WEBVTT - Selects: How Slinky Works

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<v Speaker 1>Hi, everybody. This is Charles W. Chuck Bryant. It is Saturday,

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<v Speaker 1>and that means it's time for my weekly Selects episode. Pick.

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<v Speaker 1>I went through the archives and I found this gym

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<v Speaker 1>from April fourteenth, twenty fifteen, How Slinky Works. A big

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<v Speaker 1>fan of our Classic Toys episode and this is one

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<v Speaker 1>of them. And the great thing about a slinky everyone

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<v Speaker 1>is its spans generations. There's just something about this dumb

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<v Speaker 1>little toy that kids enjoyed for decades, including my own daughter,

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<v Speaker 1>who has her own slinky and loves it. So everyone

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<v Speaker 1>please listen right now to how Slinky Works, not Slinky's Slinky.

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of iHeartRadio.

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<v Speaker 2>Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, there's

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<v Speaker 2>Charles W. Chuck Bryant, and there's Jerry over there, and

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<v Speaker 2>this is the Stuff you should Know, projecting from Studio

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<v Speaker 2>one A.

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<v Speaker 1>Just us. It's not us on stage in front of

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<v Speaker 1>hundreds of the dooring fans.

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<v Speaker 2>No, I feel all listless.

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<v Speaker 1>We just got back from our tour and.

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<v Speaker 2>That was just us again. Yeah, there's a paper ikea

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<v Speaker 2>lamp with a dimmer that makes it turn into a

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<v Speaker 2>strobe light even though it's not supposed to. And yeah,

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<v Speaker 2>it's a toolbox over there. That's it.

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<v Speaker 1>It's a lot more fun to do this on stage

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<v Speaker 1>in front of people, and it turns out.

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<v Speaker 2>I think we should do it again because the West

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<v Speaker 2>Coast tour was pretty fun.

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<v Speaker 1>Yeah, so keep your eyes peeled. Perhaps Philly, d C.

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<v Speaker 1>New York, and Boston.

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<v Speaker 2>Don't literally peel your eyes.

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<v Speaker 1>Then perhaps Chapel Hill.

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<v Speaker 2>Oh man.

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<v Speaker 1>We can't announce anything yet, but we're just teasing with

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<v Speaker 1>those cities that we'll be in in June.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, we're actually going to Providence, are no, No, just kidding.

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<v Speaker 1>There were like ten people in Providence going yeah, oh man,

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<v Speaker 1>I got to go to Boston again.

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<v Speaker 2>So how are you doing? You're still jet lagged.

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<v Speaker 1>I have recovered somewhat. I have to say that the

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<v Speaker 1>city of Seattle is a place I could live. It's

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<v Speaker 1>beautiful except for the weather, like we had it good

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<v Speaker 1>and it's easy to fall in love with the place

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<v Speaker 1>if you're there for like a great weekend, right because

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<v Speaker 1>it was beautiful when everyone.

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<v Speaker 2>Was out, it was gorgeous.

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<v Speaker 1>But I told Emily she was all fired up too.

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<v Speaker 1>It's like, you know, nine months out of the year.

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<v Speaker 1>It's pretty depressing. Yeah, with the weather bleak, and I

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<v Speaker 1>think you're just used to it. I feel about there.

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<v Speaker 1>I guess you know, you're hearty.

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<v Speaker 2>Everybody seemed to have their spirits up though maybe it

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<v Speaker 2>was the weather. I assumed it was because we were

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<v Speaker 2>in town, but now that I think about it, it

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<v Speaker 2>could have definitely been the weather.

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<v Speaker 1>Well, Portland fans stood in line in the rain, and

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<v Speaker 1>I felt all bad, But then I was like, they

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<v Speaker 1>stand in line for in the rain all the time,

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<v Speaker 1>for everything.

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<v Speaker 2>Gas, doughnuts, what have you.

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<v Speaker 1>Yeah. Yeah, So anyway, thanks to everyone who came out.

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<v Speaker 1>It was so so fun.

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<v Speaker 2>Yes, La San Francisco, Portland, Seattle from both of us.

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<v Speaker 2>From Jerry too, Yeah, from everybody, A heartfelt, hearty thank you.

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<v Speaker 1>Jerry was a regular hot shot, you know.

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<v Speaker 2>With w's so chuck. Yes, did you ever have a

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<v Speaker 2>slinky when you were a kid, Sure, I feel like

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<v Speaker 2>I played with them. I definitely played with him. I

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<v Speaker 2>don't remember actually owning a slinky at any point, at

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<v Speaker 2>least yours.

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<v Speaker 1>It was.

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<v Speaker 2>It was just kind of one of those things I

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<v Speaker 2>was like, always around there was always a slinky. You

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<v Speaker 2>could get your hands on a slinky, But.

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<v Speaker 1>You don't remember getting a slinky right and saying this

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<v Speaker 1>is my slinky.

