Slinky Springs

by Ethan Cole
 
 

In 1943 a naval engineer by the name of Richard James accidentally invented one of the most perplexing and oddest toys to date: the slinky. James was working on a project having nothing to do with toys but rather a much more boring topic - boats. While he was working, one of the spare parts fell off of this desk. The way that the coil moved gave him a chuckle. That is when he knew that all hope was not lost. There was still a way to get something out of his endeavor and so the slinky came to be.

Since its introduction in 1945, adults and children alike have marveled at the strange little toy. In the sixty years since the slinky was created, over a quarter of a billion of the comical coils have been sold. The slinky made its greatest theatrical performance in an Ace Ventura movie in a scene that has to be the ultimate dream for slinky enthusiasts. Jim Carrey's character lets his slinky loose down the stairs of a Tibetan temple. Hundreds, thousands of steps later in a hilarious homage to the slinky, it seems appropriate that this accident of a fad got to show off its abilities on religious ground. That scene may have been an illusion to the fact that fifteen years after James stumbled upon the slinky, he left his coil toy empire behind and headed off to join what some have called a "cult" in Bolivia.

 

Perhaps there is something truly spiritual about the slinky. Either way, Richard James' wife Betty took over the company and saw it through the next several decades. Someone had to continue to make the slinky! People needed their silly springs.

Do not be mistaken by the seeming simplicity of the slinky. Educators have used the toy to illustrate certain laws of physics. So after all James came to be known as a successful inventor and not simply a toy maker even though his reputation as a cult follower may keep some from taking his name or his legacy seriously. But how seriously can anyone really take the inventor of the slinky?

Without knowing his background as a naval engineer, I had a picture in my head of a wild-haired weirdo. I kind of pictured him with the same eyes they use on the slinky glasses. I have to admit that although I am an adult now, I still get a kick out of those plastic glasses that have slinkys with eyeballs glued to the end. They are just ridiculous looking but never fail to crack me up.

I think that part of the slinky's success has to be attributed to its jingle. Whoever wrote that little ditty deserves some serious credit. It has been nearly twenty years since I have heard it but yet the melody and most of the words survive in my head.