Slinky
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Slinky or "Lazy Spring" is a toy consisting of a helical spring that stretches and can bounce up and down. It can perform a number of tricks, including traveling down a flight of steps end-over-end as it stretches and re-forms itself with the aid of gravity and its own momentum.
History
The toy was invented and developed by naval engineer Richard James in the early 1940s and demonstrated at Gimbels department store in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in November 1945. The toy was a hit, selling its entire inventory of 400 units in ninety minutes. James and his wife Betty formed James Industries in Philadelphia to manufacture Slinky and several related toys such as the Slinky Dog and Suzie, the Slinky Worm. In 1960, James' wife Betty became president of James Industries, and, in 1964, moved the operation to Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania. In 1998, Betty James sold the company to Poof Products, Inc.
Slinky was originally priced at $1, but many paid much more due to price increases of spring steel throughout the state of Pennsylvania, and has remained modestly priced throughout its history as a result of Betty James' concern about the toy's affordability for financially disadvantaged customers. Slinky has seen uses other than as a toy in the playroom: it has appeared in the classroom as a teaching tool, in wartime as a radio antenna, and in physics experiments with NASA. In 2002, Slinky became Pennsylvania's official state toy, and, in 2003, was named to the Toy Industry Association's "Century of Toys List". In its first 60 years Slinky has sold 300 million units.
Creation
In 1943, Richard James, a naval mechanical engineer stationed at the William Cramp and Sons shipyards in Philadelphia, was developing springs that could support and stabilize sensitive instruments aboard ships in rough seas.[1][2] James accidentally knocked one of the springs from a shelf, and watched as the spring "stepped" in a series of banana spilts, to a stack of books, to a tabletop, to the floor, where it re-coiled itself and stood upright.[3][4] James' wife Betty later recalled, "He came home and said, 'I think if I got the right property of steel and the right tension, I could make it walk.'"[5] James experimented with different types of steel wire over the next year, and finally found a spring that would walk. Betty was dubious at first, but changed her mind after the toy was fine-tuned and neighborhood children expressed an excited interest in it.[4] She dubbed the toy Slinky (meaning "sleek and graceful"), after finding the word in a dictionary,[3][4] and deciding that the word aptly described the sound of a metal spring expanding and collapsing.[6]
With a US$500 loan, the couple formed James Industries (originally James Spring & Wire Company), had 400 Slinky units made by a local machine shop, handwrapped each in yellow paper, and priced them at $1 a piece.[4] Each was 2 1/2" tall, and included 98 coils of high-grade blue-black Swedish steel.[7] The Jameses had difficulty selling Slinky to toy stores but, in November 1945, they were granted permission to set up an inclined plane in the toy section of Gimbels department store in Philadelphia to demonstrate the toy. Slinky was a hit, and the first 400 units were sold within ninety minutes.[4][7] In 1946, Slinky was introduced at the American Toy Fair.
Subsequent developments
Richard James opened shop in Philadelphia after developing a machine that could produce a Slinky within seconds.[3][7] The toy was packaged in a red-lettered box, and advertising saturated America. James often appeared on television shows to promote Slinky. In 1952, the Slinky Dog debuted. Other Slinky toys introduced in the 1950s included the Slinky train Loco, the Slinky worm Suzie, and the Slinky Crazy Eyes, a pair of glasses that uses Slinkys over the eyeholes attached to plastic eyeballs. James Industries' main competitor was Wilkening Mfg. Co. of Philadelphia and Toronto which produced spring-centered toys such as Mr. Wiggle's Leap Frog and Mr. Wiggle's Cowboy.[7] In its first 2 years, James Industries sold 100 million Slinkys.[4]
In 1960, Richard James left the company after his wife filed for divorce and he became an evangelical missionary in Bolivia.[8] Betty James managed the company, juggled creditors, and moved the company to Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania in 1964. Richard James died in 1974. The company he founded and its product line expanded under Betty James' leadership.[4] In 1995, she explained the toy's success to the Associated Press by saying, "It's the simplicity of it."[9]
Betty James insisted upon keeping the original Slinky affordable. In 1996, when the price ranged from $1.89 to $2.69, she told The New York Times: “So many children can't have expensive toys, and I feel a real obligation to them. I'm appalled when I go Christmas shopping and $60 to $80 for a toy is nothing." In 2008, Slinkys cost $4 to $5, and Slinky Dogs about $20.[10]
In 1998, James Industries was sold to Poof Products, Inc. of Plymouth, Michigan, a manufacturer of foam sports balls.[4][10] Slinky continued production in Hollidaysburg.[4] In 2003, James Industries merged with Poof Products, Inc. to create Poof-Slinky, Inc.
