Slinky Toy

Background

The Slinky toy is a coil of wire or plastic that has the ability to "walk" on its own, usually down a flight of stairs.

History

Toys of infinite varieties have amused children, and some adults, of every civilization. Before the advent of the toy industry, playthings were made at home or by accomplished crafters. The industry grew from the area around Nuremburg, Germany, beginning in the Middle Ages. Toys were finely crafted of gold, silver, brass, iron, tin, wood, silk, and leather. With the Industrial Revolution came new machinery and production methods. Wood-pulp paper, aniline dyes, and chromolithography were used to mass produce storybooks, card and board games, and paper dolls. Advanced metal-metalworking techniques were exhibited in the plethora of steel-plated toys such as trains, boats, and animals.

By the late nineteenth century, three major toy companies in the United States, Milton Bradley, Selchow & Righter, and Parker Brothers, had been established. The intrusion of World War I and II severely curtailed European trade, and contributed to the rise of the toy industry in the United States.

During the latter period of that era the Slinky toy was invented, quite by accident. Richard James was a marine engineer employed at the Cramp Shipyard outside Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, during World War II. One day in 1943, as James was devising a spring that would hold shipboard marine torsion meters steady, one of the springs fell off his desk, springing end over end across the floor. Impressed and intrigued by the simplicity of it, James went home and told his wife he had a great idea for a new toy. He refined the coil of steel until he was satisfied with the end-over-end movement. The finished prototype was a 2.5 in (6.35 cm) stack of 98 coils. Betty James pored over the dictionary to find an appropriate name for the gadget, eventually deciding on the word slinky. Two years later, the Jameses borrowed $500 to manufacture a small inventory of slinky toys. Their initial attempts to sell the springy toy through small retail outlets were unsuccessful, and it seemed that they would have to abandon the project. Then, at the height of the Christmas holiday season, Gimbels department store agreed to sell 400 of the slinky toys. Richard James appeared in the store's toy department one night to demonstrate the toy and within an hour and a half, the entire inventory was sold out.

By the following year, Richard James had quit his job at the shipyard and the couple opened a factory to mass produce the slinky toys. At the 1946 American Toy Fair, slinky toys were a popular item. In the 1950s, business soared and the Jameses were monetarily quite successful. Richard James also became somewhat of an eccentric, joining a religious cult and tithing much of his money to it. In 1960, he left his wife Betty, their six children, and a very successful business to live in Bolivia.

Betty moved the factory to her hometown of Hollidaysburg, a small town outside Altoona, Pennsylvania, where the company remains today. The original machinery that Richard designed and engineered to twist the steel into a Slinky is still used. The original metal Slinky was made from 80 ft (24.4 m) of wire. At the end of the twentieth century, the company was making two sizes in steel and two in plastic of various colors.

Consumers have found ingenious uses for slinky toys, employing them in pecan-picking machines and using them as drapery holders, antennas, light fixtures, window decorations, gutter protectors, pigeon repellers, birdhouse protectors, therapeutic devices, wave motion coils, table decorations, and mail holders. For physics teachers and students, it is the tool of choice to demonstrate the properties of wave motion. The Slinky is on display at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, DC, and in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, New York.

Raw Materials

Fine spring steel wire, 0.0575 in (0.146 cm) in diameter, is purchased from an outside source. It is composed of high carbon steel and coated for durability. The plastic is also purchased from a supplier and then forced through an extruder to form long thin strands. Some of the slinky toys have animal heads and tails attached to either end. The animal parts are created from molds by an outside supplier.

The Manufacturing
Process

Wire slinky toy

• 1 The wire is fed into the machinery by a factory worker. The machine flattens the wire and winds it on its end. While it is being wound, the machine automatically cuts it to the preset length. The nature of spring wire is such that once it has been wound, it never loses that shape.
• 2 The curled wire is removed from the machinery by another worker, who crimps one end to the coil next to it. The worker then turns the wire around and crimps the other end in the same fashion. If the slinky toy is to have animal attachments, it is placed on an additional conveyer belt, traveling to a work station where the heads and tails are applied manually.

Plastic slinky toy

• 3 When the plastic emerges from the extruder, it resembles a piece of warm taffy. It is then mechanically wrapped and cast around a mounted spindle called a mandrel. As the plastic hardens, it takes on the curled shape of the mandrel. The coiled plastic is dipped into a warm water bath to further seal it into its curled shape.

Packaging

• 4 The slinky toy is sent on a conveyer belt to a worker who inserts the toy into a box that has been opened by an automatic boxing machine. The boxed slinky toy moves back into the boxing machine, which then closes the box.
• 5 Further along on the conveyer belt, the box enters a shrink-wrap machine, which encases the box in plastic wrap. The boxes are then loaded into display or shipping cases.