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<v Speaker 2>Or going to the toy store and saying like, I

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<v Speaker 2>want a slinky, right. But I did love slinkies whenever

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<v Speaker 2>I played with them. Yeah, it turns out I was

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<v Speaker 2>just one of many many children over the last sixty

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<v Speaker 2>seventy years that have loved slinky.

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<v Speaker 1>I was frustrated by my slinky a bit because I

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<v Speaker 1>never well, I never had stairs that it worked well on.

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<v Speaker 2>You know, you gotta thought, say I never had stairs, Like, yeah,

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<v Speaker 2>I'll bet you're frustrated with slinky.

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<v Speaker 1>No, I had stairs going up to my room, but

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<v Speaker 1>it was you know, if you don't have the right

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<v Speaker 1>height and depth of stair, it just stops. Yeah, and

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<v Speaker 1>then you got to do it again.

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<v Speaker 2>Were they for like really long feet, were they wide

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<v Speaker 2>stairs or were they really tall or what was the deal?

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<v Speaker 1>I don't know. I felt like I felt like they

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<v Speaker 1>were standard stairs.

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<v Speaker 2>And then you just didn't like them.

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<v Speaker 1>Well, we get all. I had the metal ones. It

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<v Speaker 1>would get all you know how they would tend to

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<v Speaker 1>get tangled. Yeah, that was sort of the hallmark of

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<v Speaker 1>the metal slinky.

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<v Speaker 2>And again, like people's hair would get caught in and

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<v Speaker 2>now that I'm an adult and looking back, I'm like,

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<v Speaker 2>how did anybody's hair get caught in the slinky? What

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<v Speaker 2>was the deal? But when it happened, it hurt.

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<v Speaker 1>I think kids would like wrap slinkies around each other.

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<v Speaker 1>I remember using slinky like as rope like handcuffs. Oh yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>Like you'd wrap it around your friend and then sort

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<v Speaker 1>of just latch it and you'd be like, ah, i's.

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<v Speaker 2>Slinky, or like attaching a knife to one end and

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<v Speaker 2>like yeah, yeah, just jamming it towards somebody.

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<v Speaker 1>That was fun.

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<v Speaker 2>There's this guy on YouTube while there's a YouTube video

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<v Speaker 2>of a guy called Slinky Master, Oh boy, and he

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<v Speaker 2>is good. He's just like basically like moving it from

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<v Speaker 2>one hand to another, making it do all this awesome

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<v Speaker 2>stuff in the middle. And it's a rainbow slinky and

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<v Speaker 2>I think it might be like glow in the dark too.

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<v Speaker 1>Holy cow.

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<v Speaker 2>But he is a pretty good I say, go check

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<v Speaker 2>it out.

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<v Speaker 1>I got it. Definitely want to check that out.

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<v Speaker 2>Oh and actually, we have a new thing on our

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<v Speaker 2>website on our podcast pages, so like the page where

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<v Speaker 2>you can go listen to any podcast on our site,

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<v Speaker 2>there's now a like an additional links section where it

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<v Speaker 2>has stuff that we talk about. It links out to

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<v Speaker 2>articles that we use for extra research. They'll be on

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<v Speaker 2>this Slinky episode podcast page, a link to that Slinky Master.

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<v Speaker 2>Oh you don't even need to google that. You just

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<v Speaker 2>basically make stuff you should know your homepage and we

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<v Speaker 2>can take care of it for you.

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<v Speaker 1>Yeah. And we're bringing back transcriptions right yep, which we

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<v Speaker 1>are super happy about because we used to have transcriptions

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<v Speaker 1>for our friends in the deaf and Heart of Hearing

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<v Speaker 1>community and then we didn't do it for a while

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<v Speaker 1>and they were like, what gives shirks? Yeah, and so

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<v Speaker 1>we've been working to get those back and I think

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<v Speaker 1>they're going to be back now yep.

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<v Speaker 2>So that's Slinky's a goodnight.

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<v Speaker 1>Oh wait, we didn't start yet.

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<v Speaker 2>So I had no idea while I was watching people

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<v Speaker 2>get their hair caught in Slinky's or playing with them

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<v Speaker 2>in general that they had a kind of a pretty

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<v Speaker 2>neat history until I ran across this article from PRIs Nomics,

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<v Speaker 2>written by a dude named Zachary Crockett.

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<v Speaker 1>Yeah, big, thanks, it's a good article. It is.

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<v Speaker 2>It's called The Invention is Slinky, and in it, Crockett

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<v Speaker 2>starts at a pretty reasonable place the birth of the

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<v Speaker 2>inventor of slinky, Richard Thompson James.

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<v Speaker 1>Rick James, and in the slinky, I don't think he

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<v Speaker 1>went by Rick.

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<v Speaker 2>No, he went by mister James, right, inventor's slinky.

