting element is guided by a frame-like member having serrations and radiated toward the light-emitting portion. This causes the light-emitting porti... | 06/20/2006 |
| 7012703 | Automatic encoder resolution calibration and length measurement system and method The invention is a system and method for automatically determining a resolution of an encoder, automatically calibrating the encoder resolution, and automatically determining a length of a workpiece from the encoder resolution and encoder count. The system comprises... | 03/14/2006 |
| 6949207 | K-type polarizer and preparation thereof A process for preparing a polarizer is described whereby a pre-polarizing article comprising an oriented, vinylalcohol polymer film layer, and an acid donor layer comprising a thermal acid generator, is exposed to radiant energy at a temperature sufficient to effect... | 09/27/2005 |
| 6934080 | High efficiency viewing screen A low-scatter polarization-preserving multilayer viewing screen. A substrate D, preferably a volume diffuser, for increasing the divergence of information-coded-light while preserving its polarization sense A as it passes therethrough has a discrimination of at leas... | 08/23/2005 |
| 5000542 | Optical type encoder In an optical type encoder for projecting a light beam onto an optical type scale having a diffraction grating formed thereon, forming an interferenced light by the use of a diffracted light from the scale, and photoelectrically converting the interferenc... | 03/19/1991 |
| 4998798 | Encoder having long length measuring stroke An encoder having a long length measuring stroke with a simple construction is provided. The encoder comprises a scale formed with a periodic lattice pattern, first and second reading heads arranged along a moving direction of the scale for reading the sc... | 03/12/1991 |
| 4311365 | Meter for vehicles The present invention relates to a meter suitable for use in vehicles. The meter has a polarizing window which allows light having a vertical component only to pass therethrough and is preferably oriented so that optimum angle of incidence i of the polari... | 01/19/1982 |