The Future

It would seem that in an age of electronic gadgetry, the slinky toy would fade into obscurity, however it has enjoyed consistent success over the years primarily because of its simplicity. Although the package includes instructions on how to use the toy, something that has inspired various spoofs on the Internet, anyone who picks one up knows what to do with it. The appearance of slinky toys in the 1990s movies "Toy Story" and "Ace Ventura, Pet Detective" has only served to increase demand. In a 1993 Philadelphia Inquirer Magazine article, reprinted in the November 1993 issue of Reader's Digest, writer Jeanne Marie Laskas summed it up this way: "You don't have to be smart, athletic, rich or clever to appreciate the Slinky. It's a toy for regular people."

Where to Learn More

Periodicals

Laskas, Jeanne Marie. "The Lady Behind the Slinky." Reader's Digest, November 1993, p. 77.

Witchel, Alex. "Persevering for Family and Slinky." The New York Times, February 21, 1994, pp.Cl, C7.

Other

Robinson, Kelly and Sherry Miller. Slinky Homepage. http://www.messiah.edu/hpages/facstaff/barrett/slinky/home.htm (July 9, 1997).

"The Slinky Story." James Industries. Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania.

—MaryF.McNulty

Slinky

The Slinky—the popular springy wire toy—was invented in 1943 by engineer Richard James (1914–1974) while he was working on an antivibration device for ships' instruments. James was fascinated by the way one of the springs he had made "walked" down to the ground when he accidentally knocked it off a shelf. He took it home to show his wife, Betty (1918–), and together they promoted it as a toy. The Slinky first went on sale at Gimbel's Department Store in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, just before Christmas 1945. Much to their surprise, the Jameses sold their entire stock of 400 Slinkys in just 90 minutes. At its fiftieth anniversary, over 250 million Slinkys had been sold. In 2002, it also comes in brightly colored plastic and, for $99.95, fourteen carat gold.

The simplicity of the Slinky, and the strange way it walks down steps and slopes, is what attracts children and adults to the toy. The Slinky is almost unchanged from the way the Jameses first promoted it. The metal version has had just one change in over fifty years: The sharp ends of the spring have been blunted for safety reasons. Although it looks simple, the Slinky depends on some serious science. In education, Slinkys are used to explain different kinds of wave forms, as well as forces such as gravity, friction, and inertia. Slinkys also have practical uses. As soldiers in Vietnam discovered, Slinkys make very good radio antennae. A Slinky bent over in the form of an arch makes an excellent letter rack.

The "It's Slinky" jingle—"It's Slinky, it's Slinky, for fun it's a wonderful toy. . ."—is America's longest-running national television (see entry under 1940s—TV and Radio in volume 3) commercial, running since 1963. The Slinky has appeared prominently in several movies, including Hairspray (1988), Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls (1995), and most memorably as Slinky Dog in Toy Story (1995). The antivibration device James had been working when he invented the Slinky was a complete flop. But his accidental creation went on to become one of the best-selling toys in America. With its graceful movements and "slinkety" sound, the Slinky has played a part in the childhood of most Americans born since the end of World War II (1939–45).

—Chris Routledge

For More Information

Green, Joey. The Official Slinky Book: Hundreds of Wild and Wacky Uses for the Greatest Toy on Earth. New York: Berkley Publishing, 1999.

"Slinky History." Slinky Toys.http://www.slinkytoys.com/toys/history.asp (accessed February 21, 2002).

Weiss, Michael J. "Zing Went the Spring. . ." Toys Were Us.http://www.discovery.com/stories/history/toys/SLINKY/shoulda.html (accessed February 21, 2002).

Slinky

Since its introduction to the public at Gimbels Department Store in Philadelphia in 1945, the Slinky has been one of the best-selling toys in America. This simple, steel spring developed by Richard James, a naval engineer who was trying to produce an anti-vibration device for ship instruments, has become one of the most widely recognized toys, with over 250 million Slinkys sold by the time of its fiftieth anniversary. When James and his wife, Betty, first demonstrated the Slinky's rhythmical step-by-step movement at Gimbels, they sold their entire lot of 400 Slinkys in ninety minutes.

In addition to playing with Slinkys, innovative Americans have used them as pecan-picking devices, envelope holders, light fixtures, and during the Vietnam War as makeshift radio antennae. Since 1962, children watching television have heard the Slinky jingle with its famous lines, "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 and a boy." In addition to being featured in television commercials, the Slinky has appeared in the films Hairspray, Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls, and as a leading, animated character, the Slinky Dog, in Toy Story. Slinkys have been manufactured in large-size, brightly colored plastic models for younger children, and the elite retailer Neiman Marcus sells an $80 gold Slinky. The original steel model sold in 1945 for one dollar. Fifty years later, in 1995, the same model (changed only by having its ends crimped for safety) sold for a mere one dollar and ninety-nine cents. Its low price has allowed for its presence, at one time or another, in nearly every American home.

—Sharon Brown

Further Reading:

Panati, Charles. Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things. New York, Harper and Row, 1987.

slink·y / ˈslingkē/ • adj. (slink·i·er, slink·i·est) inf. graceful and sinuous in movement, line, or figure: a slinky black evening dress.• n. (Slinky) trademark a toy consisting of a flexible helical spring that can be made to somersault down steps.DERIVATIVES: slink·i·ly / ˈslingkəlē/ adv.slink·i·ness n.