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<v Speaker 1>Yes. He was born in nineteen fourteen in Delaware, and

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<v Speaker 1>apparently his brother Samuel said that he was always a

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<v Speaker 1>pretty enterprising, mechanically oriented type of kid, because he had

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<v Speaker 1>this one story about when he was like thirteen, he

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<v Speaker 1>found an old car and literally like fixed the car

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<v Speaker 1>up well enough to sell it.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, it had like mice running around living. Yeah, and

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<v Speaker 2>he sold it for twenty five bucks, which I went

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<v Speaker 2>to West Egg and converted that three hundred and thirty

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<v Speaker 2>seven dollars in twenty fourteen. Money.

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<v Speaker 1>Not bad for a thirteen year old, No, no way, that's yeah.

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<v Speaker 1>But it was a car. Whoever bought it got a

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<v Speaker 1>good deal, That's all I'm saying.

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<v Speaker 2>But I mean he probably didn't get rid of the mice.

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<v Speaker 2>He just got the thing to run again.

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<v Speaker 1>Yeah. Plus it wasn't his car anyway, he just took

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<v Speaker 1>it exact fixed it up.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, it was the mice's car.

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<v Speaker 1>So in the nineteen thirties he went to Penn State

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<v Speaker 1>and did study mechanical engineering.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah. He was just a tinkerer, so it made a

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<v Speaker 2>lot of sense.

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<v Speaker 1>Yeah. I find that often when people like you researched

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<v Speaker 1>the people who invented like a circuit board for an

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<v Speaker 1>amp or something. It seems like that starts when you're very,

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<v Speaker 1>very young, right, just interest in that kind of thing. Yeah, oh,

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<v Speaker 1>you don't get into mechanical engineering in your twenties, no,

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<v Speaker 1>you know.

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<v Speaker 2>Like you ditch psychology for a mechanical engineering degree.

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<v Speaker 1>Yeah. My brother went the other way. He was an

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<v Speaker 1>aerospace engineering major and he switched to psychology.

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<v Speaker 2>Did he really? I didn't know that.

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<v Speaker 1>Yeah. He wanted to be an astronaut. That's awesome, but

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<v Speaker 1>not like a six year old. He was like, he's

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<v Speaker 1>an adult, wanted to be an astronaut, right, He wanted

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<v Speaker 1>to be a cowboy.

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<v Speaker 2>Too, cowboys you grew up to actually be cowboys.

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<v Speaker 1>So anyway, he got a mechanical engineering degree and then

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<v Speaker 1>started work as a naval engineer.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, because it makes sense. It was World War Two,

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<v Speaker 2>so that's what you did. Yeah, he had to go

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<v Speaker 2>fight Hitler, so he did. He fought it from behind

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<v Speaker 2>a desk because they're like you're a mechanical engineer, you

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<v Speaker 2>just sit here and figure out how you can make

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<v Speaker 2>our weapons of war better.

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<v Speaker 1>Exactly.

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<v Speaker 2>And he was actually working on something that you springs

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<v Speaker 2>is something that basically kept some sort of electronics on battleships.

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<v Speaker 2>I think it had to do with the measuring horse power.

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<v Speaker 1>Yeah, it was a horsepower meter that I guess if

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<v Speaker 1>you're in rough waves that would mess with the meter.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, and you didn't want to rocking all over the

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<v Speaker 2>place that you would use springs to keep it intact

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<v Speaker 2>or keep it from moving around too much, right, Yeah.

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<v Speaker 2>So while he was tinkering around with one of this,

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<v Speaker 2>he quite by accident knocked over some stuff. I don't

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<v Speaker 2>think it was in a fit of rage, it was accidental.

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<v Speaker 1>Yeah.

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<v Speaker 2>And one of the things he knocked over included a spring,

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<v Speaker 2>and he watched the spring fall off the shelf in

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<v Speaker 2>a nice graceful arc, hit a book, go over from

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<v Speaker 2>the book onto the desk, and then from the desk

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<v Speaker 2>onto the floor in this nice arching manner.

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<v Speaker 1>Anyway, Yeah, exactly, and he said, let's try that again.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, it's apparently captivated by it.

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<v Speaker 1>It's pretty neat, like this is literally one of those

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<v Speaker 1>toys you can trace back to one of those silly

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<v Speaker 1>fluke moments, like the microwave. Was that the same thing?

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<v Speaker 2>He was, Yeah, they there was a oh man, I

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<v Speaker 2>can't remember what the actual the actual thing that makes

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<v Speaker 2>the microwave. The microwave was discovered by accident that yeah,

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<v Speaker 2>that it had these properties that like a guy had

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<v Speaker 2>a chocolate bar in his shirt melted, it melt. He's like,

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<v Speaker 2>wait a minute, So of course he logically ran and

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<v Speaker 2>grabbed some popcorn and saw that that happened, and then

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<v Speaker 2>the microwave was born.

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<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I think it's slinky. Is actually the only place

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<v Speaker 1>that's on our website is one of those our top

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<v Speaker 1>ten Accidental Inventions or something.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, and all bet microwaves are in there too.

