The Bottomless Hat

GOODS & SERVICES

At St. Paul's Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing Co., they like to describe their business as "pulling rabbits out of a bottomless hat." To 3M the bottomless hat is its research department, and last week the company pulled out a promising new rabbit. The rabbit: "Scotchply." a tough, laminated plastic sheet, sinewed with tiny glass threads, that 3M thinks is better than steel because of its strength-weight ratio.

Unlike other reinforced plastics which must be built up layer after layer, Scotchply can be worked like wood or molded like metal; it is shatterproof, rotproof, waterproof, can be sawed, drilled, cemented or polished. As production began last week, the company saw a potential market for Scotchply in everything from air frames to auto parts and delicate printed circuits. The one drawback: its current high price of $2 a lb., which the company hopes to cut down with mass production.

Thousands of Rabbits. Based on 3M's past performance, the new plastic should do well. Since 1902, 3M has pioneered a line of some 25,000 separate items, from sandpaper to its famed Scotch tape, and grown into an empire of 30 plants stretching from the U.S. to Germany and Brazil. This year sales will jump to $228 million, up $8.000,000 from 1953; earnings are expected to hit a record $2.80 a share, and the value of its shares has increased 5.804% since 1929.

The key to 3M's success is pioneering research and a management that knows how to sell what it discovers. Board Chairman William McKnight, 67, and President Herbert P. Buetow, 56, both of whom worked up through 3M's ranks, are dedicated researchers who plow back 3-c- of every sales dollar into the search for new products. When an idea catches on, 3M helps customers think up new uses and puts its scientists to work on a whole family of related products. In 1934, 3M brought out a new electrical insulating tape with plastic backing that was such a hit the company soon expanded into a line of 45 new tapes, developed insulating putty, wire-splicing devices and a painted-on wire coating for the electrical industry. Total business, where none was before: $2,000,000 annually.

From Rocks to Scotch. 3M's many handed business was born with a single discovery during World War 1: a new kind of sandpaper that flexed without cracking or shedding the abrasive. It was followed by a waterproof "Wetordry" sandpaper that was an instant success in the auto industry; for the first time carmakers could wet surfaces to be sanded or polished, thus eliminating heat and dust. In 1930, 3M brought out Scotch tape, and started a new industry. The tape replaced pins, string and glue, was put to work mending, sealing packages, insulating wires, masking paint jobs. Today 3M gets 35% of its total sales from Scotch tape, including Scotchlite, a reflecting sheeting coated with tiny glass balls and used for advertising signs or red warning strips on car bumpers. Among the thousands of other products are lithographic plates for the printing industry, 350 varieties of wrapping ribbons, ceramic pipes and parts, concrete, synthetic rubber, furniture polish, and a line of fluorochemicals to make ordinary paper both water and oilproof.

In the St. Paul laboratories, 3M scientists are now at work on a whole new family of tapes: nonsticky magnetic tapes for calculating machines and electronic brains, and for recording color TV shows. Says President Buetow: "The only way to grow is just by a lot of hard work plus a little daring."

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