Your stationery needs: sorted
Whether you’re an avid diary keeper, stay organised with lists or just like to doodle, it’s time to celebrate all things stationery! But did you ever wonder who or how your stationery favourites came to be...
Adult Memo Pads £4.95: Summer Meadow, Blue Tit, Mid Century Poppy, Garden Birds
Post-it® notes were invented by accident
In 1968, chemist Dr Spencer Silver was trying to produce a super strong adhesive for manufacturing company 3M. Instead, he stumbled upon a weak adhesive that could be used multiple times.
For five years Dr Silver promoted his new adhesive, but no one could think of a use for it until 1974, when a colleague became frustrated with his bookmarks falling out of books. Having used the adhesive to sort out his bookmark problem, he suggested using the glue on small notes, and 3M launched the Post-it® note successfully in 1990.
But why are they yellow? That was an accident as well, the team that developed the product had run out of white paper, and used leftover yellow scrap paper from a nearby laboratory to produce the iconic sticky notes.
Find original post-it notes a bit boring? Check out our cute animal and floral sticky notes! Use our children's memo notes as a fun way of learning things around the house, or keep your office organised with floral and bird design memos.
Children's Memo Pads £4.95: Red Riding Hood, Rusty the Fox,
The Bic pen was invented by Biro
The best selling pen in the world is the Bic Cristal ballpoint pen, discovered by Marcel Bich and to this day produced by his company, Bic. But the ballpoint pen was not an original invention by Marcel, in fact he had seen the ballpoint pen whilst in Argentina during World War II. With the permission of inventor Lazlo Biro, he launched the Bic Cristal in 1950 once he had returned to France.
Ballpoint pens might be an office staple, but they don’t have to be boring! Check out our cactus pen from the Desert in Bloom range and jazz up your desk with quirky stationery!
Desert in Bloom Cactus Pen £2.95
How do you solve a problem like writing in space?
The standard ballpoint pen just couldn’t function in zero gravity, but it wasn’t as simple as just using a pencil. Pencils were flammable, and if tips broke off, they would float about with the potential to harm equipment. NASA needed a solution.
Engineer Paul Fisher had spent years trying to create the perfect ballpoint pen. NASA approached him with a request to design a space pen, but, according to Fisher, he didn’t succeed until the solution came to him in a dream.
'I had an interesting dream. My father had died about two years before...he came to me and said Paul, if you add a minute amount of rosin to the ink, that will stop the oozing. I told the chemist...he tried every type and quantity of rosin. Three months later he came back to me and said...he realised that I meant resin! He used 2% resin, and it worked'
Fisher had spent $1 million of his company’s money to develop and patent a new pen suitable for astronauts - the ‘Space Pen.’ In 1968 NASA used it for their expeditions, and in 1969 the Soviet Space programs were using the Fisher Space Pens too. In fact, Fisher’s Space Pen has been used in every single manned space flight since it's invention in the 60s.
dotcomgiftshop stationery favourites...
Spotty Nail Varnish Highlighters £4.95
FACT: The colour yellow is the most popular highlighter shade, accounting for 85% of sales.
Pencils in a box £3.95: Flamingo Bay, Colour Wheel, Ditsy Garden, Mid Century Poppy, Rusty the Fox, La Petite Rose, Periodic Table, World Map
FACT: Pencils work underwater!
Pack of 12 Tulip Triangle Pencils £2.95
FACT: Before the invention of the rubber, writers used breadcrumbs to fix mistakes.