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<v Speaker 1>I'm sure it is. So basically, you're right. The light

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<v Speaker 1>bulb went off over his head and he went home

0:10:38.240 --> 0:10:42.520
<v Speaker 1>and told his lovely wife Betty, Betty, Betty, I think

0:10:42.559 --> 0:10:44.959
<v Speaker 1>I've got something here, and I just need to figure

0:10:44.960 --> 0:10:47.240
<v Speaker 1>out how to how to make it to where it

0:10:47.320 --> 0:10:49.839
<v Speaker 1>keeps doing this thing. I'm going to try, because you

0:10:49.840 --> 0:10:51.960
<v Speaker 1>can't just get any spring and throw it on a step.

0:10:51.760 --> 0:10:53.520
<v Speaker 2>No, you can. There's all sorts of different kinds of

0:10:53.559 --> 0:10:56.000
<v Speaker 2>springs that turns out, you know, like there's a tension

0:10:56.080 --> 0:10:59.360
<v Speaker 2>spring sure that they use on mouse traps, and then

0:10:59.360 --> 0:11:02.120
<v Speaker 2>there's this slinking Yeah, but no, the slinky spring is

0:11:02.120 --> 0:11:06.480
<v Speaker 2>this super refined type of spring that was designed over

0:11:06.520 --> 0:11:09.360
<v Speaker 2>the course of a year through trial and error to

0:11:09.400 --> 0:11:12.200
<v Speaker 2>have just the right tension, just the right shape, just

0:11:12.240 --> 0:11:14.480
<v Speaker 2>the right size of the coils, just the right everything,

0:11:14.920 --> 0:11:19.319
<v Speaker 2>so that it really accentuated that graceful flow, that arcing

0:11:19.440 --> 0:11:23.199
<v Speaker 2>flow that it has. Yeah, it makes it the slinky.

0:11:23.600 --> 0:11:25.320
<v Speaker 2>And it took him like a year of tinkering with

0:11:25.360 --> 0:11:28.840
<v Speaker 2>all these different tensions and types of materials before he

0:11:28.880 --> 0:11:29.760
<v Speaker 2>finally hit upon it.

0:11:30.000 --> 0:11:32.439
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, and I think he settled on a point zero

0:11:32.520 --> 0:11:36.480
<v Speaker 1>five seven to five inch in diameter high carbon steel.

0:11:37.960 --> 0:11:42.800
<v Speaker 1>The original slinkies were black metal, which was kind of

0:11:42.840 --> 0:11:46.200
<v Speaker 1>cool looking by the time, like we were kids. I

0:11:46.240 --> 0:11:50.680
<v Speaker 1>think they just they had the shiny, silvery ones. And

0:11:50.679 --> 0:11:52.480
<v Speaker 1>then of course we'll get to the plastic that came

0:11:52.520 --> 0:11:56.480
<v Speaker 1>along later too, but the first ones were black and

0:11:56.840 --> 0:12:00.720
<v Speaker 1>it demonstrates property and physics hooks law.

0:12:00.880 --> 0:12:04.480
<v Speaker 2>So I ran across this like super hardcore physics forum

0:12:04.800 --> 0:12:07.600
<v Speaker 2>where somebody posted that they were talking about the physics

0:12:07.600 --> 0:12:09.680
<v Speaker 2>of slinky and somebody's like, it seems like Cooks law

0:12:09.760 --> 0:12:12.160
<v Speaker 2>is a good place to start, and they got piled on.

0:12:12.320 --> 0:12:12.760
<v Speaker 1>Oh really.

0:12:13.040 --> 0:12:15.600
<v Speaker 2>They said that Hooks law has to do with the

0:12:15.640 --> 0:12:18.880
<v Speaker 2>amount of force a spring exerts on something it's attached to.

0:12:19.720 --> 0:12:21.880
<v Speaker 2>So I think with Hooks law, if it does apply,

0:12:22.480 --> 0:12:25.240
<v Speaker 2>what you're talking about is the force being transferred from

0:12:25.280 --> 0:12:28.319
<v Speaker 2>one end of the slinky to the other, and that

0:12:28.400 --> 0:12:32.400
<v Speaker 2>as the momentum at the front of the slinky goes downward,

0:12:33.080 --> 0:12:35.440
<v Speaker 2>that same amount is transferred to the back and it's

0:12:35.480 --> 0:12:38.040
<v Speaker 2>pulled forward and it just keeps going end over end.

0:12:38.320 --> 0:12:40.520
<v Speaker 2>So I don't know if Hooks law does apply or not,

0:12:40.880 --> 0:12:42.959
<v Speaker 2>but if it does, that's my understanding of how it

0:12:43.000 --> 0:12:43.520
<v Speaker 2>would apply.

0:12:43.720 --> 0:12:47.040
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, the one definition I saw was that it basically

0:12:47.120 --> 0:12:50.559
<v Speaker 1>means a spring will return to its original shape once

0:12:50.679 --> 0:12:51.720
<v Speaker 1>the load is removed.

