1
00:00:00,440 --> 00:00:04,880
Speaker 1: Hi, everybody. This is Charles W. Chuck Bryant. It is Saturday,

2
00:00:05,440 --> 00:00:09,799
Speaker 1: and that means it's time for my weekly Selects episode. Pick.

3
00:00:10,920 --> 00:00:13,119
Speaker 1: I went through the archives and I found this gym

4
00:00:13,160 --> 00:00:17,279
Speaker 1: from April fourteenth, twenty fifteen, How Slinky Works. A big

5
00:00:17,280 --> 00:00:20,360
Speaker 1: fan of our Classic Toys episode and this is one

6
00:00:20,400 --> 00:00:22,840
Speaker 1: of them. And the great thing about a slinky everyone

7
00:00:23,360 --> 00:00:26,439
Speaker 1: is its spans generations. There's just something about this dumb

8
00:00:26,480 --> 00:00:31,479
Speaker 1: little toy that kids enjoyed for decades, including my own daughter,

9
00:00:31,520 --> 00:00:34,960
Speaker 1: who has her own slinky and loves it. So everyone

10
00:00:35,000 --> 00:00:39,879
Speaker 1: please listen right now to how Slinky Works, not Slinky's Slinky.

11
00:00:44,200 --> 00:00:53,160
Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of iHeartRadio.

12
00:00:53,680 --> 00:00:56,320
Speaker 2: Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, there's

13
00:00:56,400 --> 00:01:00,360
Speaker 2: Charles W. Chuck Bryant, and there's Jerry over there, and

14
00:01:00,400 --> 00:01:03,680
Speaker 2: this is the Stuff you should Know, projecting from Studio

15
00:01:03,840 --> 00:01:05,400
Speaker 2: one A.

16
00:01:05,880 --> 00:01:09,320
Speaker 1: Just us. It's not us on stage in front of

17
00:01:09,400 --> 00:01:10,720
Speaker 1: hundreds of the dooring fans.

18
00:01:11,080 --> 00:01:12,320
Speaker 2: No, I feel all listless.

19
00:01:13,560 --> 00:01:19,080
Speaker 1: We just got back from our tour and.

20
00:01:17,280 --> 00:01:20,800
Speaker 2: That was just us again. Yeah, there's a paper ikea

21
00:01:20,880 --> 00:01:22,640
Speaker 2: lamp with a dimmer that makes it turn into a

22
00:01:22,680 --> 00:01:25,600
Speaker 2: strobe light even though it's not supposed to. And yeah,

23
00:01:25,720 --> 00:01:28,240
Speaker 2: it's a toolbox over there. That's it.

24
00:01:28,240 --> 00:01:30,640
Speaker 1: It's a lot more fun to do this on stage

25
00:01:30,640 --> 00:01:32,280
Speaker 1: in front of people, and it turns out.

26
00:01:32,200 --> 00:01:34,800
Speaker 2: I think we should do it again because the West

27
00:01:34,800 --> 00:01:36,400
Speaker 2: Coast tour was pretty fun.

28
00:01:36,680 --> 00:01:41,080
Speaker 1: Yeah, so keep your eyes peeled. Perhaps Philly, d C.

29
00:01:41,440 --> 00:01:42,440
Speaker 1: New York, and Boston.

30
00:01:42,640 --> 00:01:44,440
Speaker 2: Don't literally peel your eyes.

31
00:01:44,200 --> 00:01:45,679
Speaker 1: Then perhaps Chapel Hill.

32
00:01:46,400 --> 00:01:47,240
Speaker 2: Oh man.

33
00:01:47,400 --> 00:01:50,200
Speaker 1: We can't announce anything yet, but we're just teasing with

34
00:01:50,840 --> 00:01:52,280
Speaker 1: those cities that we'll be in in June.

35
00:01:52,400 --> 00:02:00,000
Speaker 2: Yeah, we're actually going to Providence, are no, No, just kidding.

36
00:02:00,360 --> 00:02:03,120
Speaker 1: There were like ten people in Providence going yeah, oh man,

37
00:02:03,800 --> 00:02:05,080
Speaker 1: I got to go to Boston again.

38
00:02:07,120 --> 00:02:09,480
Speaker 2: So how are you doing? You're still jet lagged.

39
00:02:10,120 --> 00:02:13,680
Speaker 1: I have recovered somewhat. I have to say that the

40
00:02:13,720 --> 00:02:16,399
Speaker 1: city of Seattle is a place I could live. It's

41
00:02:16,480 --> 00:02:19,760
Speaker 1: beautiful except for the weather, like we had it good

42
00:02:19,800 --> 00:02:21,480
Speaker 1: and it's easy to fall in love with the place

43
00:02:21,560 --> 00:02:23,600
Speaker 1: if you're there for like a great weekend, right because

44
00:02:23,600 --> 00:02:24,880
Speaker 1: it was beautiful when everyone.

45
00:02:24,760 --> 00:02:25,840
Speaker 2: Was out, it was gorgeous.

46
00:02:25,880 --> 00:02:27,840
Speaker 1: But I told Emily she was all fired up too.

47
00:02:28,520 --> 00:02:30,359
Speaker 1: It's like, you know, nine months out of the year.

48
00:02:30,760 --> 00:02:34,320
Speaker 1: It's pretty depressing. Yeah, with the weather bleak, and I

49
00:02:34,320 --> 00:02:35,959
Speaker 1: think you're just used to it. I feel about there.

50
00:02:36,320 --> 00:02:37,639
Speaker 1: I guess you know, you're hearty.

51
00:02:37,919 --> 00:02:40,720
Speaker 2: Everybody seemed to have their spirits up though maybe it

52
00:02:40,800 --> 00:02:42,600
Speaker 2: was the weather. I assumed it was because we were

53
00:02:42,639 --> 00:02:44,600
Speaker 2: in town, but now that I think about it, it

54
00:02:44,880 --> 00:02:46,560
Speaker 2: could have definitely been the weather.

55
00:02:46,680 --> 00:02:48,920
Speaker 1: Well, Portland fans stood in line in the rain, and

56
00:02:48,960 --> 00:02:50,560
Speaker 1: I felt all bad, But then I was like, they

57
00:02:50,639 --> 00:02:52,560
Speaker 1: stand in line for in the rain all the time,

58
00:02:52,880 --> 00:02:53,919
Speaker 1: for everything.

59
00:02:53,680 --> 00:02:55,760
Speaker 2: Gas, doughnuts, what have you.

60
00:02:56,040 --> 00:02:58,760
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, So anyway, thanks to everyone who came out.

61
00:02:58,800 --> 00:03:00,400
Speaker 1: It was so so fun.

62
00:03:00,480 --> 00:03:03,880
Speaker 2: Yes, La San Francisco, Portland, Seattle from both of us.

63
00:03:04,080 --> 00:03:07,960
Speaker 2: From Jerry too, Yeah, from everybody, A heartfelt, hearty thank you.

64
00:03:08,080 --> 00:03:11,120
Speaker 1: Jerry was a regular hot shot, you know.

65
00:03:11,520 --> 00:03:16,600
Speaker 2: With w's so chuck. Yes, did you ever have a

66
00:03:16,600 --> 00:03:19,480
Speaker 2: slinky when you were a kid, Sure, I feel like

67
00:03:19,520 --> 00:03:21,519
Speaker 2: I played with them. I definitely played with him. I

68
00:03:21,560 --> 00:03:24,799
Speaker 2: don't remember actually owning a slinky at any point, at

69
00:03:24,880 --> 00:03:25,480
Speaker 2: least yours.

70
00:03:25,680 --> 00:03:25,960
Speaker 1: It was.

71
00:03:26,480 --> 00:03:28,040
Speaker 2: It was just kind of one of those things I

72
00:03:28,080 --> 00:03:30,000
Speaker 2: was like, always around there was always a slinky. You

73
00:03:30,000 --> 00:03:31,520
Speaker 2: could get your hands on a slinky, But.

74
00:03:31,520 --> 00:03:34,120
Speaker 1: You don't remember getting a slinky right and saying this

75
00:03:34,160 --> 00:03:35,160
Speaker 1: is my slinky.

76
00:03:34,920 --> 00:03:36,920
Speaker 2: Or going to the toy store and saying like, I

77
00:03:36,960 --> 00:03:40,040
Speaker 2: want a slinky, right. But I did love slinkies whenever

78
00:03:40,080 --> 00:03:42,520
Speaker 2: I played with them. Yeah, it turns out I was

79
00:03:42,560 --> 00:03:47,160
Speaker 2: just one of many many children over the last sixty

80
00:03:47,520 --> 00:03:50,040
Speaker 2: seventy years that have loved slinky.

81
00:03:50,440 --> 00:03:53,640
Speaker 1: I was frustrated by my slinky a bit because I

82
00:03:53,800 --> 00:03:57,520
Speaker 1: never well, I never had stairs that it worked well on.

83
00:03:58,240 --> 00:04:01,360
Speaker 2: You know, you gotta thought, say I never had stairs, Like, yeah,

84
00:04:01,400 --> 00:04:02,920
Speaker 2: I'll bet you're frustrated with slinky.

85
00:04:03,040 --> 00:04:04,880
Speaker 1: No, I had stairs going up to my room, but

86
00:04:05,000 --> 00:04:07,480
Speaker 1: it was you know, if you don't have the right

87
00:04:08,040 --> 00:04:11,600
Speaker 1: height and depth of stair, it just stops. Yeah, and

88
00:04:11,640 --> 00:04:12,720
Speaker 1: then you got to do it again.

89
00:04:12,840 --> 00:04:15,160
Speaker 2: Were they for like really long feet, were they wide

90
00:04:15,160 --> 00:04:17,479
Speaker 2: stairs or were they really tall or what was the deal?

91
00:04:17,520 --> 00:04:20,159
Speaker 1: I don't know. I felt like I felt like they

92
00:04:20,200 --> 00:04:21,240
Speaker 1: were standard stairs.

93
00:04:22,640 --> 00:04:23,720
Speaker 2: And then you just didn't like them.

94
00:04:23,839 --> 00:04:25,560
Speaker 1: Well, we get all. I had the metal ones. It

95
00:04:25,560 --> 00:04:27,800
Speaker 1: would get all you know how they would tend to

96
00:04:27,839 --> 00:04:31,400
Speaker 1: get tangled. Yeah, that was sort of the hallmark of

97
00:04:31,440 --> 00:04:32,239
Speaker 1: the metal slinky.

98
00:04:32,400 --> 00:04:35,160
Speaker 2: And again, like people's hair would get caught in and

99
00:04:35,200 --> 00:04:37,000
Speaker 2: now that I'm an adult and looking back, I'm like,

100
00:04:37,040 --> 00:04:39,400
Speaker 2: how did anybody's hair get caught in the slinky? What

101
00:04:39,480 --> 00:04:42,039
Speaker 2: was the deal? But when it happened, it hurt.

102
00:04:42,480 --> 00:04:44,720
Speaker 1: I think kids would like wrap slinkies around each other.

103
00:04:44,720 --> 00:04:48,840
Speaker 1: I remember using slinky like as rope like handcuffs. Oh yeah,

104
00:04:48,839 --> 00:04:51,280
Speaker 1: Like you'd wrap it around your friend and then sort

105
00:04:51,320 --> 00:04:54,600
Speaker 1: of just latch it and you'd be like, ah, i's.

106
00:04:54,160 --> 00:04:57,000
Speaker 2: Slinky, or like attaching a knife to one end and

107
00:04:57,120 --> 00:04:59,960
Speaker 2: like yeah, yeah, just jamming it towards somebody.

108
00:05:00,080 --> 00:05:00,760
Speaker 1: That was fun.

109
00:05:00,839 --> 00:05:04,640
Speaker 2: There's this guy on YouTube while there's a YouTube video

110
00:05:04,640 --> 00:05:07,480
Speaker 2: of a guy called Slinky Master, Oh boy, and he

111
00:05:07,640 --> 00:05:10,120
Speaker 2: is good. He's just like basically like moving it from

112
00:05:10,120 --> 00:05:12,279
Speaker 2: one hand to another, making it do all this awesome

113
00:05:12,320 --> 00:05:15,120
Speaker 2: stuff in the middle. And it's a rainbow slinky and

114
00:05:15,160 --> 00:05:17,159
Speaker 2: I think it might be like glow in the dark too.

115
00:05:17,279 --> 00:05:17,839
Speaker 1: Holy cow.

116
00:05:17,960 --> 00:05:20,480
Speaker 2: But he is a pretty good I say, go check

117
00:05:20,520 --> 00:05:20,760
Speaker 2: it out.

118
00:05:20,800 --> 00:05:22,520
Speaker 1: I got it. Definitely want to check that out.

119
00:05:22,560 --> 00:05:24,240
Speaker 2: Oh and actually, we have a new thing on our

120
00:05:24,279 --> 00:05:27,480
Speaker 2: website on our podcast pages, so like the page where

121
00:05:27,520 --> 00:05:30,799
Speaker 2: you can go listen to any podcast on our site,

122
00:05:31,520 --> 00:05:36,480
Speaker 2: there's now a like an additional links section where it

123
00:05:36,560 --> 00:05:39,159
Speaker 2: has stuff that we talk about. It links out to

124
00:05:39,279 --> 00:05:42,839
Speaker 2: articles that we use for extra research. They'll be on

125
00:05:42,920 --> 00:05:47,360
Speaker 2: this Slinky episode podcast page, a link to that Slinky Master.

126
00:05:47,600 --> 00:05:49,359
Speaker 2: Oh you don't even need to google that. You just

127
00:05:49,400 --> 00:05:51,320
Speaker 2: basically make stuff you should know your homepage and we

128
00:05:51,360 --> 00:05:52,279
Speaker 2: can take care of it for you.

129
00:05:52,400 --> 00:05:55,479
Speaker 1: Yeah. And we're bringing back transcriptions right yep, which we

130
00:05:55,520 --> 00:05:58,360
Speaker 1: are super happy about because we used to have transcriptions

131
00:05:58,400 --> 00:06:01,240
Speaker 1: for our friends in the deaf and Heart of Hearing

132
00:06:01,240 --> 00:06:03,360
Speaker 1: community and then we didn't do it for a while

133
00:06:03,400 --> 00:06:05,960
Speaker 1: and they were like, what gives shirks? Yeah, and so

134
00:06:06,000 --> 00:06:07,480
Speaker 1: we've been working to get those back and I think

135
00:06:07,480 --> 00:06:08,719
Speaker 1: they're going to be back now yep.