Betty James died of congestive heart failure in November 2008, aged 90, after having served as president of James Industries from 1960 to 1998.[10] Over 300 million Slinkys have been sold between 1945 and 2005, and the original Slinky is still a bestseller.[4][7]
Other uses
High school teachers and college professors have used Slinkys to simulate the properties of waves, United States troops in the Vietnam War used them as mobile radio antennas, and NASA has used them in zero-gravity physics experiments in the Space Shuttle.[3]
Slinkys and similar springs can be used to create 'laser gun' like sound effects.[11] This is done by holding up a slinky in the air and striking one end, resulting in a metallic tone which sharply lowers in pitch. This is due to the properties of the metal; higher frequencies travel faster than the lower ones, so as to the listener the high-pitched sound is heard first, then gets progressively lower.[citation needed] The effect can be amplified by attaching a plastic cup to one end of the Slinky.
In 1959, John Cage composed an avant garde work called Sounds of Venice scored for (among other things) a piano, a slab of marble and Venetian broom, a birdcage of canaries, and an amplified Slinky.[12]
In 1985 in conjunction with the Johnson Space Center and the Houston Museum of Natural Science, Discovery astronauts created a video demonstrating how familiar toys behave in space. "It won't slink at all," Dr. M. Rhea Seddon said of Slinky, "It sort of droops." The video was prepared to stimulate interest in school children about the basic principles of physics and the phenomenon of weightlessness.[13]
In 1992, the Bishop Museum in Honolulu, Hawaii hosted an interactive traveling exhibit developed by the Franklin Institute of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania called "What Makes Music?" Among other things, visitors could examine what makes musical sound by creating waves on an eight-foot-long version of a Slinky toy.[14]
Jingle
Homer Fesperman and Charles Weagley wrote the Slinky commercial jingle in 1962. It became the longest-running jingle in advertising history.
- What walks down stairs, alone or in pairs, and makes a slinkity sound?
- A spring, a spring, a marvelous thing! Everyone knows it's Slinky.
- It's Slinky, it's Slinky. For fun it's a wonderful toy.
- It's Slinky, it's Slinky. It's fun for a girl or a boy.
- It's fun for a girl or boy!"[4]
The jingle has itself been parodied and referenced in popular culture. It is seen in the "Log" commercial on The Ren & Stimpy Show and sung by actor Jim Carrey in Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls. The song is also referenced in the movie Lords of Dogtown, where it is sung in full by Emile Hirsch, and is sung by Eddie Murphy as part of the final routine in the stand-up comedy film Eddie Murphy Raw.
Slinky Dog
Early in the history of James Industries, Helen (Herrick) Malsed of the state of Washington sent the company a letter and drawings for developing Slinky pull-toys. The company liked her ideas, and Slinky Dog and Slinky Train were added to the company's product line. Slinky Dog, a small plastic dog whose front and rear ends were joined by a metal Slinky, debuted in 1952. Malsted received royalties of $60,000 to $70,000 annually for 17 years on her patent for the Slinky pull-toy idea, but never visited the plant.[15]
In 1995, the Slinky Dog was redesigned for Pixar's Toy Story. James Industries had discontinued their Slinky Dog a few years previously. Betty James approved of the new Slinky Dog, telling the press, "[The earlier Slinky Dog] wasn't nearly as cute as this one." The molds used in manufacturing the new toy created problems for James Industries so the plastic front and rear ends were manufactured in China with James Industries doing the assembly and packaging. The entire run of 825,000 redesigned Slinky Dogs sold out well before Christmas 1995.[16]
Plastic Slinky
Plastic Slinkys are also available. They can be made in different colors. Many of them are made with the colors of the rainbow in rainbow order. Plastic Slinkys are more flexible and less deformable, allowing them to be more easily reversed end-to-end without tangling.
