ABSTRACT
The Slinky was a coil of spring steel approximately three inches in diameter, two inches high, containing 87 feet of flat-rolled wire which fascinated post-World War II Americans with its undulations and lifelike motions. Its inventor, Richard T. James, got the idea as a shipbuilder during World War II when a spring he was working on made a curious slithering movement. After being turned down by Woolworth's and other major department stores in the Philadelphia area, he got a toy outlet to take four dozen Slinkies on consignment in early November 1945; the entire batch sold out immediately. Quitting his job as aii air conditioner salesman, James located a piston-ring manufacturer capable of mass-producing the toy and set up a demonstration at Gimbels in Philadelphia. In 1950 he began diversifying in other areas, supplying industrial springs to major electronics firms and manufacturing a children's game utilizing two miniature Slinkies.