136
00:06:09,560 --> 00:06:12,520
Speaker 2: So that's Slinky's a goodnight.

137
00:06:12,560 --> 00:06:14,119
Speaker 1: Oh wait, we didn't start yet.

138
00:06:14,240 --> 00:06:17,760
Speaker 2: So I had no idea while I was watching people

139
00:06:17,800 --> 00:06:20,680
Speaker 2: get their hair caught in Slinky's or playing with them

140
00:06:20,720 --> 00:06:24,640
Speaker 2: in general that they had a kind of a pretty

141
00:06:24,640 --> 00:06:28,400
Speaker 2: neat history until I ran across this article from PRIs Nomics,

142
00:06:28,960 --> 00:06:31,040
Speaker 2: written by a dude named Zachary Crockett.

143
00:06:31,200 --> 00:06:33,640
Speaker 1: Yeah, big, thanks, it's a good article. It is.

144
00:06:34,320 --> 00:06:38,280
Speaker 2: It's called The Invention is Slinky, and in it, Crockett

145
00:06:38,720 --> 00:06:42,040
Speaker 2: starts at a pretty reasonable place the birth of the

146
00:06:42,080 --> 00:06:45,080
Speaker 2: inventor of slinky, Richard Thompson James.

147
00:06:44,600 --> 00:06:48,680
Speaker 1: Rick James, and in the slinky, I don't think he

148
00:06:48,760 --> 00:06:49,280
Speaker 1: went by Rick.

149
00:06:50,160 --> 00:06:54,200
Speaker 2: No, he went by mister James, right, inventor's slinky.

150
00:06:55,040 --> 00:06:58,920
Speaker 1: Yes. He was born in nineteen fourteen in Delaware, and

151
00:07:00,279 --> 00:07:02,520
Speaker 1: apparently his brother Samuel said that he was always a

152
00:07:02,560 --> 00:07:08,440
Speaker 1: pretty enterprising, mechanically oriented type of kid, because he had

153
00:07:08,440 --> 00:07:11,000
Speaker 1: this one story about when he was like thirteen, he

154
00:07:11,400 --> 00:07:14,440
Speaker 1: found an old car and literally like fixed the car

155
00:07:14,520 --> 00:07:15,520
Speaker 1: up well enough to sell it.

156
00:07:15,640 --> 00:07:18,800
Speaker 2: Yeah, it had like mice running around living. Yeah, and

157
00:07:18,840 --> 00:07:21,200
Speaker 2: he sold it for twenty five bucks, which I went

158
00:07:21,280 --> 00:07:24,720
Speaker 2: to West Egg and converted that three hundred and thirty

159
00:07:24,760 --> 00:07:26,880
Speaker 2: seven dollars in twenty fourteen. Money.

160
00:07:26,960 --> 00:07:30,320
Speaker 1: Not bad for a thirteen year old, No, no way, that's yeah.

161
00:07:30,360 --> 00:07:33,280
Speaker 1: But it was a car. Whoever bought it got a

162
00:07:33,280 --> 00:07:34,560
Speaker 1: good deal, That's all I'm saying.

163
00:07:34,840 --> 00:07:36,920
Speaker 2: But I mean he probably didn't get rid of the mice.

164
00:07:36,960 --> 00:07:38,240
Speaker 2: He just got the thing to run again.

165
00:07:38,400 --> 00:07:40,240
Speaker 1: Yeah. Plus it wasn't his car anyway, he just took

166
00:07:40,280 --> 00:07:41,600
Speaker 1: it exact fixed it up.

167
00:07:41,720 --> 00:07:44,440
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was the mice's car.

168
00:07:44,920 --> 00:07:47,840
Speaker 1: So in the nineteen thirties he went to Penn State

169
00:07:48,600 --> 00:07:51,400
Speaker 1: and did study mechanical engineering.

170
00:07:51,600 --> 00:07:53,240
Speaker 2: Yeah. He was just a tinkerer, so it made a

171
00:07:53,280 --> 00:07:53,880
Speaker 2: lot of sense.

172
00:07:54,000 --> 00:07:58,240
Speaker 1: Yeah. I find that often when people like you researched

173
00:07:58,240 --> 00:08:01,680
Speaker 1: the people who invented like a circuit board for an

174
00:08:01,720 --> 00:08:04,800
Speaker 1: amp or something. It seems like that starts when you're very,

175
00:08:04,920 --> 00:08:07,440
Speaker 1: very young, right, just interest in that kind of thing. Yeah, oh,

176
00:08:07,440 --> 00:08:09,840
Speaker 1: you don't get into mechanical engineering in your twenties, no,

177
00:08:10,080 --> 00:08:10,440
Speaker 1: you know.

178
00:08:10,720 --> 00:08:14,360
Speaker 2: Like you ditch psychology for a mechanical engineering degree.

179
00:08:14,560 --> 00:08:16,600
Speaker 1: Yeah. My brother went the other way. He was an

180
00:08:16,640 --> 00:08:19,240
Speaker 1: aerospace engineering major and he switched to psychology.

181
00:08:19,280 --> 00:08:20,800
Speaker 2: Did he really? I didn't know that.

182
00:08:20,880 --> 00:08:23,960
Speaker 1: Yeah. He wanted to be an astronaut. That's awesome, but

183
00:08:24,040 --> 00:08:26,000
Speaker 1: not like a six year old. He was like, he's

184
00:08:26,040 --> 00:08:29,160
Speaker 1: an adult, wanted to be an astronaut, right, He wanted

185
00:08:29,200 --> 00:08:30,120
Speaker 1: to be a cowboy.

186
00:08:29,800 --> 00:08:32,120
Speaker 2: Too, cowboys you grew up to actually be cowboys.

187
00:08:33,240 --> 00:08:35,920
Speaker 1: So anyway, he got a mechanical engineering degree and then

188
00:08:37,040 --> 00:08:38,520
Speaker 1: started work as a naval engineer.

189
00:08:38,800 --> 00:08:40,679
Speaker 2: Yeah, because it makes sense. It was World War Two,

190
00:08:41,160 --> 00:08:43,080
Speaker 2: so that's what you did. Yeah, he had to go

191
00:08:43,120 --> 00:08:46,040
Speaker 2: fight Hitler, so he did. He fought it from behind

192
00:08:46,040 --> 00:08:48,560
Speaker 2: a desk because they're like you're a mechanical engineer, you

193
00:08:48,679 --> 00:08:50,320
Speaker 2: just sit here and figure out how you can make

194
00:08:50,400 --> 00:08:51,600
Speaker 2: our weapons of war better.

195
00:08:51,760 --> 00:08:52,200
Speaker 1: Exactly.

196
00:08:52,240 --> 00:08:55,640
Speaker 2: And he was actually working on something that you springs

197
00:08:56,040 --> 00:09:02,360
Speaker 2: is something that basically kept some sort of electronics on battleships.

198
00:09:02,360 --> 00:09:04,720
Speaker 2: I think it had to do with the measuring horse power.

199
00:09:04,880 --> 00:09:07,600
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was a horsepower meter that I guess if

200
00:09:07,640 --> 00:09:10,280
Speaker 1: you're in rough waves that would mess with the meter.

201
00:09:10,440 --> 00:09:12,000
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you didn't want to rocking all over the

202
00:09:12,000 --> 00:09:14,840
Speaker 2: place that you would use springs to keep it intact

203
00:09:14,960 --> 00:09:18,200
Speaker 2: or keep it from moving around too much, right, Yeah.

204
00:09:18,320 --> 00:09:20,360
Speaker 2: So while he was tinkering around with one of this,

205
00:09:20,480 --> 00:09:22,880
Speaker 2: he quite by accident knocked over some stuff. I don't

206
00:09:22,880 --> 00:09:25,480
Speaker 2: think it was in a fit of rage, it was accidental.

207
00:09:25,600 --> 00:09:25,920
Speaker 1: Yeah.

208
00:09:25,960 --> 00:09:28,400
Speaker 2: And one of the things he knocked over included a spring,

209
00:09:28,800 --> 00:09:32,440
Speaker 2: and he watched the spring fall off the shelf in

210
00:09:32,480 --> 00:09:35,640
Speaker 2: a nice graceful arc, hit a book, go over from

211
00:09:35,679 --> 00:09:37,480
Speaker 2: the book onto the desk, and then from the desk

212
00:09:37,520 --> 00:09:40,640
Speaker 2: onto the floor in this nice arching manner.

213
00:09:40,880 --> 00:09:47,040
Speaker 1: Anyway, Yeah, exactly, and he said, let's try that again.

214
00:09:47,280 --> 00:09:49,000
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's apparently captivated by it.

215
00:09:49,000 --> 00:09:51,040
Speaker 1: It's pretty neat, like this is literally one of those

216
00:09:51,440 --> 00:09:54,480
Speaker 1: toys you can trace back to one of those silly

217
00:09:54,520 --> 00:09:58,360
Speaker 1: fluke moments, like the microwave. Was that the same thing?

218
00:09:58,720 --> 00:10:02,480
Speaker 2: He was, Yeah, they there was a oh man, I

219
00:10:02,480 --> 00:10:04,800
Speaker 2: can't remember what the actual the actual thing that makes

220
00:10:04,800 --> 00:10:10,280
Speaker 2: the microwave. The microwave was discovered by accident that yeah,

221
00:10:10,320 --> 00:10:13,640
Speaker 2: that it had these properties that like a guy had

222
00:10:13,679 --> 00:10:17,400
Speaker 2: a chocolate bar in his shirt melted, it melt. He's like,

223
00:10:17,440 --> 00:10:19,880
Speaker 2: wait a minute, So of course he logically ran and

224
00:10:19,880 --> 00:10:21,800
Speaker 2: grabbed some popcorn and saw that that happened, and then

225
00:10:21,840 --> 00:10:22,840
Speaker 2: the microwave was born.

226
00:10:22,960 --> 00:10:24,920
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it's slinky. Is actually the only place

227
00:10:24,960 --> 00:10:27,080
Speaker 1: that's on our website is one of those our top

228
00:10:27,120 --> 00:10:29,360
Speaker 1: ten Accidental Inventions or something.

229
00:10:29,440 --> 00:10:31,200
Speaker 2: Yeah, and all bet microwaves are in there too.

230
00:10:31,280 --> 00:10:35,600
Speaker 1: I'm sure it is. So basically, you're right. The light

231
00:10:35,600 --> 00:10:38,240
Speaker 1: bulb went off over his head and he went home

232
00:10:38,240 --> 00:10:42,520
Speaker 1: and told his lovely wife Betty, Betty, Betty, I think

233
00:10:42,559 --> 00:10:44,959
Speaker 1: I've got something here, and I just need to figure

234
00:10:44,960 --> 00:10:47,240
Speaker 1: out how to how to make it to where it

235
00:10:47,320 --> 00:10:49,839
Speaker 1: keeps doing this thing. I'm going to try, because you

236
00:10:49,840 --> 00:10:51,960
Speaker 1: can't just get any spring and throw it on a step.

237
00:10:51,760 --> 00:10:53,520
Speaker 2: No, you can. There's all sorts of different kinds of

238
00:10:53,559 --> 00:10:56,000
Speaker 2: springs that turns out, you know, like there's a tension

239
00:10:56,080 --> 00:10:59,360
Speaker 2: spring sure that they use on mouse traps, and then

240
00:10:59,360 --> 00:11:02,120
Speaker 2: there's this slinking Yeah, but no, the slinky spring is

241
00:11:02,120 --> 00:11:06,480
Speaker 2: this super refined type of spring that was designed over

242
00:11:06,520 --> 00:11:09,360
Speaker 2: the course of a year through trial and error to

243
00:11:09,400 --> 00:11:12,200
Speaker 2: have just the right tension, just the right shape, just

244
00:11:12,240 --> 00:11:14,480
Speaker 2: the right size of the coils, just the right everything,

245
00:11:14,920 --> 00:11:19,319
Speaker 2: so that it really accentuated that graceful flow, that arcing

246
00:11:19,440 --> 00:11:23,199
Speaker 2: flow that it has. Yeah, it makes it the slinky.

247
00:11:23,600 --> 00:11:25,320
Speaker 2: And it took him like a year of tinkering with

248
00:11:25,360 --> 00:11:28,840
Speaker 2: all these different tensions and types of materials before he

249
00:11:28,880 --> 00:11:29,760
Speaker 2: finally hit upon it.

250
00:11:30,000 --> 00:11:32,439
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think he settled on a point zero

251
00:11:32,520 --> 00:11:36,480
Speaker 1: five seven to five inch in diameter high carbon steel.

252
00:11:37,960 --> 00:11:42,800
Speaker 1: The original slinkies were black metal, which was kind of

253
00:11:42,840 --> 00:11:46,200
Speaker 1: cool looking by the time, like we were kids. I

254
00:11:46,240 --> 00:11:50,680
Speaker 1: think they just they had the shiny, silvery ones. And

255
00:11:50,679 --> 00:11:52,480
Speaker 1: then of course we'll get to the plastic that came

256
00:11:52,520 --> 00:11:56,480
Speaker 1: along later too, but the first ones were black and

257
00:11:56,840 --> 00:12:00,720
Speaker 1: it demonstrates property and physics hooks law.

258
00:12:00,880 --> 00:12:04,480
Speaker 2: So I ran across this like super hardcore physics forum

259
00:12:04,800 --> 00:12:07,600
Speaker 2: where somebody posted that they were talking about the physics

260
00:12:07,600 --> 00:12:09,680
Speaker 2: of slinky and somebody's like, it seems like Cooks law

261
00:12:09,760 --> 00:12:12,160
Speaker 2: is a good place to start, and they got piled on.

262
00:12:12,320 --> 00:12:12,760
Speaker 1: Oh really.

263
00:12:13,040 --> 00:12:15,600
Speaker 2: They said that Hooks law has to do with the

264
00:12:15,640 --> 00:12:18,880
Speaker 2: amount of force a spring exerts on something it's attached to.

