April 3, 2023 – Theme Week Day 1

April is Inventors Month, so this week, we’re doing a theme week on Accidental Inventions! So many everyday items were invented completely by accident, including the Slinky! Richard James was a naval engineer at a Philadelphia shipyard in 1943. He was working on developing springs that could support and stabilize the sensitive instruments on a ship if it was in rough waters. He accidentally knocked a torsion spring off a shelf, then watched in amazement as it stepped in a series of arcs to a stack of books, onto a tabletop, and finally to the floor, where it recoiled itself and stood upright. The idea for a new toy was born, although his wife Betty was a bit dubious about it at first. She came around to the idea once she saw how excited neighborhood kids were about it. The couple formed James Industries and had 400 Slinky’s made by a local machine shop. They priced them at $1 a piece and convinced Gimbel’s department store to carry the toy for Christmas in 1945. Sales were slow to start, but they really took off once the toy was demonstrated in action on a ramp. The entire first production run sold out in 90 minutes. In the 1950s, additional products like the Slink Dog, Slinky train, and Slinky worm were introduced. In 1960, Richard had a bit of a midlife crisis and left his wife and 6 kids behind to move to Bolivia. Betty took over the company, beginning an active advertising campaign with their now-famous jingle. She was adamant about keeping the price affordable over the years. At the time of her death in 2008, they were selling for $4-$5. In all 300 million Slinky’s have been sold, with around a quarter million still sold worldwide every year. Learn more here.