0:12:51.800 --> 0:12:55.320
<v Speaker 2>So that makes sense, right. But there's another thing, at

0:12:55.400 --> 0:12:57.400
<v Speaker 2>least one other thing going on with the slinky, and

0:12:57.440 --> 0:13:00.720
<v Speaker 2>that is that it goes along a launge tudinal wave.

0:13:01.160 --> 0:13:04.320
<v Speaker 2>So just like a sound wave, basically a slinky is

0:13:04.440 --> 0:13:07.480
<v Speaker 2>a sound wave slowed down or the same type of

0:13:07.520 --> 0:13:10.760
<v Speaker 2>wave as a sound wave, and it slowed down and

0:13:11.280 --> 0:13:15.560
<v Speaker 2>as the slinky's moving on a molecular level, molecule to molecule,

0:13:15.600 --> 0:13:18.200
<v Speaker 2>is pushing the ones in front of it forward, and

0:13:18.240 --> 0:13:23.400
<v Speaker 2>then the whole thing starts over again once it reaches equilibrium.

0:13:23.880 --> 0:13:26.080
<v Speaker 1>That sounds like a great explanation to me.

0:13:26.280 --> 0:13:28.959
<v Speaker 2>Yes, no, that's all right. It avoids equilibrium. Once it

0:13:29.040 --> 0:13:32.000
<v Speaker 2>hits equilibrium, it stops. Oh okay, Yeah, but the whole

0:13:32.000 --> 0:13:33.880
<v Speaker 2>thing starts with the slinky just sitting there at the

0:13:33.920 --> 0:13:35.440
<v Speaker 2>top of the step. And what it has there is

0:13:35.480 --> 0:13:36.760
<v Speaker 2>potential energy. It's a store.

0:13:36.840 --> 0:13:40.199
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, you gotta move it to get that kinetic energy going. Yeah.

0:13:40.720 --> 0:13:43.559
<v Speaker 1>When I was a kid, I just remember staring at it.

0:13:43.559 --> 0:13:44.720
<v Speaker 1>It's like it's not doing nothing.

0:13:44.840 --> 0:13:48.800
<v Speaker 2>This is where Slinky and our esp episodes collide. How's

0:13:48.840 --> 0:13:51.800
<v Speaker 2>that You're just staring at slinky willing it to move?

0:13:51.880 --> 0:13:54.760
<v Speaker 1>Oh? Gotcha? All right. So he comes up with this

0:13:54.800 --> 0:13:57.960
<v Speaker 1>little slinky. It works like a charm, his little prototype.

0:13:59.040 --> 0:14:00.880
<v Speaker 1>He does the smart thing, which is if you want

0:14:00.880 --> 0:14:03.760
<v Speaker 1>to find out if kids actually will enjoy it. He

0:14:03.840 --> 0:14:07.640
<v Speaker 1>got the neighborhood together. Yeah, and came to some kids

0:14:07.679 --> 0:14:09.560
<v Speaker 1>and they went nuts. They were like, this thing is amazing.

0:14:09.679 --> 0:14:13.040
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, stop hitting that other kid with those sticks. And

0:14:13.120 --> 0:14:14.920
<v Speaker 2>come over and play with this toy that I came

0:14:15.040 --> 0:14:16.760
<v Speaker 2>up with. Let me know what you think.

0:14:16.960 --> 0:14:19.800
<v Speaker 1>And they wrapped up that kid in the spring, got

0:14:19.800 --> 0:14:22.080
<v Speaker 1>it caught in that kid's hair. Yeah, he said this

0:14:22.160 --> 0:14:22.640
<v Speaker 1>is perfect.

0:14:22.680 --> 0:14:25.240
<v Speaker 2>He's like, this is Gangbusters. And I mean, like he

0:14:25.360 --> 0:14:30.320
<v Speaker 2>saw from that very early back of the envelope market

0:14:30.360 --> 0:14:33.240
<v Speaker 2>research that he did with the neighborhood kids, it made

0:14:33.280 --> 0:14:35.680
<v Speaker 2>him a believer. Oh yeah, Like he saw that kids

0:14:35.880 --> 0:14:39.640
<v Speaker 2>really were into this thing. And I got the impression

0:14:39.680 --> 0:14:44.000
<v Speaker 2>that at no point was he like this thing is amazing,

0:14:44.040 --> 0:14:46.760
<v Speaker 2>it's supernatural. He's like, this is a it's really cool.

0:14:46.800 --> 0:14:49.240
<v Speaker 2>It's a spring. It's physics, but it just looks really

0:14:49.320 --> 0:14:51.560
<v Speaker 2>neat and it is somehow weirdly captivating.

0:14:51.960 --> 0:14:54.000
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. I think they say that one in a thousand

0:14:54.080 --> 0:14:55.680
<v Speaker 1>toys hits it big.