265
00:12:19,720 --> 00:12:21,880
Speaker 2: So I think with Hooks law, if it does apply,

266
00:12:22,480 --> 00:12:25,240
Speaker 2: what you're talking about is the force being transferred from

267
00:12:25,280 --> 00:12:28,319
Speaker 2: one end of the slinky to the other, and that

268
00:12:28,400 --> 00:12:32,400
Speaker 2: as the momentum at the front of the slinky goes downward,

269
00:12:33,080 --> 00:12:35,440
Speaker 2: that same amount is transferred to the back and it's

270
00:12:35,480 --> 00:12:38,040
Speaker 2: pulled forward and it just keeps going end over end.

271
00:12:38,320 --> 00:12:40,520
Speaker 2: So I don't know if Hooks law does apply or not,

272
00:12:40,880 --> 00:12:42,959
Speaker 2: but if it does, that's my understanding of how it

273
00:12:43,000 --> 00:12:43,520
Speaker 2: would apply.

274
00:12:43,720 --> 00:12:47,040
Speaker 1: Yeah, the one definition I saw was that it basically

275
00:12:47,120 --> 00:12:50,559
Speaker 1: means a spring will return to its original shape once

276
00:12:50,679 --> 00:12:51,720
Speaker 1: the load is removed.

277
00:12:51,800 --> 00:12:55,320
Speaker 2: So that makes sense, right. But there's another thing, at

278
00:12:55,400 --> 00:12:57,400
Speaker 2: least one other thing going on with the slinky, and

279
00:12:57,440 --> 00:13:00,720
Speaker 2: that is that it goes along a launge tudinal wave.

280
00:13:01,160 --> 00:13:04,320
Speaker 2: So just like a sound wave, basically a slinky is

281
00:13:04,440 --> 00:13:07,480
Speaker 2: a sound wave slowed down or the same type of

282
00:13:07,520 --> 00:13:10,760
Speaker 2: wave as a sound wave, and it slowed down and

283
00:13:11,280 --> 00:13:15,560
Speaker 2: as the slinky's moving on a molecular level, molecule to molecule,

284
00:13:15,600 --> 00:13:18,200
Speaker 2: is pushing the ones in front of it forward, and

285
00:13:18,240 --> 00:13:23,400
Speaker 2: then the whole thing starts over again once it reaches equilibrium.

286
00:13:23,880 --> 00:13:26,080
Speaker 1: That sounds like a great explanation to me.

287
00:13:26,280 --> 00:13:28,959
Speaker 2: Yes, no, that's all right. It avoids equilibrium. Once it

288
00:13:29,040 --> 00:13:32,000
Speaker 2: hits equilibrium, it stops. Oh okay, Yeah, but the whole

289
00:13:32,000 --> 00:13:33,880
Speaker 2: thing starts with the slinky just sitting there at the

290
00:13:33,920 --> 00:13:35,440
Speaker 2: top of the step. And what it has there is

291
00:13:35,480 --> 00:13:36,760
Speaker 2: potential energy. It's a store.

292
00:13:36,840 --> 00:13:40,199
Speaker 1: Yeah, you gotta move it to get that kinetic energy going. Yeah.

293
00:13:40,720 --> 00:13:43,559
Speaker 1: When I was a kid, I just remember staring at it.

294
00:13:43,559 --> 00:13:44,720
Speaker 1: It's like it's not doing nothing.

295
00:13:44,840 --> 00:13:48,800
Speaker 2: This is where Slinky and our esp episodes collide. How's

296
00:13:48,840 --> 00:13:51,800
Speaker 2: that You're just staring at slinky willing it to move?

297
00:13:51,880 --> 00:13:54,760
Speaker 1: Oh? Gotcha? All right. So he comes up with this

298
00:13:54,800 --> 00:13:57,960
Speaker 1: little slinky. It works like a charm, his little prototype.

299
00:13:59,040 --> 00:14:00,880
Speaker 1: He does the smart thing, which is if you want

300
00:14:00,880 --> 00:14:03,760
Speaker 1: to find out if kids actually will enjoy it. He

301
00:14:03,840 --> 00:14:07,640
Speaker 1: got the neighborhood together. Yeah, and came to some kids

302
00:14:07,679 --> 00:14:09,560
Speaker 1: and they went nuts. They were like, this thing is amazing.

303
00:14:09,679 --> 00:14:13,040
Speaker 2: Yeah, stop hitting that other kid with those sticks. And

304
00:14:13,120 --> 00:14:14,920
Speaker 2: come over and play with this toy that I came

305
00:14:15,040 --> 00:14:16,760
Speaker 2: up with. Let me know what you think.

306
00:14:16,960 --> 00:14:19,800
Speaker 1: And they wrapped up that kid in the spring, got

307
00:14:19,800 --> 00:14:22,080
Speaker 1: it caught in that kid's hair. Yeah, he said this

308
00:14:22,160 --> 00:14:22,640
Speaker 1: is perfect.

309
00:14:22,680 --> 00:14:25,240
Speaker 2: He's like, this is Gangbusters. And I mean, like he

310
00:14:25,360 --> 00:14:30,320
Speaker 2: saw from that very early back of the envelope market

311
00:14:30,360 --> 00:14:33,240
Speaker 2: research that he did with the neighborhood kids, it made

312
00:14:33,280 --> 00:14:35,680
Speaker 2: him a believer. Oh yeah, Like he saw that kids

313
00:14:35,880 --> 00:14:39,640
Speaker 2: really were into this thing. And I got the impression

314
00:14:39,680 --> 00:14:44,000
Speaker 2: that at no point was he like this thing is amazing,

315
00:14:44,040 --> 00:14:46,760
Speaker 2: it's supernatural. He's like, this is a it's really cool.

316
00:14:46,800 --> 00:14:49,240
Speaker 2: It's a spring. It's physics, but it just looks really

317
00:14:49,320 --> 00:14:51,560
Speaker 2: neat and it is somehow weirdly captivating.

318
00:14:51,960 --> 00:14:54,000
Speaker 1: Yeah. I think they say that one in a thousand

319
00:14:54,080 --> 00:14:55,680
Speaker 1: toys hits it big.

320
00:14:56,360 --> 00:14:57,280
Speaker 2: Yeah, something like that.

321
00:14:57,400 --> 00:15:01,240
Speaker 1: Yeah. So I mean there are toy inventors that labor

322
00:15:01,320 --> 00:15:04,120
Speaker 1: for their entire lives, yeah, and never hit on something

323
00:15:04,160 --> 00:15:05,600
Speaker 1: like the slinky. I mean, it's one of the top

324
00:15:05,800 --> 00:15:08,880
Speaker 1: ten toys in history. When they give frustrate a little spring,

325
00:15:09,040 --> 00:15:15,960
Speaker 1: they go slinky. So Betty, his wife, wasn't super well.

326
00:15:16,000 --> 00:15:17,160
Speaker 1: She was a little skeptical at.

327
00:15:17,080 --> 00:15:19,760
Speaker 2: First, which we'll learn later is pretty ironic.

328
00:15:19,680 --> 00:15:22,960
Speaker 1: Very ironic. And he actually tasked her with naming it though.

329
00:15:23,360 --> 00:15:25,360
Speaker 1: And she is the one that found the word slinky

330
00:15:25,400 --> 00:15:26,120
Speaker 1: in the dictionary.

331
00:15:26,200 --> 00:15:29,080
Speaker 2: Yeah, apparently she spent like several weeks drinking for just

332
00:15:29,080 --> 00:15:29,640
Speaker 2: the right word.

333
00:15:30,360 --> 00:15:32,480
Speaker 1: Well, I mean, what else was she doing raising six kids?

334
00:15:32,520 --> 00:15:34,440
Speaker 2: Right, exactly? She had a lot of downtime.

335
00:15:35,080 --> 00:15:37,720
Speaker 1: So right after this break, we will talk a little

336
00:15:37,720 --> 00:15:41,040
Speaker 1: bit about how it went from a just a garage

337
00:15:41,080 --> 00:15:44,560
Speaker 1: neighborhood idea to one of the biggest selling toys ever.

338
00:16:01,520 --> 00:16:04,640
Speaker 1: All right, So he's got his slinky, he's got the prototype,

339
00:16:04,840 --> 00:16:08,160
Speaker 1: he gets a five hundred dollars loan to start from

340
00:16:08,200 --> 00:16:12,840
Speaker 1: a friend to start James Spring and Wire Company, LLC. Yeah,

341
00:16:13,080 --> 00:16:13,720
Speaker 1: pretty good name.

342
00:16:13,840 --> 00:16:15,640
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, and then he got the five hundred bucks

343
00:16:15,640 --> 00:16:18,200
Speaker 2: apparently pretty easy from the friend by just showing him

344
00:16:18,200 --> 00:16:18,680
Speaker 2: the slinky.

345
00:16:18,760 --> 00:16:20,400
Speaker 1: Yeah, and he was like, how much do you need?

346
00:16:20,600 --> 00:16:22,760
Speaker 2: I didn't look up how much five hundred bucks is,

347
00:16:22,800 --> 00:16:26,920
Speaker 2: but in nineteen forty five, but we can guess that it's.

348
00:16:27,280 --> 00:16:28,160
Speaker 1: About forty million.

349
00:16:28,640 --> 00:16:33,880
Speaker 2: No, no, no, because I think it's about let's see,

350
00:16:35,200 --> 00:16:39,040
Speaker 2: it was about I think sixty five hundred bucks probably

351
00:16:39,120 --> 00:16:41,880
Speaker 2: roughly today. Okay, which I mean, that's substantial to give

352
00:16:41,920 --> 00:16:42,320
Speaker 2: a friend.

353
00:16:42,560 --> 00:16:44,400
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I can, and it was enough to get

354
00:16:44,400 --> 00:16:46,800
Speaker 1: things going. I think he really, I mean he had

355
00:16:46,800 --> 00:16:50,920
Speaker 1: the prototype, he just needed an official company banner basically. Right.

356
00:16:51,400 --> 00:16:55,960
Speaker 1: So he has his machine shop and he has his prototype,

357
00:16:56,480 --> 00:16:59,080
Speaker 1: and he gets a bunch of wire and he makes

358
00:16:59,120 --> 00:16:59,960
Speaker 1: a bunch of slinky.

359
00:17:00,320 --> 00:17:02,760
Speaker 2: Well, he goes through his local machine shop first.

360
00:17:02,800 --> 00:17:05,040
Speaker 1: Right, So he's at his local machine shop and he

361
00:17:05,440 --> 00:17:09,200
Speaker 1: makes four hundred slinkies. They were two and a half

362
00:17:09,240 --> 00:17:13,240
Speaker 1: inches tall, contained eighty feet of wire, which that's pretty impressive.

363
00:17:13,240 --> 00:17:15,520
Speaker 1: I didn't know it was nearly that much. Yeah, but

364
00:17:15,560 --> 00:17:18,200
Speaker 1: it makes sense, I guess because I think every kid's

365
00:17:18,200 --> 00:17:20,520
Speaker 1: tried to uncoil theirs fully, you know.

366
00:17:20,680 --> 00:17:24,679
Speaker 2: Yeah, And apparently slinky starts out as like normal round wire,

367
00:17:25,040 --> 00:17:27,000
Speaker 2: but then they smush it to make it flat.

368
00:17:27,400 --> 00:17:30,040
Speaker 1: Yeah, because it's got to be flat to perform and

369
00:17:30,080 --> 00:17:31,760
Speaker 1: sit on itself. Yeah.

370
00:17:31,760 --> 00:17:34,800
Speaker 2: I didn't realize though, I mean, yeah, it makes sense,

371
00:17:34,840 --> 00:17:37,200
Speaker 2: but I didn't realize it started out as like a round,

372
00:17:37,680 --> 00:17:39,040
Speaker 2: like diameter type wire.

373
00:17:39,200 --> 00:17:39,720
Speaker 1: Yeah.

374
00:17:39,840 --> 00:17:43,040
Speaker 2: But what kind of metal did he start out at?

375
00:17:44,280 --> 00:17:45,800
Speaker 1: Swedish steel, high.

376
00:17:45,680 --> 00:17:47,720
Speaker 2: Grade blue black Swedish steel.

377
00:17:47,880 --> 00:17:50,560
Speaker 1: I guess that was the wire of the day. Yeah,

378
00:17:50,720 --> 00:17:53,359
Speaker 1: and it was in ninety eight coils and at first

379
00:17:53,440 --> 00:17:56,480
Speaker 1: they just wrapped it in parchment paper. Later on, I

380
00:17:56,480 --> 00:17:59,480
Speaker 1: think they packaged it in just a box like it's

381
00:17:59,520 --> 00:18:02,040
Speaker 1: in today, right, Actually today, I think it's in that

382
00:18:02,160 --> 00:18:04,280
Speaker 1: awful plastic stuff that you can't open.

383
00:18:04,480 --> 00:18:05,240
Speaker 2: Oh is it now?

384
00:18:05,600 --> 00:18:08,480
Speaker 1: Well, they have a throwback you can get in the box. Yeah,

385
00:18:08,520 --> 00:18:12,359
Speaker 1: that's still like modeled after the original box, which is

386
00:18:12,440 --> 00:18:13,960
Speaker 1: kind of neat. Yeah, So I don't see why you

387
00:18:14,000 --> 00:18:15,639
Speaker 1: wouldn't get that one personally.

388
00:18:15,800 --> 00:18:18,680
Speaker 2: So with the original metal slinky, yeah, and the whole

389
00:18:18,720 --> 00:18:21,200
Speaker 2: history from the time he walked into that metal shop

390
00:18:21,240 --> 00:18:26,159
Speaker 2: the first time, once he had the prototype figured out

391
00:18:26,520 --> 00:18:30,119
Speaker 2: throughout today. There was only one design change in the

392
00:18:30,160 --> 00:18:32,600
Speaker 2: whole time, and that was to crimp the ends that

393
00:18:32,800 --> 00:18:35,960
Speaker 2: after it was produced to keep it from tangling is easy,

394
00:18:36,080 --> 00:18:39,600
Speaker 2: uh huh, and for safety. So it didn't like cut

395
00:18:39,640 --> 00:18:40,680
Speaker 2: some kid's eye out.

396
00:18:40,640 --> 00:18:42,479
Speaker 1: Right, So after a bunch of kids eyes were cut out,

397
00:18:42,520 --> 00:18:43,520
Speaker 1: they'd crimp the INDs.

