Dyeing the paper yellow would have been a bad business decision for Holly because she would have increased her prices. For this reason, we do not believe that he established the tradition of yellow towels. Besides the traditional value of yellow legal stamps, there are a few other reasons that answer your question, why is a legal stamp yellow? And why do lawyers use yellow legal notepads? With recycling now common across the country and more and more people needing optimism and inspiration in their lives, the right-wing yellow bloc could come alive again in the near future. Dyeing the paper yellow would have been a bad business decision for Holley as it would have raised its prices. For this reason, it is not believed that he was the one who started the tradition of yellow towels. How did they turn yellow? There is no definitive answer, but many theories. The first is that research in color psychology can support the claim that yellow stimulates the mind. Therefore, yellow was chosen for lawyers because it stimulated their creativity and mental abilities. A second theory is that yellow provides a background that contrasts well with black ink without glare, making text easier to read and giving a professional feel. And a third theory is that Holley or his successors eventually decided to dye the paper to hide the fact that tampons were made from leftovers of different ages and qualities, and that yellow was the cheapest or most readily available dye at the time.

Let me tell you, my mother is anything but easy. She is not only strong, dedicated and resourceful, but also very intelligent. I know she knows the company doesn`t really care about DIY women and is just trying to make a quick buck by “tapping” a market that has already been tapped into by your typical orange, yellow or black unisex drill. But you know what? If you love something, you just love it, even if it`s stereotypical for you to love it. Stereotypes exist for a reason, and companies wouldn`t constantly use them to attract their target audience if they weren`t working in the market. There is clearly no bad faith behind it, only business. In 1900, a judge asked Holly to add a red line along the left side of the paper so she could add additional comments to her notes. This distinct vertical line, always 1.25″ from the edge, makes a Legal Pad a Legal Pad. Regardless of the color, a legal block officially deserves this designation if it has that vertical line on the left. Everything else is just a notepad. The legal block was invented by a 24-year-old paper mill worker, Thomas Holley, in Holyoke, Massachusetts, around 1888.

Holley got the idea of his frustration because at the end of the day, he had to pick up the tons of leftover low-quality paper that littered the mill. He cut the scraps to the same size and sewed them together to form a uniform pile of papers or blocks. Since the paper was essentially trash for the factory, they were able to sell the tampons at a low price. Holley`s idea was so successful that he quit his job at the plant and began selling sanitary pads full-time through the American Pad and Paper Company, or AMPAD, which he founded. AMPAD collected scrap metal from local factories and manufactured and sold the wafers. In 1902, a prominent businessman modified the blocks of paper by gluing all the sheets of paper cut in half onto a sheet of cardboard. Later in 1900, a judge in Holyoke, looking for places to write his notes, asked his assistant to find or create a notepad with a border on the left side of 1.25. This request encouraged Holly to add vertical margin on the left side of the paper to write margin notes and indexed revisions. This is what we know today as Legal Pad. Holley`s business still exists and they still make notepads in a variety of sizes, shapes, and colors. Sam Walton turned a five cent into the Walmart empire with little more than business acumen and a legal block. Its reliance on yellow legal notebooks is well documented.

On his desk at the Walmart museum is a stack of ubiquitous napkins still covered in Walton`s detailed notes. If Walton uses these cheap yellow pads to become a billionaire, you might find them useful for running a law firm. In the late 1980s, companies were pushed to recycle waste paper. At that time, many recycling companies only accepted white paper, which was more cost-effective. Law firms and other businesses faced a dilemma: not recycling or staying away from the yellow legal notebook. The Los Angeles city government decided to remove yellow notebooks altogether to earn $50 to $80 a ton by recycling only white paper. The American Paper Institute reported a decline in color paper purchases from 16% in 1974 to 10% in 1988. Since then, recycling has evolved to accept paper in almost any color, and the recycling rate has doubled since 1990. Artists like Jeff Tweedy, Jerry Seinfeld and Jonathan Dee swear by the use of a legal block. This means that some of the most valuable works of art of recent times have been written and executed through the use of the Legal Pad.