0:14:56.360 --> 0:14:57.280
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, something like that.

0:14:57.400 --> 0:15:01.240
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. So I mean there are toy inventors that labor

0:15:01.320 --> 0:15:04.120
<v Speaker 1>for their entire lives, yeah, and never hit on something

0:15:04.160 --> 0:15:05.600
<v Speaker 1>like the slinky. I mean, it's one of the top

0:15:05.800 --> 0:15:08.880
<v Speaker 1>ten toys in history. When they give frustrate a little spring,

0:15:09.040 --> 0:15:15.960
<v Speaker 1>they go slinky. So Betty, his wife, wasn't super well.

0:15:16.000 --> 0:15:17.160
<v Speaker 1>She was a little skeptical at.

0:15:17.080 --> 0:15:19.760
<v Speaker 2>First, which we'll learn later is pretty ironic.

0:15:19.680 --> 0:15:22.960
<v Speaker 1>Very ironic. And he actually tasked her with naming it though.

0:15:23.360 --> 0:15:25.360
<v Speaker 1>And she is the one that found the word slinky

0:15:25.400 --> 0:15:26.120
<v Speaker 1>in the dictionary.

0:15:26.200 --> 0:15:29.080
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, apparently she spent like several weeks drinking for just

0:15:29.080 --> 0:15:29.640
<v Speaker 2>the right word.

0:15:30.360 --> 0:15:32.480
<v Speaker 1>Well, I mean, what else was she doing raising six kids?

0:15:32.520 --> 0:15:34.440
<v Speaker 2>Right, exactly? She had a lot of downtime.

0:15:35.080 --> 0:15:37.720
<v Speaker 1>So right after this break, we will talk a little

0:15:37.720 --> 0:15:41.040
<v Speaker 1>bit about how it went from a just a garage

0:15:41.080 --> 0:15:44.560
<v Speaker 1>neighborhood idea to one of the biggest selling toys ever.

0:16:01.520 --> 0:16:04.640
<v Speaker 1>All right, So he's got his slinky, he's got the prototype,

0:16:04.840 --> 0:16:08.160
<v Speaker 1>he gets a five hundred dollars loan to start from

0:16:08.200 --> 0:16:12.840
<v Speaker 1>a friend to start James Spring and Wire Company, LLC. Yeah,

0:16:13.080 --> 0:16:13.720
<v Speaker 1>pretty good name.

0:16:13.840 --> 0:16:15.640
<v Speaker 2>Yeah. Well, and then he got the five hundred bucks

0:16:15.640 --> 0:16:18.200
<v Speaker 2>apparently pretty easy from the friend by just showing him

0:16:18.200 --> 0:16:18.680
<v Speaker 2>the slinky.

0:16:18.760 --> 0:16:20.400
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, and he was like, how much do you need?

0:16:20.600 --> 0:16:22.760
<v Speaker 2>I didn't look up how much five hundred bucks is,

0:16:22.800 --> 0:16:26.920
<v Speaker 2>but in nineteen forty five, but we can guess that it's.

0:16:27.280 --> 0:16:28.160
<v Speaker 1>About forty million.

0:16:28.640 --> 0:16:33.880
<v Speaker 2>No, no, no, because I think it's about let's see,

0:16:35.200 --> 0:16:39.040
<v Speaker 2>it was about I think sixty five hundred bucks probably

0:16:39.120 --> 0:16:41.880
<v Speaker 2>roughly today. Okay, which I mean, that's substantial to give

0:16:41.920 --> 0:16:42.320
<v Speaker 2>a friend.

0:16:42.560 --> 0:16:44.400
<v Speaker 1>Oh yeah, I can, and it was enough to get

0:16:44.400 --> 0:16:46.800
<v Speaker 1>things going. I think he really, I mean he had

0:16:46.800 --> 0:16:50.920
<v Speaker 1>the prototype, he just needed an official company banner basically. Right.

0:16:51.400 --> 0:16:55.960
<v Speaker 1>So he has his machine shop and he has his prototype,

0:16:56.480 --> 0:16:59.080
<v Speaker 1>and he gets a bunch of wire and he makes

0:16:59.120 --> 0:16:59.960
<v Speaker 1>a bunch of slinky.

0:17:00.320 --> 0:17:02.760
<v Speaker 2>Well, he goes through his local machine shop first.

0:17:02.800 --> 0:17:05.040
<v Speaker 1>Right, So he's at his local machine shop and he

0:17:05.440 --> 0:17:09.200
<v Speaker 1>makes four hundred slinkies. They were two and a half

0:17:09.240 --> 0:17:13.240
<v Speaker 1>inches tall, contained eighty feet of wire, which that's pretty impressive.

0:17:13.240 --> 0:17:15.520
<v Speaker 1>I didn't know it was nearly that much. Yeah, but

0:17:15.560 --> 0:17:18.200
<v Speaker 1>it makes sense, I guess because I think every kid's

0:17:18.200 --> 0:17:20.520
<v Speaker 1>tried to uncoil theirs fully, you know.