398
00:18:43,560 --> 00:18:45,840
Speaker 2: I don't know if they had foresight or if if

399
00:18:45,840 --> 00:18:48,359
Speaker 2: it was in response to eyes being gouged out, but

400
00:18:48,600 --> 00:18:52,119
Speaker 2: that's crazy one. Yeah, and I mean still today, I

401
00:18:52,119 --> 00:18:55,560
Speaker 2: went on Amazon to double check, and the slinky is

402
00:18:55,600 --> 00:18:57,000
Speaker 2: still two and a half inches tall.

403
00:18:57,200 --> 00:18:57,520
Speaker 1: Wow.

404
00:18:57,600 --> 00:19:00,439
Speaker 2: It didn't say how many coils it was because they

405
00:19:00,440 --> 00:19:03,480
Speaker 2: didn't get that descriptive. But it's the same thing as

406
00:19:03,520 --> 00:19:05,640
Speaker 2: it was back in nineteen forty what five.

407
00:19:05,840 --> 00:19:09,680
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm surprised they didn't have like, you know, the

408
00:19:10,240 --> 00:19:13,919
Speaker 1: Mega x stream right slinky.

409
00:19:13,640 --> 00:19:16,879
Speaker 2: That like is powered by mountain dew or something like that.

410
00:19:16,960 --> 00:19:23,040
Speaker 1: You know, they probably do have that, actually extreme. I

411
00:19:23,080 --> 00:19:26,120
Speaker 1: love that though the original slinky is still like exact same.

412
00:19:26,080 --> 00:19:27,640
Speaker 2: Yeah, the original metal ones.

413
00:19:27,720 --> 00:19:31,200
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, for sure I changed something that's perfect right, right,

414
00:19:31,280 --> 00:19:32,600
Speaker 1: And so the.

415
00:19:34,720 --> 00:19:37,680
Speaker 2: James's knew that this thing was perfect, had a great name,

416
00:19:38,040 --> 00:19:40,520
Speaker 2: worked really well. Yeah, the neighborhood kids loved it.

417
00:19:40,600 --> 00:19:41,760
Speaker 1: Sure, So of course.

418
00:19:41,560 --> 00:19:44,320
Speaker 2: This thing's going to become like a hit right out

419
00:19:44,320 --> 00:19:44,960
Speaker 2: of the gate, right.

420
00:19:45,040 --> 00:19:49,560
Speaker 1: Nope, No, you're being coy. My friend he took it

421
00:19:49,600 --> 00:19:54,359
Speaker 1: to toy stores and there was one storekeeper who said,

422
00:19:54,400 --> 00:19:57,040
Speaker 1: this is the atomic age. Kids want big, bright, fancy

423
00:19:57,040 --> 00:19:59,320
Speaker 1: things with lots of colors and lights. We couldn't give

424
00:19:59,320 --> 00:20:01,600
Speaker 1: the thing away if it played God bless America picked

425
00:20:01,640 --> 00:20:04,080
Speaker 1: up the Daily Double Is it walked down the steps.

426
00:20:04,920 --> 00:20:05,880
Speaker 1: That's very cynical.

427
00:20:06,119 --> 00:20:09,120
Speaker 2: It is very cynical. He used exclamation points and stuff.

428
00:20:10,640 --> 00:20:13,600
Speaker 1: But James, Rick James was like, I'm Rick James, and

429
00:20:14,040 --> 00:20:16,080
Speaker 1: you know, tell me what to do with my toys.

430
00:20:16,240 --> 00:20:19,159
Speaker 2: No, and he got in touch with Gimbals, who is

431
00:20:19,280 --> 00:20:21,720
Speaker 2: very famous as the Macy's competitor from there go on

432
00:20:21,760 --> 00:20:23,919
Speaker 2: thirty fourth Street. That's the only reason most of us

433
00:20:23,960 --> 00:20:28,119
Speaker 2: have ever heard of Gimbals. Yeah, and Gimbals in Philadelphia

434
00:20:28,160 --> 00:20:31,600
Speaker 2: apparently said do you know what I like you? I

435
00:20:31,720 --> 00:20:34,360
Speaker 2: like the way you smell. I'm going to put your

436
00:20:34,440 --> 00:20:37,320
Speaker 2: toys in our Christmas display and we'll just see where

437
00:20:37,359 --> 00:20:38,040
Speaker 2: it goes from there.

438
00:20:38,119 --> 00:20:41,080
Speaker 1: Yeah, he was local at that, living outside of Philly, right,

439
00:20:41,280 --> 00:20:41,960
Speaker 1: I wonder if that so.

440
00:20:42,000 --> 00:20:44,720
Speaker 2: They eventually moved outside of Philly, but I'm not sure

441
00:20:44,760 --> 00:20:47,320
Speaker 2: exactly where they were at this point. It would make sense,

442
00:20:47,760 --> 00:20:50,359
Speaker 2: although it's entirely possible he was hustling hard enough that

443
00:20:50,600 --> 00:20:53,600
Speaker 2: he was just hitting department stores all over the northeast.

444
00:20:53,800 --> 00:20:55,600
Speaker 1: Well in Delaware, it's not too far anyway, So.

445
00:20:55,640 --> 00:20:58,000
Speaker 2: Yeah, they may have still been in Delaware, but they

446
00:20:58,720 --> 00:21:01,600
Speaker 2: they did talk the Philadelphi Gimbals into putting this on

447
00:21:01,640 --> 00:21:05,679
Speaker 2: their Christmas display, So in Christmas nineteen forty five. November

448
00:21:05,720 --> 00:21:09,280
Speaker 2: nineteen forty five, the slinky debuts to public and it

449
00:21:09,320 --> 00:21:11,240
Speaker 2: immediately takes off like a rocket. Right.

450
00:21:11,440 --> 00:21:18,760
Speaker 1: Nope, again that was double koy. No. It for weeks

451
00:21:18,800 --> 00:21:21,440
Speaker 1: just sat there because of course, it's just this thing

452
00:21:21,480 --> 00:21:24,119
Speaker 1: that kids had never seen before, the spring and the

453
00:21:24,280 --> 00:21:27,119
Speaker 1: parchment paper sitting between like really awesome toys.

454
00:21:27,160 --> 00:21:29,960
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's just like all it's nothing but potential energy

455
00:21:30,000 --> 00:21:32,600
Speaker 2: at that point. Yeah, there's like a spring sitting between

456
00:21:33,280 --> 00:21:36,480
Speaker 2: those atomic age toys that that one shopkeeper was using

457
00:21:36,520 --> 00:21:37,680
Speaker 2: exclamation points about.

458
00:21:37,720 --> 00:21:40,000
Speaker 1: Right, yeah, I mean if there was ever a toy

459
00:21:40,080 --> 00:21:44,639
Speaker 1: that needed a demonstration to delight and amaze, it was

460
00:21:44,680 --> 00:21:45,200
Speaker 1: the slinky.

461
00:21:45,640 --> 00:21:51,480
Speaker 2: So very frustrated with this, Richard James apparently said to

462
00:21:51,520 --> 00:21:53,640
Speaker 2: his wife, like, I'm going down to Gimbals and I'm

463
00:21:53,680 --> 00:21:58,119
Speaker 2: going to deal with this head on. Yeah, and he

464
00:21:58,200 --> 00:22:00,760
Speaker 2: said meet me there in like ninety minutes or something

465
00:22:00,800 --> 00:22:01,080
Speaker 2: like that.

466
00:22:01,240 --> 00:22:01,520
Speaker 1: Yeah.

467
00:22:01,560 --> 00:22:03,520
Speaker 2: So he went down there, took a couple of Slinkies

468
00:22:03,560 --> 00:22:06,920
Speaker 2: out of their parchment paper and started lookie, dummies, Yeah,

469
00:22:06,920 --> 00:22:10,200
Speaker 2: you stupid kids, keep your hair away, but check this out.

470
00:22:10,840 --> 00:22:13,840
Speaker 2: And he started playing with them, and apparently by the

471
00:22:13,880 --> 00:22:16,879
Speaker 2: time Betty got down there, ninety minutes later, he had

472
00:22:16,920 --> 00:22:19,840
Speaker 2: sold all four hundred Slinkies and there was apparently a

473
00:22:19,880 --> 00:22:22,200
Speaker 2: line around the block asking for more.

474
00:22:22,560 --> 00:22:25,280
Speaker 1: Yeah, that sounds like such a trumped up story, but

475
00:22:26,080 --> 00:22:27,840
Speaker 1: you know, I love it though. It was like, within

476
00:22:27,960 --> 00:22:30,840
Speaker 1: ninety minutes, It's great. The world was slinky crazy.

477
00:22:30,960 --> 00:22:33,639
Speaker 2: Yeah. The Santa Fa Miracle on thirty fourth Street comes

478
00:22:33,680 --> 00:22:35,680
Speaker 2: through and does like a little towirl and goes out

479
00:22:35,680 --> 00:22:36,520
Speaker 2: of frame again.

480
00:22:37,080 --> 00:22:39,800
Speaker 1: But he did sell those four hundred units that day, supposedly,

481
00:22:39,840 --> 00:22:43,240
Speaker 1: and by Christmas they had sold twenty thousand, so it

482
00:22:43,280 --> 00:22:46,440
Speaker 1: really did take off super fast. Yeah, once kids understood

483
00:22:46,480 --> 00:22:47,200
Speaker 1: what the heck it was.

484
00:22:47,240 --> 00:22:50,080
Speaker 2: And that was that's a significant amount of money, Chuck,

485
00:22:50,560 --> 00:22:53,160
Speaker 2: I used west Egg this time. Oh yeah, a one

486
00:22:53,200 --> 00:22:55,439
Speaker 2: dollar They sold him for a dollar apiece. Yeah, so

487
00:22:55,520 --> 00:22:58,159
Speaker 2: he sold four hundred units and twenty thousand by the

488
00:22:58,240 --> 00:23:01,440
Speaker 2: end of Christmas. That it translates to like thirteen dollars

489
00:23:01,440 --> 00:23:02,240
Speaker 2: in today's money.

490
00:23:02,480 --> 00:23:02,960
Speaker 1: Oh wow.

491
00:23:03,040 --> 00:23:06,159
Speaker 2: So imagine being a parent today and being like, you

492
00:23:06,200 --> 00:23:08,159
Speaker 2: want me to pay thirteen dollars for a spring?

493
00:23:08,440 --> 00:23:08,680
Speaker 1: Yeah?

494
00:23:08,720 --> 00:23:11,879
Speaker 2: Are you crazy? But they still managed to capture the

495
00:23:11,880 --> 00:23:15,280
Speaker 2: public imagination just right. Yeah, and the thing just spread

496
00:23:15,320 --> 00:23:18,200
Speaker 2: like wildfire, not just in Christmas of nineteen forty five.

497
00:23:18,440 --> 00:23:21,040
Speaker 2: By Christmas of nineteen forty seven, there was a New

498
00:23:21,119 --> 00:23:24,280
Speaker 2: York Times article in like the fashion section talking about

499
00:23:24,320 --> 00:23:28,560
Speaker 2: how the must have adornment of the year was a

500
00:23:28,600 --> 00:23:30,479
Speaker 2: slinky dipped in gold with glitter.

501
00:23:30,920 --> 00:23:33,880
Speaker 1: It sounds like something Edward Brenees might have cooked up, right, Yeah,

502
00:23:34,000 --> 00:23:37,959
Speaker 1: I think so. I think Another cool thing is they

503
00:23:38,400 --> 00:23:42,480
Speaker 1: remained a dollar for a lot of their life, right.

504
00:23:42,640 --> 00:23:45,399
Speaker 1: And it said in this article here that in the

505
00:23:45,400 --> 00:23:48,240
Speaker 1: mid nineties are only a dollar eighty nine. Now they're

506
00:23:48,280 --> 00:23:49,240
Speaker 1: like four or five bucks.

507
00:23:49,280 --> 00:23:52,440
Speaker 2: It looks like I saw again on Amazon. Yeh, Amazon,

508
00:23:52,520 --> 00:23:56,280
Speaker 2: Amazon dot com. Amazon, it was like two twenty nine.

509
00:23:56,480 --> 00:23:57,680
Speaker 2: It was the lowest I saw.

510
00:23:57,760 --> 00:23:59,040
Speaker 1: Hey, that's a good deal for a slinky.

511
00:23:59,119 --> 00:24:01,280
Speaker 2: But even still, Yeah, if you want a great deal

512
00:24:01,320 --> 00:24:03,080
Speaker 2: on anything, go to Amazon dot com.

513
00:24:03,119 --> 00:24:07,440
Speaker 1: I saw others at other nameless online toy store retailers.

514
00:24:07,040 --> 00:24:08,600
Speaker 2: And always that we were supposed to do four or

515
00:24:08,680 --> 00:24:12,719
Speaker 2: five bucks. No Amazon, I could see that though, four

516
00:24:12,800 --> 00:24:14,840
Speaker 2: or five bucks it makes sense. Yeah, But the point

517
00:24:14,920 --> 00:24:17,360
Speaker 2: is is, for a very long time still pretty cheap. Yeah.

518
00:24:17,600 --> 00:24:20,680
Speaker 2: It stayed the same even as the cost of living increased,

519
00:24:20,720 --> 00:24:24,440
Speaker 2: so its relative price went down. Tremendously and they did

520
00:24:24,480 --> 00:24:25,200
Speaker 2: that on purpose.

521
00:24:25,440 --> 00:24:27,639
Speaker 1: Well, and that was yeah, exactly. That was one of

522
00:24:27,680 --> 00:24:31,280
Speaker 1: the things that as we'll see here shortly, Betty's one

523
00:24:31,320 --> 00:24:34,200
Speaker 1: of her favorite things. What is it that kids could

524
00:24:34,200 --> 00:24:37,040
Speaker 1: have a cheap toy and she wanted even poor kids

525
00:24:37,040 --> 00:24:40,920
Speaker 1: to be able to buy something, right, and here's my spring,

526
00:24:41,880 --> 00:24:43,520
Speaker 1: here's this link to just give me a dollar.

