🌀 ⬇️ 1943
Toy and Process of Use
U.S. Patent 2,415,012 · 1947
From the abstract
This invention relates to a novel form of toy and to a novel method of using same, and has for an object the provision of a toy which when placed in a normal upright position upon an inclined surface or upon a series of steps will of its own weight travel from one position to a lower position in a most fascinating manner...
Note
The Slinky. James was a naval engineer in 1943 working on shipboard-instrument shock-absorbers; a torsion spring slipped off his desk and 'walked' down a stack of books. He spent two years finding the right gauge of steel and tension. His wife Betty named it (from Swedish for 'sleek'). The first 400 sold in ninety minutes at a Philadelphia department store demo, 1945. Richard left Betty in 1960 to join an evangelical group in Bolivia; she ran the company until 1998 and never raised the price above $1.99.