0:17:20.680 --> 0:17:24.679
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, And apparently slinky starts out as like normal round wire,

0:17:25.040 --> 0:17:27.000
<v Speaker 2>but then they smush it to make it flat.

0:17:27.400 --> 0:17:30.040
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, because it's got to be flat to perform and

0:17:30.080 --> 0:17:31.760
<v Speaker 1>sit on itself. Yeah.

0:17:31.760 --> 0:17:34.800
<v Speaker 2>I didn't realize though, I mean, yeah, it makes sense,

0:17:34.840 --> 0:17:37.200
<v Speaker 2>but I didn't realize it started out as like a round,

0:17:37.680 --> 0:17:39.040
<v Speaker 2>like diameter type wire.

0:17:39.200 --> 0:17:39.720
<v Speaker 1>Yeah.

0:17:39.840 --> 0:17:43.040
<v Speaker 2>But what kind of metal did he start out at?

0:17:44.280 --> 0:17:45.800
<v Speaker 1>Swedish steel, high.

0:17:45.680 --> 0:17:47.720
<v Speaker 2>Grade blue black Swedish steel.

0:17:47.880 --> 0:17:50.560
<v Speaker 1>I guess that was the wire of the day. Yeah,

0:17:50.720 --> 0:17:53.359
<v Speaker 1>and it was in ninety eight coils and at first

0:17:53.440 --> 0:17:56.480
<v Speaker 1>they just wrapped it in parchment paper. Later on, I

0:17:56.480 --> 0:17:59.480
<v Speaker 1>think they packaged it in just a box like it's

0:17:59.520 --> 0:18:02.040
<v Speaker 1>in today, right, Actually today, I think it's in that

0:18:02.160 --> 0:18:04.280
<v Speaker 1>awful plastic stuff that you can't open.

0:18:04.480 --> 0:18:05.240
<v Speaker 2>Oh is it now?

0:18:05.600 --> 0:18:08.480
<v Speaker 1>Well, they have a throwback you can get in the box. Yeah,

0:18:08.520 --> 0:18:12.359
<v Speaker 1>that's still like modeled after the original box, which is

0:18:12.440 --> 0:18:13.960
<v Speaker 1>kind of neat. Yeah, So I don't see why you

0:18:14.000 --> 0:18:15.639
<v Speaker 1>wouldn't get that one personally.

0:18:15.800 --> 0:18:18.680
<v Speaker 2>So with the original metal slinky, yeah, and the whole

0:18:18.720 --> 0:18:21.200
<v Speaker 2>history from the time he walked into that metal shop

0:18:21.240 --> 0:18:26.159
<v Speaker 2>the first time, once he had the prototype figured out

0:18:26.520 --> 0:18:30.119
<v Speaker 2>throughout today. There was only one design change in the

0:18:30.160 --> 0:18:32.600
<v Speaker 2>whole time, and that was to crimp the ends that

0:18:32.800 --> 0:18:35.960
<v Speaker 2>after it was produced to keep it from tangling is easy,

0:18:36.080 --> 0:18:39.600
<v Speaker 2>uh huh, and for safety. So it didn't like cut

0:18:39.640 --> 0:18:40.680
<v Speaker 2>some kid's eye out.

0:18:40.640 --> 0:18:42.479
<v Speaker 1>Right, So after a bunch of kids eyes were cut out,

0:18:42.520 --> 0:18:43.520
<v Speaker 1>they'd crimp the INDs.

0:18:43.560 --> 0:18:45.840
<v Speaker 2>I don't know if they had foresight or if if

0:18:45.840 --> 0:18:48.359
<v Speaker 2>it was in response to eyes being gouged out, but

0:18:48.600 --> 0:18:52.119
<v Speaker 2>that's crazy one. Yeah, and I mean still today, I

0:18:52.119 --> 0:18:55.560
<v Speaker 2>went on Amazon to double check, and the slinky is

0:18:55.600 --> 0:18:57.000
<v Speaker 2>still two and a half inches tall.

0:18:57.200 --> 0:18:57.520
<v Speaker 1>Wow.

0:18:57.600 --> 0:19:00.439
<v Speaker 2>It didn't say how many coils it was because they

0:19:00.440 --> 0:19:03.480
<v Speaker 2>didn't get that descriptive. But it's the same thing as

0:19:03.520 --> 0:19:05.640
<v Speaker 2>it was back in nineteen forty what five.

0:19:05.840 --> 0:19:09.680
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I'm surprised they didn't have like, you know, the

0:19:10.240 --> 0:19:13.919
<v Speaker 1>Mega x stream right slinky.

0:19:13.640 --> 0:19:16.879
<v Speaker 2>That like is powered by mountain dew or something like that.