527
00:24:43,840 --> 00:24:46,719
Speaker 2: So the James is and by this time they were

528
00:24:47,040 --> 00:24:50,760
Speaker 2: they were in pretty much partnership from what I understand,

529
00:24:50,800 --> 00:24:53,320
Speaker 2: at the very least, Betty was playing some sort of

530
00:24:53,320 --> 00:24:57,159
Speaker 2: supporting role, at least as an advisor. Possibly sure, But

531
00:24:57,440 --> 00:24:59,960
Speaker 2: again they had like six kids and she was raised,

532
00:25:01,160 --> 00:25:04,000
Speaker 2: so it was really mostly Richard running the company. But

533
00:25:04,080 --> 00:25:07,040
Speaker 2: they took the Slinky to the toy Fair, the American

534
00:25:07,080 --> 00:25:09,800
Speaker 2: Toy Fair in New York, which is the same one

535
00:25:09,800 --> 00:25:12,359
Speaker 2: that Barbie debuted at in the fifties. I think, oh yeah,

536
00:25:12,440 --> 00:25:16,119
Speaker 2: Barbie registered trademark and they took Slinky there in nineteen

537
00:25:16,200 --> 00:25:19,639
Speaker 2: forty seven. And they did it all themselves. They'd pitched

538
00:25:19,680 --> 00:25:22,920
Speaker 2: the thing, and they had people from toy stores and

539
00:25:22,960 --> 00:25:26,359
Speaker 2: department stores from around the country just signing up. And

540
00:25:26,440 --> 00:25:30,600
Speaker 2: Slinky was he huge. Apparently they made the equivalent of

541
00:25:30,640 --> 00:25:32,800
Speaker 2: a billion dollars in the first two years.

542
00:25:33,000 --> 00:25:35,119
Speaker 1: Yeah, he sold more than one hundred million in the

543
00:25:35,160 --> 00:25:39,080
Speaker 1: first three years of production. That's crazy. One hundred million,

544
00:25:39,160 --> 00:25:42,440
Speaker 1: one hundred million, And this is the population of you know,

545
00:25:42,880 --> 00:25:45,960
Speaker 1: the mid forties, right, Yeah, it's not like you know nowadays,

546
00:25:45,960 --> 00:25:48,119
Speaker 1: that would be a little more believable, I think.

547
00:25:48,000 --> 00:25:50,399
Speaker 2: So well, no, think about it. I wish I would

548
00:25:50,400 --> 00:25:53,720
Speaker 2: have thought of that. Like, there probably weren't too terribly more,

549
00:25:54,000 --> 00:25:56,040
Speaker 2: much more than one hundred million people in the US

550
00:25:56,080 --> 00:25:58,880
Speaker 2: at the time, So that's like a slinky for every

551
00:25:58,920 --> 00:25:59,560
Speaker 2: person in the.

552
00:25:59,600 --> 00:26:04,000
Speaker 1: US, slinky in every pot. Right, So things were going

553
00:26:04,040 --> 00:26:07,440
Speaker 1: so well. He realized that my my machine shop here

554
00:26:07,440 --> 00:26:12,679
Speaker 1: in uh uh, Delaware, Delaware, suburban Pennsylvania, which whichever it was,

555
00:26:13,119 --> 00:26:16,160
Speaker 1: is not up to snuff, and I need to set

556
00:26:16,240 --> 00:26:19,040
Speaker 1: up my own shop. So he did that in Albany,

557
00:26:19,080 --> 00:26:22,320
Speaker 1: New York, and was like, I'm a I'm an inventor.

558
00:26:22,520 --> 00:26:25,440
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna make my own machine that can make

559
00:26:25,680 --> 00:26:31,080
Speaker 1: our own slinkies at a rate of five seconds a pop.

560
00:26:31,359 --> 00:26:33,480
Speaker 2: Yeah, the old machine shop was making them in a

561
00:26:33,520 --> 00:26:35,359
Speaker 2: couple of minutes per slinky.

562
00:26:35,000 --> 00:26:36,520
Speaker 1: Which was fast for back then, I think.

563
00:26:36,600 --> 00:26:38,919
Speaker 2: But yeah, so Richard James said, I'm gonna make my

564
00:26:38,960 --> 00:26:43,240
Speaker 2: own machine. That's that's really cool. Absolutely, I think it's

565
00:26:43,280 --> 00:26:45,680
Speaker 2: pretty neat. And not only did he make his own machine,

566
00:26:45,680 --> 00:26:47,720
Speaker 2: he made a machine that can do one in five seconds,

567
00:26:47,720 --> 00:26:50,359
Speaker 2: like you said. So, yeah, it took it, took the

568
00:26:50,680 --> 00:26:54,600
Speaker 2: round wire, huh, smushed it yep, and then coiled it. Yeah,

569
00:26:54,640 --> 00:26:57,520
Speaker 2: in nine seconds, crimp the ends. I guess that's crazy. Yeah,

570
00:26:57,560 --> 00:26:59,520
Speaker 2: and then bam, you got a slinky. You got a

571
00:26:59,560 --> 00:27:01,200
Speaker 2: dollar in your pocket right there.

572
00:27:01,520 --> 00:27:03,960
Speaker 1: This is when this is when it came in the

573
00:27:04,040 --> 00:27:07,240
Speaker 1: black box and they ditched the parchment and it was

574
00:27:07,320 --> 00:27:11,760
Speaker 1: labeled Slinky Colon, the famous walking spring toy, and it

575
00:27:11,800 --> 00:27:13,440
Speaker 1: was gangbusters.

576
00:27:13,000 --> 00:27:16,119
Speaker 2: Man, it was again. They sold one hundred million in

577
00:27:16,160 --> 00:27:20,320
Speaker 2: the first two years. To put that in perspective, I

578
00:27:20,400 --> 00:27:23,480
Speaker 2: did find out how many people there were in America

579
00:27:23,520 --> 00:27:26,119
Speaker 2: in nineteen forty seven. There was one hundred and forty

580
00:27:26,160 --> 00:27:28,400
Speaker 2: four million people in the US.

581
00:27:28,200 --> 00:27:29,880
Speaker 1: And he sold one hundred million slinky huh.

582
00:27:29,880 --> 00:27:32,360
Speaker 2: So for every one point four people there was, one

583
00:27:32,359 --> 00:27:33,280
Speaker 2: of them had a slinky.

584
00:27:33,359 --> 00:27:37,479
Speaker 1: So that means adults were buying slinkys too. Yeah, you know. Yeah,

585
00:27:37,520 --> 00:27:40,359
Speaker 1: So in the nineteen fifties they started to do what

586
00:27:40,400 --> 00:27:43,480
Speaker 1: all great inventors do, They started to expand the line

587
00:27:43,520 --> 00:27:47,479
Speaker 1: a bit. Yeah, they came up with courtesy of a

588
00:27:47,520 --> 00:27:50,320
Speaker 1: woman named Helen Malsaid came up with a slinky dog

589
00:27:50,600 --> 00:27:55,280
Speaker 1: and the slinky train because she was a fan that

590
00:27:55,440 --> 00:27:58,040
Speaker 1: they would like solicit ideas, and she wrote them in

591
00:27:58,080 --> 00:27:59,840
Speaker 1: and said, Hey, I think it would be pretty neat

592
00:27:59,840 --> 00:28:02,119
Speaker 1: if you made like a dog that walked, but the

593
00:28:02,119 --> 00:28:03,720
Speaker 1: middle of them was a slinky.

594
00:28:03,520 --> 00:28:06,560
Speaker 2: Right, and so like the rear end up to the front.

595
00:28:06,640 --> 00:28:09,720
Speaker 1: Yeah, like in toy Story exactly, which they got some

596
00:28:10,000 --> 00:28:11,119
Speaker 1: nice kickback money on that.

597
00:28:11,480 --> 00:28:13,920
Speaker 2: There was also the uh yeah, oh yes, So then

598
00:28:13,960 --> 00:28:15,680
Speaker 2: they didn't steal people's ideas either.

599
00:28:16,359 --> 00:28:19,000
Speaker 1: No, that was waiting for that to read that. When

600
00:28:19,040 --> 00:28:21,160
Speaker 1: I was reading this, I was all nervous that, like.

601
00:28:21,160 --> 00:28:23,640
Speaker 2: Paul said, died bitter and penniless in New York.

602
00:28:23,760 --> 00:28:26,920
Speaker 1: No, she actually was a ended up creating twenty six

603
00:28:26,960 --> 00:28:30,560
Speaker 1: toys and games in her career. Wow, the slinky dog

604
00:28:30,600 --> 00:28:34,120
Speaker 1: and slinky train were her biggest successes. But they basically

605
00:28:34,160 --> 00:28:38,000
Speaker 1: paid her sixty five grand a year for seventeen years

606
00:28:38,600 --> 00:28:41,960
Speaker 1: on that royalty. That's awesome, which is a ton of money. Yeah,

607
00:28:42,160 --> 00:28:43,840
Speaker 1: so hats off to you.

608
00:28:43,960 --> 00:28:46,520
Speaker 2: Helen mal said, there, did you get the idea of

609
00:28:46,520 --> 00:28:48,920
Speaker 2: whether she was already a toy inventor or that this

610
00:28:49,160 --> 00:28:51,680
Speaker 2: kind of gave her the boost she needed to become

611
00:28:51,680 --> 00:28:53,000
Speaker 2: a toy inventor for a career.

612
00:28:53,040 --> 00:28:55,600
Speaker 1: I think she was. I read her New York Times,

613
00:28:55,600 --> 00:28:58,920
Speaker 1: oh bit, and I talked about some other games that

614
00:28:59,000 --> 00:28:59,960
Speaker 1: she had tried to create.

615
00:29:00,240 --> 00:29:00,600
Speaker 2: Gotcha.

616
00:29:00,640 --> 00:29:02,720
Speaker 1: I don't think she had like burst onto the scene

617
00:29:02,720 --> 00:29:03,280
Speaker 1: though or anything.

618
00:29:03,400 --> 00:29:06,360
Speaker 2: Yeah, but that's a pretty comfortable living back then.

619
00:29:06,440 --> 00:29:09,160
Speaker 1: Oh heck. Yeah. So they also had this SUSI the

620
00:29:09,200 --> 00:29:13,120
Speaker 1: slinky worm and slinky crazy eyes.

621
00:29:13,280 --> 00:29:14,040
Speaker 2: Yeah you know those.

622
00:29:14,080 --> 00:29:14,680
Speaker 1: I remember those.

623
00:29:14,760 --> 00:29:17,840
Speaker 2: Yeah, those glasses that have like the slinkies attached to

624
00:29:17,880 --> 00:29:22,200
Speaker 2: the big bloodshot eyeballs. Yeah, those are slinky brand hysterical.

625
00:29:22,520 --> 00:29:25,480
Speaker 2: And it turns out that it wasn't just toys. This

626
00:29:25,640 --> 00:29:29,239
Speaker 2: slinky patent that Richard James originally got back in the

627
00:29:29,240 --> 00:29:32,040
Speaker 2: forties was also licensed out for other stuff, like it

628
00:29:32,080 --> 00:29:35,040
Speaker 2: was used in antennas. It ended up being used on

629
00:29:35,440 --> 00:29:38,360
Speaker 2: battleships or other kinds of ships. Is a stabilizing thing

630
00:29:38,440 --> 00:29:42,680
Speaker 2: like he was originally after. Yeah, gutter protectors.

631
00:29:42,120 --> 00:29:45,280
Speaker 1: Yeah, I saw that too, Light fixtures, total sense.

632
00:29:45,360 --> 00:29:48,760
Speaker 2: So They also made a ton of cash sub licensing

633
00:29:48,800 --> 00:29:51,960
Speaker 2: this whole that, like the slinky patent out for other

634
00:29:52,080 --> 00:29:54,520
Speaker 2: uses besides just the toys and the slinky hippo and

635
00:29:54,560 --> 00:29:55,240
Speaker 2: all that stuff.

636
00:29:55,360 --> 00:30:00,120
Speaker 1: Yeah, and they gave soldiers in Vietnam slinkies. Didn't license that,

637
00:30:00,240 --> 00:30:02,960
Speaker 1: like just straight up gave them slinkies to use in

638
00:30:03,000 --> 00:30:08,280
Speaker 1: the field as antennas. So they would throw the slinky

639
00:30:08,400 --> 00:30:11,200
Speaker 1: like over a tree branch and then pull it down

640
00:30:11,200 --> 00:30:13,680
Speaker 1: and connect it to their radio to boost their intenna signal.

641
00:30:13,880 --> 00:30:16,200
Speaker 2: That is pretty smart, pretty neat. You know it's being

642
00:30:16,320 --> 00:30:20,040
Speaker 2: used today in space. Oh really, they're using the same

643
00:30:20,920 --> 00:30:24,280
Speaker 2: I think the same patent originally to deploy solar sales

644
00:30:24,520 --> 00:30:26,960
Speaker 2: in space. Oh wow, yeah, pretty cool.

645
00:30:27,200 --> 00:30:29,680
Speaker 1: I wonder if they're licensing the actual.

646
00:30:29,800 --> 00:30:32,440
Speaker 2: They I mean, NASA was using the slinky name all

647
00:30:32,480 --> 00:30:36,360
Speaker 2: over the article I was reading. And there's another one too.

648
00:30:37,040 --> 00:30:40,360
Speaker 2: There's a paper slinky that has it's coated with a

649
00:30:40,440 --> 00:30:44,880
Speaker 2: metal on one side, and so the when you make

650
00:30:44,920 --> 00:30:47,880
Speaker 2: it go springing to non springy I think is the

651
00:30:47,880 --> 00:30:52,440
Speaker 2: physics terms that I'm searching for sure, it creates static electricity,

652
00:30:52,440 --> 00:30:55,160
Speaker 2: and it creates enough that that can be captured and

653
00:30:55,240 --> 00:30:58,400
Speaker 2: used to generate power. No way, yeah, way, And it's

654
00:30:58,400 --> 00:31:00,000
Speaker 2: people at Georgia Tech who are doing it.

655
00:31:00,960 --> 00:31:05,560
Speaker 1: Well, that makes sense, all right, So where are we

656
00:31:05,560 --> 00:31:08,280
Speaker 1: He has sold one hundred million of these. He's expanding

657
00:31:08,280 --> 00:31:11,920
Speaker 1: the line. And right after this break, we are going

658
00:31:11,960 --> 00:31:15,160
Speaker 1: to talk about a very interesting turn in this story

659
00:31:16,520 --> 00:31:30,240
Speaker 1: that has to do with well, you'll see.

660
00:31:36,120 --> 00:31:39,360
Speaker 2: So we're back, Chuck. Slinky's doing well. It's the fifties.

661
00:31:39,400 --> 00:31:43,920
Speaker 2: There's a ton of different slinky stuff, slinky eyeballs. Everybody's

662
00:31:43,960 --> 00:31:47,440
Speaker 2: freaking out their teachers. Yeah, and things are going great

663
00:31:47,480 --> 00:31:48,440
Speaker 2: for the Jameses, right.