Tangling
 | This article contains instructions, advice, or how-to content. (March 2011) |
Slinkys have often been reported to become tangled.
Awards and honors
In 1999, the United States Postal Service issued a Slinky postage stamp.[17] The Slinky was inducted into the Toy Hall of Fame in 2000. A bill to nominate the slinky as the state toy of Pennsylvania was introduced by Richard Geist in 2001 but not enacted.[18] The same year, Betty James was inducted into the Toy Industry Association's Hall of Fame.[10] In 2003, Slinky was named to the Toy Industry Association's "Century of Toys List", a roll call of the 100 most memorable and most creative toys of the twentieth century.[19]
References
- ^ Ed. Sheila Dow and Jaime E. Noce. (2002). Business Leader Profiles for Students. Vol. 2. Detroit: Gale. pp. 238–241. ISBN 9780787666156.
- ^ Hunter, Ron (2008). Toy Box Leadership: Leadership Lessons from the Toys You Loved as a Child. Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson. p. 22. ISBN 9780785227403. Retrieved 2010-02-04.
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - ^ a b c d "Inventor of the Week: The Slinky". MIT School of Engineering. Retrieved 2009-02-24.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Walsh, Tim. (2005). Timeless Toys: Classic Toys and the Playmakers Who Created Them. Andrews McMeel Publishing. ISBN 9780740755712. 62–65.
- ^ Przybys, John (March 01, 1998). "Novel Ideas". Las Vegas Review-Journal. Retrieved 2010-02-04.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ Barnes, Julian E. (2001-01-28). "A Name, a Name, Destined for Fame". The New York Times. Retrieved 2009-02-26.
{{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ a b c d e Rich, Mark (2005). Warman's 101 Greatest Baby Boomer Toys. Iola, Wisconsin: KP Books. pp. 58–59. ISBN 0-89689-220-4.
- ^ Adams, Cecil. "The Straight Dope "Did the inventor of the Slinky join a cult in Bolivia?"". Retrieved June 2009.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help) - ^ "Betty James, who cofounded Slinky company, dies". KXMB-TV. Associated Press. 2008-11-22. Retrieved 2009-02-25.
- ^ a b c d Hevesi, Dennis (2008-11-25). "Betty James, Who Named the Slinky Toy, Is Dead at 90". The New York Times. Retrieved 2009-02-25.
{{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ The Experimentals Episode 19, Australian Broadcasting Corporation
- ^ Fetterman, William (1996). John Cage's Theatre Pieces. Routledge. p. 36. ISBN 3-7186-5642-6 (hbk); 3-7186-5643-4 (pbk).
{{cite book}}: Check|isbn=value: invalid character (help) - ^ "Toy Time in Space". The New York Times. 1085-04-16. Retrieved 2009-02-26.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ "Honolulu Exhibit Makes Music". The New York Times. 1992-08-02. Retrieved 2009-02-26.
{{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ McDowell, Edwin (1998-11-28). "Helen H. Malsed, 88, Creator of Slinky Toys". The New York Times. Retrieved 2009-02-26.
- ^ Witchel, Alex (1996-02-21). "Talking Toys with Betty James; Persevering for Family and Slinky". The New York Times. Retrieved 2009-02-26.
- ^ Sourcebook for Receptive and Expressive Language. Detroit, Michigan: Wayne State University Press. 2006. p. 106. ISBN 0-8143-3314-1. Retrieved 2009-02-25.
- ^ "Regular Session 2001-2002, House Bill 1893". Pennsylvania General Assembly. Retrieved 31 March 2011.
- ^ "Toy Industry Association Announces Its Century of Toys List" (Press release). Business Wire for Toy Industry Association. 2003-01-21. Retrieved 2009-02-19.