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Monday, November 19, 2012

History of the 'Slinky'.


“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 and a boy

That is the Slinky’s catchy advertisement jingle. Slinky is a contraption which was made by Naval engineer Richard James. The birth of this toy is pretty simple but amazing. Richard was working when a spring fell to the ground. He was fascinated by how the spring kept going, moving. He then had a wonderful idea for a toy and,  so that is how Slinky was born. The Slinky toy debuted at the Gimbel’s department store, during the 1945 Christmas season. Even though it held a simple concept, 400 were sold during the 90 minute Gimbel demonstration. After a while, Richard got a bit tired of going around, promoting his toy, so manufacturers made a Slinky dog, which was the birth of Slinky the dog (Toy Story).

The BAR concept, is when you make something bigger, add something and replace something. This is really hard seeing that my toy is just a simple contraption. I would make the whole body bigger, I would add human features like a face, legs and arms, and last but not least I would replace the material from metal to CHOCOLATE!

So the Slinky toy has a very funny way of coming to fame. It only took a simple spring to spark up a moment of inspiration, which just shows that a silly idea might even become a worldwide sensation.

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