664
00:31:48,600 --> 00:31:51,520
Speaker 1: I think teacher's desk drawers are loaded with slinky products,

665
00:31:51,520 --> 00:31:57,240
Speaker 1: the shattering teeth and rotten apples. Wonder where that came.

666
00:31:57,120 --> 00:31:59,840
Speaker 2: From giving the teacher an apple. Yeah, I don't know,

667
00:31:59,840 --> 00:32:01,760
Speaker 2: but I'll bet somebody out there will let us know.

668
00:32:02,080 --> 00:32:05,800
Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, So it's the mid nineteen fifties. They

669
00:32:05,840 --> 00:32:09,120
Speaker 1: are loaded at this point, loaded making tons of money.

670
00:32:09,160 --> 00:32:12,200
Speaker 1: At this point, they had moved to a wealthy suburb

671
00:32:12,280 --> 00:32:18,920
Speaker 1: of Philadelphia with a thirty one bedroom estate on twelve acres. Rich,

672
00:32:19,080 --> 00:32:21,320
Speaker 1: super rich people. Yes, good for them.

673
00:32:21,400 --> 00:32:25,320
Speaker 2: They're in Bryn Mahr, which is like the wealthiest of

674
00:32:25,360 --> 00:32:28,360
Speaker 2: the suburbs. I bet it still is Bryn Mahr.

675
00:32:29,080 --> 00:32:31,160
Speaker 1: It doesn't sound like a place has gone down the tubes.

676
00:32:31,520 --> 00:32:36,960
Speaker 2: No, you know, no, so Welsh Brynn looks pretty Welsh.

677
00:32:37,000 --> 00:32:39,440
Speaker 2: V r y n m awr.

678
00:32:39,600 --> 00:32:41,000
Speaker 1: It's definitely something uk.

679
00:32:42,200 --> 00:32:43,560
Speaker 2: I'm gonna say Welsh, all right.

680
00:32:44,520 --> 00:32:48,360
Speaker 1: So Betty, things were going well with the business, but

681
00:32:48,600 --> 00:32:52,080
Speaker 1: within the family things weren't so great because Betty found

682
00:32:52,120 --> 00:32:56,800
Speaker 1: out that Rick James was stepping out. He was a

683
00:32:56,840 --> 00:33:00,800
Speaker 1: super freak and he was fulling around on her quite

684
00:33:00,800 --> 00:33:02,880
Speaker 1: a bit from the sounds of it, right, And she was.

685
00:33:02,880 --> 00:33:06,280
Speaker 2: Like, Okay, let's see, am I gonna ditch this zero

686
00:33:06,360 --> 00:33:09,080
Speaker 2: and go find a hero or what am I going

687
00:33:09,160 --> 00:33:11,320
Speaker 2: to do? And she said, well, I have six kids

688
00:33:11,400 --> 00:33:13,320
Speaker 2: and I'm gonna stick with this dude for the benefit

689
00:33:13,360 --> 00:33:17,440
Speaker 2: of the kids. And she did. But apparently things were

690
00:33:17,520 --> 00:33:20,800
Speaker 2: never the same after that, I'm sure. And as a result,

691
00:33:21,040 --> 00:33:24,360
Speaker 2: Richard James started going to church a lot more and

692
00:33:24,400 --> 00:33:27,200
Speaker 2: it really got to him. It really spoke to him

693
00:33:27,240 --> 00:33:30,000
Speaker 2: a lot going to church and became something of a

694
00:33:30,240 --> 00:33:32,440
Speaker 2: I guess I took it, although he didn't say he

695
00:33:32,520 --> 00:33:33,920
Speaker 2: became something of a born again.

696
00:33:34,360 --> 00:33:35,760
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's exactly what he game.

697
00:33:35,880 --> 00:33:38,480
Speaker 2: Yeah, but he started out obviously as a Catholic because

698
00:33:38,480 --> 00:33:41,640
Speaker 2: he used to go to confession all the time, which

699
00:33:41,680 --> 00:33:44,160
Speaker 2: seems like, okay, well that guy felt really bad about

700
00:33:44,200 --> 00:33:46,400
Speaker 2: things and he wanted to get stuff off of his chest.

701
00:33:46,840 --> 00:33:51,200
Speaker 2: Not so, says Betty, his ex wife. Betty said that

702
00:33:51,400 --> 00:33:54,680
Speaker 2: he liked the attention that he would get from confessing

703
00:33:55,560 --> 00:33:56,240
Speaker 2: in confession.

704
00:33:56,680 --> 00:33:59,200
Speaker 1: Yeah, he pretty he was sort of a hot shot,

705
00:33:59,200 --> 00:34:02,680
Speaker 1: and I think he liked to just be revered maybe

706
00:34:02,720 --> 00:34:03,240
Speaker 1: I don't know.

707
00:34:03,480 --> 00:34:06,520
Speaker 2: Or just for people to listen to him or who knows.

708
00:34:06,840 --> 00:34:09,040
Speaker 2: That's just a that's a weird thing. That's a weird

709
00:34:09,040 --> 00:34:12,360
Speaker 2: little thing to do, is go to confession to get attention.

710
00:34:12,680 --> 00:34:13,960
Speaker 1: I thought it was very strange.

711
00:34:14,160 --> 00:34:18,000
Speaker 2: So as he's going to confession, as he's going to

712
00:34:18,080 --> 00:34:22,080
Speaker 2: church more and more and more, he's also his family.

713
00:34:22,480 --> 00:34:24,879
Speaker 2: He's even though yeah he's still at home and he's

714
00:34:24,920 --> 00:34:27,759
Speaker 2: living with his family, he's becoming isolated, not just from

715
00:34:27,760 --> 00:34:31,200
Speaker 2: society at large, he's becoming pretty isolated from his family

716
00:34:31,200 --> 00:34:33,360
Speaker 2: as well. I got the impression that they didn't go

717
00:34:33,400 --> 00:34:35,879
Speaker 2: down the church path quite the same degree he did,

718
00:34:36,440 --> 00:34:38,799
Speaker 2: and so that was causing him to feel more and

719
00:34:38,840 --> 00:34:43,200
Speaker 2: more isolated. Causing him to withdraw more and more, and

720
00:34:43,239 --> 00:34:47,560
Speaker 2: there was at some point a moment where he revealed

721
00:34:47,600 --> 00:34:51,600
Speaker 2: that they didn't have much money anymore.

722
00:34:51,640 --> 00:34:54,160
Speaker 1: Not only that they were in debt to like seven

723
00:34:54,239 --> 00:34:57,239
Speaker 1: figure debt, yeah, about a million dollars in debt. Yeah,

724
00:34:57,320 --> 00:35:04,240
Speaker 1: because he started funneling all their millions to dogmatic evangelical

725
00:35:04,400 --> 00:35:07,719
Speaker 1: religious groups, donating all their money.

726
00:35:07,480 --> 00:35:10,680
Speaker 2: Not only donating some Yeah, exactly. He was like not

727
00:35:10,719 --> 00:35:15,520
Speaker 2: paying creditors for the LLC that owns slinky. He was

728
00:35:15,600 --> 00:35:20,279
Speaker 2: diverting that revenue from the business to religious groups that

729
00:35:20,360 --> 00:35:21,160
Speaker 2: he was a member of.

730
00:35:21,360 --> 00:35:23,880
Speaker 1: Yeah. And this article said straight up like if you

731
00:35:23,960 --> 00:35:29,560
Speaker 1: bought a slinky before nineteen sixty, your money went exactly there, right.

732
00:35:30,480 --> 00:35:31,759
Speaker 2: So it was kind of a big deal. This is

733
00:35:31,800 --> 00:35:35,520
Speaker 2: a big revelation that was you know, started in the

734
00:35:35,560 --> 00:35:38,560
Speaker 2: mid fifties and really things just got weird in the

735
00:35:38,640 --> 00:35:43,040
Speaker 2: James family from the mid fifties till nineteen sixty, and

736
00:35:43,080 --> 00:35:45,640
Speaker 2: then all of a sudden in nineteen sixty, Richard James said,

737
00:35:46,440 --> 00:35:50,560
Speaker 2: have you guys ever heard of Bolivia? No, Well, it's

738
00:35:50,560 --> 00:35:52,720
Speaker 2: too bad because I just bought a one way ticket

739
00:35:52,719 --> 00:35:56,480
Speaker 2: there and I'm going now. Don't ask me why I'm

740
00:35:56,520 --> 00:35:59,120
Speaker 2: just going to join a religious group in the wilds

741
00:35:59,160 --> 00:35:59,799
Speaker 2: of Bolivia.

742
00:36:00,360 --> 00:36:03,440
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I've seen it characterized as a cult. That

743
00:36:03,680 --> 00:36:07,640
Speaker 1: is not quite the deal. They were called the Wycliffe

744
00:36:07,640 --> 00:36:11,280
Speaker 1: Bible Translators and they're still around, but it was basically

745
00:36:11,480 --> 00:36:14,680
Speaker 1: their mission is to translate the Bible into as many

746
00:36:14,760 --> 00:36:17,680
Speaker 1: languages and get it into as many hands around the

747
00:36:17,680 --> 00:36:22,160
Speaker 1: world as possible. And he felt that call and straight

748
00:36:22,239 --> 00:36:26,439
Speaker 1: up left. His family said smell you later, and never

749
00:36:26,480 --> 00:36:28,440
Speaker 1: got back in touch with him again. No, so as

750
00:36:28,480 --> 00:36:29,200
Speaker 1: far as I could deal.

751
00:36:29,320 --> 00:36:31,480
Speaker 2: That was February of nineteen sixty. And I think it

752
00:36:31,560 --> 00:36:34,759
Speaker 2: was Betty who called it a cult, an evangelical Christian cult.

753
00:36:34,920 --> 00:36:37,960
Speaker 1: Yeah, which you know, she was upset, sure, you know,

754
00:36:38,040 --> 00:36:39,800
Speaker 1: and she read up about him and said this seems

755
00:36:39,840 --> 00:36:42,279
Speaker 1: really weird to me, right, But yeah, it wasn't quite

756
00:36:42,320 --> 00:36:44,280
Speaker 1: a cult, but I get it. She was scorned.

757
00:36:44,400 --> 00:36:49,000
Speaker 2: So that was February nineteen sixty that Richard leaves for Bolivia.

758
00:36:49,800 --> 00:36:53,840
Speaker 2: And before he left, he sat Betty down and said,

759
00:36:54,440 --> 00:36:58,080
Speaker 2: as you know, we're a million dollars in debt. I'm leaving.

760
00:37:00,520 --> 00:37:03,040
Speaker 2: You have a choice here. We can either liquidate the

761
00:37:03,040 --> 00:37:06,879
Speaker 2: company or you can take over your choice. I really

762
00:37:06,880 --> 00:37:09,520
Speaker 2: don't care. I'm going to Bolivia and I'm probably never

763
00:37:09,600 --> 00:37:10,120
Speaker 2: coming back.

764
00:37:10,239 --> 00:37:12,759
Speaker 1: Yeah. I was kind of surprised that she got that

765
00:37:12,960 --> 00:37:16,480
Speaker 1: opportunity to decide at least what to do with her future. Yeah, Like,

766
00:37:16,560 --> 00:37:19,280
Speaker 1: I was glad to know that it was within her power.

767
00:37:19,520 --> 00:37:23,000
Speaker 2: R Right. It took me a couple of times of

768
00:37:23,040 --> 00:37:25,080
Speaker 2: reading this before I finally called on to that. At

769
00:37:25,080 --> 00:37:27,960
Speaker 2: first I thought he just laughed and she slid into

770
00:37:27,960 --> 00:37:29,840
Speaker 2: that position. But yeah, he gave her the choice, like,

771
00:37:30,080 --> 00:37:33,040
Speaker 2: you can liquidate, you're raising six kids. You'll probably make

772
00:37:33,040 --> 00:37:36,160
Speaker 2: some money off of it after the creditors are paid off.

773
00:37:36,239 --> 00:37:38,880
Speaker 2: So do you want to do that? She said, you

774
00:37:38,960 --> 00:37:41,800
Speaker 2: know what, No, I'm going to try taking over the company.

775
00:37:41,920 --> 00:37:43,440
Speaker 1: I'm going all in on Slinky.

776
00:37:43,600 --> 00:37:46,160
Speaker 2: So she took over this company, Chuck, that was in

777
00:37:46,239 --> 00:37:47,719
Speaker 2: really dire straits.

778
00:37:47,800 --> 00:37:50,399
Speaker 1: Yeah. I don't think we even mentioned that Slinky's had

779
00:37:50,440 --> 00:37:53,120
Speaker 1: started to wane in popularity, right, So not only were

780
00:37:53,120 --> 00:37:55,440
Speaker 1: they in debt, but toward the end of the nineteen fifties,

781
00:37:55,440 --> 00:37:58,080
Speaker 1: everyone had like the slinky craze had sort of passed.

782
00:37:58,120 --> 00:38:00,000
Speaker 2: Yeah, so we said that it sold one hundred million

783
00:38:00,320 --> 00:38:05,600
Speaker 2: units in its first two years. Since nineteen forty seven. No,

784
00:38:05,920 --> 00:38:09,479
Speaker 2: nineteen forty five, they've sold three hundred million total. Oh wow,

785
00:38:09,520 --> 00:38:11,680
Speaker 2: so a full one third of all the slinky sold

786
00:38:11,680 --> 00:38:13,920
Speaker 2: were sold in the first two years. So yeah, it's

787
00:38:13,960 --> 00:38:15,839
Speaker 2: star crested and then started to fall.

788
00:38:16,040 --> 00:38:16,200
Speaker 1: Yeah.

789
00:38:16,239 --> 00:38:18,440
Speaker 2: And so this lady took over a company that was

790
00:38:18,800 --> 00:38:23,439
Speaker 2: saddled with debt. It's star product was not so much

791
00:38:23,440 --> 00:38:24,640
Speaker 2: of a star any longer.

792
00:38:25,480 --> 00:38:27,120
Speaker 1: And she had six kids.

793
00:38:27,160 --> 00:38:29,640
Speaker 2: She had six kids. Yeah, and she decided, rather than

794
00:38:29,640 --> 00:38:32,239
Speaker 2: to liquidate the company, to say, no, I'm going to

795
00:38:32,280 --> 00:38:33,440
Speaker 2: see what I can do with this. I'm going to

796
00:38:33,520 --> 00:38:35,320
Speaker 2: try to bring it back. And she did.

797
00:38:35,800 --> 00:38:38,120
Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean, reading this, she's truly one of like

798
00:38:38,280 --> 00:38:39,879
Speaker 1: the great women in American history.

799
00:38:39,920 --> 00:38:42,520
Speaker 2: I think she's She's definitely the hero of this story too.

800
00:38:42,400 --> 00:38:46,520
Speaker 1: And revered by toy enthusiasts. But I don't think a

801
00:38:46,560 --> 00:38:47,920
Speaker 1: lot of people even know her name, you know.

802
00:38:48,200 --> 00:38:50,480
Speaker 2: Nope, it's Betty James everybody.

803
00:38:51,280 --> 00:38:54,480
Speaker 1: So her first plan was, I have all these creditors

804
00:38:54,520 --> 00:38:57,719
Speaker 1: at least let me try and get this deferred for now,

805
00:38:58,239 --> 00:39:00,400
Speaker 1: and was somehow able to talk them into the some

806
00:39:00,440 --> 00:39:04,560
Speaker 1: of these payments. Yeah, thank god. And then in nineteen

807
00:39:04,600 --> 00:39:09,680
Speaker 1: sixty two, she hired three dudes from Columbia, South Carolina.

808
00:39:10,960 --> 00:39:15,120
Speaker 1: Johnny McCullough and Homer Fesperman wrote the music, and Charles

809
00:39:15,120 --> 00:39:21,560
Speaker 1: Weegley wrote the lyrics to what would later become the

810
00:39:21,600 --> 00:39:26,799
Speaker 1: longest running Dare I say most successful commercial jingle of

811
00:39:26,840 --> 00:39:27,319
Speaker 1: all time?

812
00:39:28,840 --> 00:39:32,520
Speaker 2: Yes? I would say it's possibly the most well known

813
00:39:32,560 --> 00:39:33,080
Speaker 2: at least.

814
00:39:33,280 --> 00:39:35,720
Speaker 1: So let's let's play a little bit of that right now.

815
00:39:35,960 --> 00:39:40,560
Speaker 1: Everyone's heard it, and here it is who walks to

816
00:39:40,680 --> 00:39:43,800
Speaker 1: day without to get and makes the happiest sounds that

817
00:39:43,960 --> 00:39:44,880
Speaker 1: bumping down.

818
00:39:44,760 --> 00:39:47,280
Speaker 2: Just like a club. Everyone else is ninety.

819
00:39:47,560 --> 00:39:50,040
Speaker 1: That's been the get to give, I get the favorite

820
00:39:50,120 --> 00:39:50,719
Speaker 1: all over town.

821
00:39:51,000 --> 00:39:55,320
Speaker 2: So I mean that surely sounds familiar. Apparently there was

822
00:39:55,480 --> 00:39:58,680
Speaker 2: a nineteen ninety survey that was conducted that found that

823
00:39:58,840 --> 00:40:02,440
Speaker 2: eighty nine point eight percent of Americans either know what

824
00:40:02,560 --> 00:40:05,920
Speaker 2: a slinky is or are familiar with that jingle. So

825
00:40:06,239 --> 00:40:09,680
Speaker 2: that's yeah, definitely, it's got to be the most successful

826
00:40:09,760 --> 00:40:12,200
Speaker 2: jingle of all time. Like, what else is there? I

827
00:40:12,320 --> 00:40:14,239
Speaker 2: can't think of anything else to put up against it.

828
00:40:14,560 --> 00:40:16,560
Speaker 1: Have a coca and a smile whatever.

829
00:40:16,840 --> 00:40:18,080
Speaker 2: I don't even know how that goes.

830
00:40:18,719 --> 00:40:20,480
Speaker 1: No, I think that was just a slogan that wasn't

831
00:40:20,520 --> 00:40:24,000
Speaker 1: a song. Oh, yeah, No, you're totally right. And you

832
00:40:24,080 --> 00:40:26,520
Speaker 1: and I, of course all day have been singing it's log,

833
00:40:26,800 --> 00:40:27,440
Speaker 1: It's log.

834
00:40:27,719 --> 00:40:29,960
Speaker 2: And I was like, sure, that was obviously based on

835
00:40:30,120 --> 00:40:32,120
Speaker 2: the Slinky jingle. And I went back and listened to

836
00:40:32,120 --> 00:40:33,960
Speaker 2: I was like, no, it is the slinky jingle. They

837
00:40:34,280 --> 00:40:37,600
Speaker 2: replace the lyrics. I didn't get the joke.

838
00:40:37,840 --> 00:40:41,400
Speaker 1: Well, Ren and stimpy fans obviously know what I just did.

839
00:40:41,480 --> 00:40:43,160
Speaker 1: But if you were like I don't get it, what

840
00:40:43,200 --> 00:40:44,279
Speaker 1: does log have to do anything?

841
00:40:44,640 --> 00:40:46,959
Speaker 2: Just look up log. I guess log jingle maybe.

842
00:40:47,120 --> 00:40:50,160
Speaker 1: Yeah. So this was a huge it and it's funny.

843
00:40:50,160 --> 00:40:52,759
Speaker 1: I was looking on the internet to see if I

844
00:40:52,800 --> 00:40:56,000
Speaker 1: could find anything on these guys that wrote this thing,

845
00:40:56,920 --> 00:41:00,759
Speaker 1: and Homer Fesperman has a face book page. It's got

846
00:41:00,880 --> 00:41:01,200
Speaker 1: to be him.

847
00:41:01,600 --> 00:41:01,799
Speaker 2: Wow.

848
00:41:01,920 --> 00:41:03,400
Speaker 1: Yeah, I just clicked on it and the first thing

849
00:41:03,440 --> 00:41:05,800
Speaker 1: I saw was South Carolina game Cocks. Yeah, And I

850
00:41:05,920 --> 00:41:08,319
Speaker 1: was like, well Columbia, South Carolina. Yeah, And it looks

851
00:41:08,360 --> 00:41:16,439
Speaker 1: like he's making like a video scrapbooks for people. Well,

852
00:41:16,719 --> 00:41:18,800
Speaker 1: that's Facebook page was wide open, and I wanted to

853
00:41:18,840 --> 00:41:20,359
Speaker 1: get touch and say are you are.

854
00:41:20,280 --> 00:41:21,399
Speaker 2: You the Homer Fest?

855
00:41:21,840 --> 00:41:23,799
Speaker 1: Maybe we could just get a like a little quick

856
00:41:23,880 --> 00:41:26,719
Speaker 1: interview or something, but I didn't know. So look him up,

857
00:41:26,920 --> 00:41:27,760
Speaker 1: Homer Fest Perman.

858
00:41:28,280 --> 00:41:29,800
Speaker 2: He's on the he's on the internet.

859
00:41:29,920 --> 00:41:32,200
Speaker 1: Yeah, everybody friend him. He'll be like, what is going on?

860
00:41:33,640 --> 00:41:37,520
Speaker 2: Have been spam by the friendliest people on Facebook?

861
00:41:37,960 --> 00:41:40,080
Speaker 1: Who are fans? Yeah, most of them.

862
00:41:42,440 --> 00:41:45,840
Speaker 2: So Betty's got this jingle out there. This was a

863
00:41:45,960 --> 00:41:46,680
Speaker 2: master stroke.

864
00:41:46,800 --> 00:41:47,200
Speaker 1: Oh yeah.

865
00:41:47,360 --> 00:41:51,520
Speaker 2: She also did some the advertising. She really put a

866
00:41:51,600 --> 00:41:54,239
Speaker 2: lot of money into advertising. But apparently I get the

867
00:41:54,239 --> 00:41:56,800
Speaker 2: impression that she had like some she cut some good deals.

868
00:41:57,640 --> 00:42:00,000
Speaker 2: It wasn't she's she went hemorrhaging money on every time.

869
00:42:00,280 --> 00:42:05,560
Speaker 2: It was all very smart and Slinky's star started to

870
00:42:05,680 --> 00:42:06,560
Speaker 2: rise once again.

871
00:42:06,800 --> 00:42:10,840
Speaker 1: Well, she moved the facility closer to Philadelphia too. I

872
00:42:10,920 --> 00:42:12,759
Speaker 1: think it saved some money and allowed her to be

873
00:42:12,840 --> 00:42:15,880
Speaker 1: with her kids more, although she did, you know, she

874
00:42:15,960 --> 00:42:18,480
Speaker 1: had a caretaker. So the kids, I think they said,

875
00:42:18,520 --> 00:42:22,840
Speaker 1: like Sunday through Thursday, they had a lot of attention

876
00:42:22,920 --> 00:42:25,239
Speaker 1: from nanny's and things right, But I get the idea

877
00:42:25,320 --> 00:42:26,520
Speaker 1: she was a good mom. She was trying to do

878
00:42:26,640 --> 00:42:27,839
Speaker 1: right by her family, you know right.

879
00:42:27,840 --> 00:42:31,520
Speaker 2: And not only her family this This article on Perisonomics

880
00:42:31,520 --> 00:42:34,440
Speaker 2: points out that she was also helping out the families

881
00:42:34,480 --> 00:42:36,839
Speaker 2: of I think the one hundred and twenty person team

882
00:42:36,920 --> 00:42:39,120
Speaker 2: that she put together. Yeah, and it says they were

883
00:42:39,160 --> 00:42:43,040
Speaker 2: a close knit, which definitely kind of jibes with the

884
00:42:43,120 --> 00:42:47,480
Speaker 2: impression that I've gotten of her totally. So she's she's

885
00:42:47,600 --> 00:42:51,000
Speaker 2: got this jingle down. Slinky's starting to come back a

886
00:42:51,040 --> 00:42:53,600
Speaker 2: little bit. And also I think the tact that she's

887
00:42:53,680 --> 00:42:57,719
Speaker 2: taking iss a. It's an inexpensive toy that everybody can enjoy, right,

888
00:42:58,920 --> 00:43:00,880
Speaker 2: but it's still I mean, I don't know if all

889
00:43:00,960 --> 00:43:03,640
Speaker 2: of it would have been quite so possible had a

890
00:43:03,680 --> 00:43:07,200
Speaker 2: bit of serendipity not happened. In the mid nineteen seventies.

891
00:43:07,760 --> 00:43:09,520
Speaker 1: Plastic plastic was that the thing.

892
00:43:09,680 --> 00:43:12,600
Speaker 2: Yeah, there was a dude in Minnesota who was a

893
00:43:12,680 --> 00:43:16,279
Speaker 2: plastic worker who figured out basically a way to make

894
00:43:16,320 --> 00:43:20,680
Speaker 2: a plastic slinky and went directly to Betty James and

895
00:43:22,320 --> 00:43:24,320
Speaker 2: her company and said, what do you think about this?

896
00:43:25,080 --> 00:43:27,759
Speaker 2: She said, you know what, I don't steal ideas I

897
00:43:27,840 --> 00:43:29,680
Speaker 2: pay for him. How much do you want me to

898
00:43:29,760 --> 00:43:30,600
Speaker 2: make the checkout for?

899
00:43:31,160 --> 00:43:33,600
Speaker 1: Yeah. His name was Donald James Room, and he was

900
00:43:34,400 --> 00:43:37,080
Speaker 1: of master Mark Plastics, and he was trying to make

901
00:43:37,120 --> 00:43:40,920
Speaker 1: a garden hose that coiled like they have now, like

902
00:43:41,000 --> 00:43:44,880
Speaker 1: a plastic garden hose that self coiled, and he failed

903
00:43:44,920 --> 00:43:46,680
Speaker 1: and his kids apparently were like, that looks like a

904
00:43:46,760 --> 00:43:49,439
Speaker 1: slinky and he was like, oh well let.

905
00:43:49,360 --> 00:43:52,520
Speaker 2: Me, stupid kids, I'm trying to concentrate.

906
00:43:52,640 --> 00:43:57,040
Speaker 1: I'm trying to make a garden hose. So, like you said,

907
00:43:57,080 --> 00:44:00,520
Speaker 1: they made a great deal and he he ended up

908
00:44:00,520 --> 00:44:02,960
Speaker 1: with tons of money too. Yeah, and it made slinky

909
00:44:03,000 --> 00:44:04,240
Speaker 1: super popular again.

910
00:44:04,480 --> 00:44:07,799
Speaker 2: And it became the Slinky Rainbow, the Rainbow Slink, And Yeah,

911
00:44:07,840 --> 00:44:10,800
Speaker 2: all of a sudden, not just original slinky. Now you

912
00:44:10,880 --> 00:44:13,760
Speaker 2: had this what they call it, a less tangle prone

913
00:44:13,800 --> 00:44:16,759
Speaker 2: alternative to slinky. Yeah, which is pretty bold because you're

914
00:44:16,760 --> 00:44:20,400
Speaker 2: saying your original product is tangle prone. Yeah, still worked.

915
00:44:20,800 --> 00:44:22,880
Speaker 2: I think maybe they just knew that everybody knew that

916
00:44:23,000 --> 00:44:26,040
Speaker 2: the slinky is tangle prone. And now they had a

917
00:44:26,120 --> 00:44:30,279
Speaker 2: couple of products again that were really saleable, and the

918
00:44:30,360 --> 00:44:31,799
Speaker 2: slinky star rose once more.

919
00:44:31,960 --> 00:44:33,960
Speaker 1: Yeah, and like I said, the Toy Story, they did

920
00:44:34,080 --> 00:44:38,799
Speaker 1: make a great deal with I guess it was Pixar. Yeah,

921
00:44:39,160 --> 00:44:43,040
Speaker 1: and sold a ton more slinkies when Toy Story came

922
00:44:43,080 --> 00:44:46,360
Speaker 1: out because of the dog right exactly. And in nineteen

923
00:44:46,560 --> 00:44:51,240
Speaker 1: seventy four, Betty Heard received news that her husband, Rick James,

924
00:44:51,320 --> 00:44:52,160
Speaker 1: had passed away.

925
00:44:52,320 --> 00:44:55,080
Speaker 2: Who she hadn't he cues within a few months of

926
00:44:55,200 --> 00:44:57,680
Speaker 2: going to Bolivia, like she hadn't heard anything from him.

927
00:44:58,080 --> 00:45:03,040
Speaker 1: That's just unbelievable. But she was doing fine, and so

928
00:45:03,239 --> 00:45:06,960
Speaker 1: she was probably like, thanks for letting me know who cares.

929
00:45:08,440 --> 00:45:10,319
Speaker 1: I'm sure it might have been a little sad. Yeah,

930
00:45:10,560 --> 00:45:14,440
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna say that. But she then sold to

931
00:45:14,680 --> 00:45:18,040
Speaker 1: poof Products in nineteen ninety eight for what she called

932
00:45:18,080 --> 00:45:21,040
Speaker 1: a quote boatload of money and good for her.

933
00:45:21,239 --> 00:45:23,120
Speaker 2: Yeah, And she lived on for another ten years, to

934
00:45:23,200 --> 00:45:25,960
Speaker 2: the ripe old age of ninety and I think before

935
00:45:26,000 --> 00:45:28,880
Speaker 2: then she was recognized by the Toy Industry Association's Hall

936
00:45:28,920 --> 00:45:31,840
Speaker 2: of Fame. I think Slinky was inducted in two thousand,

937
00:45:32,400 --> 00:45:35,719
Speaker 2: so she would have been alive for that. Pretty neat. Yeah,

938
00:45:36,640 --> 00:45:37,440
Speaker 2: so that's slinky.

939
00:45:38,480 --> 00:45:40,680
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know what. The only other thing I had

940
00:45:40,840 --> 00:45:44,440
Speaker 1: was you can make the Star Wars blaster sound with

941
00:45:44,560 --> 00:45:45,040
Speaker 1: a slinky?

942
00:45:45,239 --> 00:45:45,719
Speaker 2: Oh really?

943
00:45:46,160 --> 00:45:48,759
Speaker 1: Yeah, Well you can do it with the microphone, or

944
00:45:48,880 --> 00:45:50,960
Speaker 1: you can you put a cup, like a paper cup

945
00:45:51,080 --> 00:45:53,640
Speaker 1: in the end of the slinky and you hold that

946
00:45:53,800 --> 00:45:55,799
Speaker 1: in the air just at like the height of your

947
00:45:55,880 --> 00:45:58,400
Speaker 1: head and the rest of this slinky falls to the

948
00:45:58,440 --> 00:46:02,839
Speaker 1: ground and then you just start. Basically, there are all

949
00:46:02,920 --> 00:46:04,399
Speaker 1: kinds of noises you can make, but if you want

950
00:46:04,400 --> 00:46:06,520
Speaker 1: to make that sound, you can pick up the bottom

951
00:46:07,040 --> 00:46:08,759
Speaker 1: off the floor and then just let it drop on

952
00:46:08,800 --> 00:46:10,920
Speaker 1: the floor and catch it real quick and it does

953
00:46:11,000 --> 00:46:13,839
Speaker 1: that nice, makes a neat sound.

954
00:46:14,000 --> 00:46:15,200
Speaker 2: That's a chuck tip right there.

955
00:46:15,280 --> 00:46:16,799
Speaker 1: Yeah, you can go to YouTube and look up Star

956
00:46:16,840 --> 00:46:20,560
Speaker 1: Wars slinky sound and there's a couple of dudes of

957
00:46:20,680 --> 00:46:22,360
Speaker 1: course that'll show you just how to do it.

958
00:46:22,560 --> 00:46:25,040
Speaker 2: Well. That's one of the reasons too, why Betty James

959
00:46:25,360 --> 00:46:27,480
Speaker 2: chose the word slinky is not only because it was

960
00:46:28,040 --> 00:46:31,360
Speaker 2: sleek and attractive, but also thinks she thought that that

961
00:46:31,480 --> 00:46:34,080
Speaker 2: was a good description of what the sound it may does.

962
00:46:34,160 --> 00:46:35,200
Speaker 2: It went downstairs.

963
00:46:35,520 --> 00:46:37,480
Speaker 1: That was before the Star Wars blaster, or she would

964
00:46:37,520 --> 00:46:39,040
Speaker 1: have called it exact the blaster.

965
00:46:40,000 --> 00:46:42,440
Speaker 2: And there's one last thing about slinky physics that are

966
00:46:42,560 --> 00:46:43,360
Speaker 2: pretty amazing.

967
00:46:43,760 --> 00:46:44,200
Speaker 1: Let's hear it.

968
00:46:44,680 --> 00:46:48,080
Speaker 2: So, if you dangle a slinky out to where it's

969
00:46:48,719 --> 00:46:50,879
Speaker 2: completely stretched out as much as it's going to without

970
00:46:50,920 --> 00:46:53,080
Speaker 2: putting any pressure on, just letting the force of gravity

971
00:46:53,120 --> 00:46:54,400
Speaker 2: stretch out the slinky until.

972
00:46:54,239 --> 00:46:55,680
Speaker 1: It reaches equally about out a window.

973
00:46:55,760 --> 00:46:58,960
Speaker 2: Let's say, okay, but without this bottom touching the ground

974
00:46:59,080 --> 00:47:03,120
Speaker 2: out a fourth story though awesome, and you actually, if

975
00:47:03,160 --> 00:47:05,120
Speaker 2: it was like eighty something feet, it'd have to be

976
00:47:05,200 --> 00:47:06,920
Speaker 2: higher than that. Because it's slink, you would go right

977
00:47:06,920 --> 00:47:07,560
Speaker 2: down to the ground.

978
00:47:07,640 --> 00:47:10,040
Speaker 1: Man, Well, I mean you have to weight the bottom

979
00:47:10,080 --> 00:47:10,239
Speaker 1: of it.

980
00:47:10,719 --> 00:47:13,920
Speaker 2: Okay, So let's say four stories. You're right then, and

981
00:47:14,239 --> 00:47:17,520
Speaker 2: if you have it, you're holding it steady, it's not moving,

982
00:47:17,800 --> 00:47:20,520
Speaker 2: and then you release the top, the top will start

983
00:47:20,560 --> 00:47:23,760
Speaker 2: to fall, but if you pay close attention, the bottom

984
00:47:24,280 --> 00:47:28,400
Speaker 2: stays where it is. Whoa slinkys actually have this amazing

985
00:47:28,480 --> 00:47:33,440
Speaker 2: property of managing to levitate momentarily when the top is released.

986
00:47:34,040 --> 00:47:38,160
Speaker 2: And some very smart scientists studied this and they measured

987
00:47:38,160 --> 00:47:40,319
Speaker 2: it and they found yes, indeed, the top is moving

988
00:47:40,400 --> 00:47:43,480
Speaker 2: and the bottom is remaining. It's floating in mid air.

989
00:47:44,040 --> 00:47:46,120
Speaker 2: And they figured out that the reason why is because

990
00:47:46,360 --> 00:47:50,520
Speaker 2: the tension is still acting against the force of gravity,

991
00:47:50,719 --> 00:47:53,200
Speaker 2: which has reached the equilibrium on the lower part of

992
00:47:53,239 --> 00:47:56,600
Speaker 2: the coil. And basically, the information that gravity is that

993
00:47:56,719 --> 00:47:59,759
Speaker 2: tension is released and gravity's about to win hasn't reached

994
00:47:59,800 --> 00:48:03,279
Speaker 2: that bottom part yet. Each coil stacks upon the next

995
00:48:03,320 --> 00:48:04,800
Speaker 2: one and the next one, in the next one. So

996
00:48:04,920 --> 00:48:08,839
Speaker 2: as it's happening up top down below, it's all hunky dory.

997
00:48:08,960 --> 00:48:11,239
Speaker 1: Still it's like you're still holding on to me.

998
00:48:11,600 --> 00:48:15,439
Speaker 2: As far as I know, it's literally floating in mid air. Wow,

999
00:48:17,600 --> 00:48:19,840
Speaker 2: it's ceaselessly amazing, basically the slinky.

1000
00:48:19,920 --> 00:48:23,520
Speaker 1: Yes, well those are two pretty boss slinky tricks.

1001
00:48:23,680 --> 00:48:23,879
Speaker 2: Yep.

1002
00:48:24,200 --> 00:48:26,600
Speaker 1: And what a great way to finish, I think.

1003
00:48:26,960 --> 00:48:29,200
Speaker 2: So if you want to know more about slinkies, you

1004
00:48:29,320 --> 00:48:32,080
Speaker 2: can go to the podcast page on how Stuff you

1005
00:48:32,080 --> 00:48:35,440
Speaker 2: Should Know dot com and check out our slinky episode

1006
00:48:35,440 --> 00:48:38,160
Speaker 2: and there should be links to this PRIs Nomics article

1007
00:48:38,480 --> 00:48:41,560
Speaker 2: and the YouTube slinky mast or all that jam. Just

1008
00:48:41,640 --> 00:48:45,120
Speaker 2: go check that out. And I didn't say search bar,

1009
00:48:45,239 --> 00:48:48,160
Speaker 2: but you can imagine that I would have under normal circumstances,

1010
00:48:48,200 --> 00:48:49,719
Speaker 2: which means it's time for a listener mail.

1011
00:48:51,960 --> 00:48:56,359
Speaker 1: I'm gonna call this Sage from Portland. Remember Sage. Yeah,

1012
00:48:56,440 --> 00:48:57,759
Speaker 1: we do a little Q and A at the end

1013
00:48:57,800 --> 00:48:59,840
Speaker 1: of these live shows and where people can get up

1014
00:48:59,880 --> 00:49:02,800
Speaker 1: in it ask us questions and sages was great, so

1015
00:49:02,920 --> 00:49:05,560
Speaker 1: I told her to scend it in. Hey, guys, just

1016
00:49:05,640 --> 00:49:08,080
Speaker 1: got back from your live show in Portland, and Chuck

1017
00:49:08,120 --> 00:49:10,840
Speaker 1: said to ride in to my amazing fact. I was

1018
00:49:10,920 --> 00:49:14,279
Speaker 1: super nervous to go up there. We'll saved. You did great.

1019
00:49:14,360 --> 00:49:17,120
Speaker 1: By the way, my fact is that you can actually

1020
00:49:17,120 --> 00:49:19,680
Speaker 1: tell how old a humpback whale is by looking at

1021
00:49:19,680 --> 00:49:23,000
Speaker 1: their earwax because it forms rings like a tree. Oh yeah,

1022
00:49:23,200 --> 00:49:23,600
Speaker 1: remember that.

1023
00:49:23,760 --> 00:49:24,000
Speaker 2: Yeah.

1024
00:49:24,360 --> 00:49:27,520
Speaker 1: Humpback whales migrate from Alaska Towaii each year for mating.

1025
00:49:27,960 --> 00:49:30,959
Speaker 1: The temperature shift of the ocean water causes the rings

1026
00:49:31,000 --> 00:49:34,360
Speaker 1: to form. Researchers will examine the ear wax of deceased

1027
00:49:34,360 --> 00:49:36,600
Speaker 1: whales there were beached to find out their age and

1028
00:49:36,640 --> 00:49:39,799
Speaker 1: a lot of other facts about them. Gross and fascinating,

1029
00:49:40,320 --> 00:49:43,160
Speaker 1: just like the actual ear Wax podcast. Guys. I found

1030
00:49:43,200 --> 00:49:46,480
Speaker 1: out this while snorkeling on a cruise in Hawaii last

1031
00:49:46,520 --> 00:49:49,680
Speaker 1: week for spring break. Thanks for everything, and thanks for

1032
00:49:49,760 --> 00:49:53,239
Speaker 1: the live show especially. It was totally awesome with four

1033
00:49:53,360 --> 00:49:56,719
Speaker 1: exclamation points. Oh four, that's pretty good, rating, men a lot.

1034
00:49:56,960 --> 00:49:58,440
Speaker 1: I had so much fun and I think I got

1035
00:49:58,480 --> 00:49:59,719
Speaker 1: my mom hooked on your show, too.

1036
00:50:00,160 --> 00:50:00,359
Speaker 2: Cool.

1037
00:50:00,480 --> 00:50:03,000
Speaker 1: So thanks to Sage and her mom for bringing her.

1038
00:50:03,400 --> 00:50:05,200
Speaker 1: And it was good to meet you. You did a

1039
00:50:05,239 --> 00:50:06,719
Speaker 1: great job. You didn't seem nervous at all.

1040
00:50:06,800 --> 00:50:10,520
Speaker 2: No, totally large and in charge like you do audience

1041
00:50:10,640 --> 00:50:11,759
Speaker 2: QA stuff every night.

1042
00:50:11,880 --> 00:50:12,239
Speaker 1: That's right.

1043
00:50:12,920 --> 00:50:15,120
Speaker 2: Thanks to everybody in Portland, you guys, I think chuck.

1044
00:50:15,160 --> 00:50:19,600
Speaker 2: Every single person that we met before and after said

1045
00:50:19,960 --> 00:50:22,960
Speaker 2: welcome to Portland, Like we were literally welcome by every

1046
00:50:23,000 --> 00:50:23,640
Speaker 2: single person.

1047
00:50:23,760 --> 00:50:25,960
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was really neat that they're proud of their

1048
00:50:26,000 --> 00:50:28,239
Speaker 1: city as they should be. Yes.

1049
00:50:28,560 --> 00:50:30,240
Speaker 2: If you want to get in touch with us about

1050
00:50:30,560 --> 00:50:33,040
Speaker 2: anything to do with whales or slinkys or live shows

1051
00:50:33,160 --> 00:50:35,960
Speaker 2: or any of that jazz, you can tweet to us

1052
00:50:35,960 --> 00:50:39,680
Speaker 2: at sysk podcast. You can join us on Facebook dot com,

1053
00:50:39,800 --> 00:50:41,839
Speaker 2: slash Stuff you Should Know. You can send us an

1054
00:50:41,840 --> 00:50:45,920
Speaker 2: email to Stuff Podcast at houstuffworks dot com, and as always,

1055
00:50:46,280 --> 00:50:48,680
Speaker 2: joined us at our luxurious home on the web. Stuff

1056
00:50:48,719 --> 00:50:53,360
Speaker 2: you Should Know dot com. Stuff you Should Know is

1057
00:50:53,400 --> 00:50:54,719
Speaker 2: a production of iHeartRadio.

1058
00:50:55,239 --> 00:50:58,720
Speaker 1: For more podcasts my Heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio.

1059
00:50:58,200 --> 00:51:01,520
Speaker 2: App Apple Podcasts. Have you listen to your favorite shows