0:19:16.960 --> 0:19:23.040
<v Speaker 1>You know, they probably do have that, actually extreme. I

0:19:23.080 --> 0:19:26.120
<v Speaker 1>love that though the original slinky is still like exact same.

0:19:26.080 --> 0:19:27.640
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, the original metal ones.

0:19:27.720 --> 0:19:31.200
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, yeah, for sure I changed something that's perfect right, right,

0:19:31.280 --> 0:19:32.600
<v Speaker 1>And so the.

0:19:34.720 --> 0:19:37.680
<v Speaker 2>James's knew that this thing was perfect, had a great name,

0:19:38.040 --> 0:19:40.520
<v Speaker 2>worked really well. Yeah, the neighborhood kids loved it.

0:19:40.600 --> 0:19:41.760
<v Speaker 1>Sure, So of course.

0:19:41.560 --> 0:19:44.320
<v Speaker 2>This thing's going to become like a hit right out

0:19:44.320 --> 0:19:44.960
<v Speaker 2>of the gate, right.

0:19:45.040 --> 0:19:49.560
<v Speaker 1>Nope, No, you're being coy. My friend he took it

0:19:49.600 --> 0:19:54.359
<v Speaker 1>to toy stores and there was one storekeeper who said,

0:19:54.400 --> 0:19:57.040
<v Speaker 1>this is the atomic age. Kids want big, bright, fancy

0:19:57.040 --> 0:19:59.320
<v Speaker 1>things with lots of colors and lights. We couldn't give

0:19:59.320 --> 0:20:01.600
<v Speaker 1>the thing away if it played God bless America picked

0:20:01.640 --> 0:20:04.080
<v Speaker 1>up the Daily Double Is it walked down the steps.

0:20:04.920 --> 0:20:05.880
<v Speaker 1>That's very cynical.

0:20:06.119 --> 0:20:09.120
<v Speaker 2>It is very cynical. He used exclamation points and stuff.

0:20:10.640 --> 0:20:13.600
<v Speaker 1>But James, Rick James was like, I'm Rick James, and

0:20:14.040 --> 0:20:16.080
<v Speaker 1>you know, tell me what to do with my toys.

0:20:16.240 --> 0:20:19.159
<v Speaker 2>No, and he got in touch with Gimbals, who is

0:20:19.280 --> 0:20:21.720
<v Speaker 2>very famous as the Macy's competitor from there go on

0:20:21.760 --> 0:20:23.919
<v Speaker 2>thirty fourth Street. That's the only reason most of us

0:20:23.960 --> 0:20:28.119
<v Speaker 2>have ever heard of Gimbals. Yeah, and Gimbals in Philadelphia

0:20:28.160 --> 0:20:31.600
<v Speaker 2>apparently said do you know what I like you? I

0:20:31.720 --> 0:20:34.360
<v Speaker 2>like the way you smell. I'm going to put your

0:20:34.440 --> 0:20:37.320
<v Speaker 2>toys in our Christmas display and we'll just see where

0:20:37.359 --> 0:20:38.040
<v Speaker 2>it goes from there.

0:20:38.119 --> 0:20:41.080
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, he was local at that, living outside of Philly, right,

0:20:41.280 --> 0:20:41.960
<v Speaker 1>I wonder if that so.

0:20:42.000 --> 0:20:44.720
<v Speaker 2>They eventually moved outside of Philly, but I'm not sure

0:20:44.760 --> 0:20:47.320
<v Speaker 2>exactly where they were at this point. It would make sense,

0:20:47.760 --> 0:20:50.359
<v Speaker 2>although it's entirely possible he was hustling hard enough that

0:20:50.600 --> 0:20:53.600
<v Speaker 2>he was just hitting department stores all over the northeast.

0:20:53.800 --> 0:20:55.600
<v Speaker 1>Well in Delaware, it's not too far anyway, So.

0:20:55.640 --> 0:20:58.000
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, they may have still been in Delaware, but they

0:20:58.720 --> 0:21:01.600
<v Speaker 2>they did talk the Philadelphi Gimbals into putting this on

0:21:01.640 --> 0:21:05.679
<v Speaker 2>their Christmas display, So in Christmas nineteen forty five. November

0:21:05.720 --> 0:21:09.280
<v Speaker 2>nineteen forty five, the slinky debuts to public and it

0:21:09.320 --> 0:21:11.240
<v Speaker 2>immediately takes off like a rocket. Right.

0:21:11.440 --> 0:21:18.760
<v Speaker 1>Nope, again that was double koy. No. It for weeks

0:21:18.800 --> 0:21:21.440
<v Speaker 1>just sat there because of course, it's just this thing

0:21:21.480 --> 0:21:24.119
<v Speaker 1>that kids had never seen before, the spring and the

0:21:24.280 --> 0:21:27.119
<v Speaker 1>parchment paper sitting between like really awesome toys.

0:21:27.160 --> 0:21:29.960
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, it's just like all it's nothing but potential energy

0:21:30.000 --> 0:21:32.600
<v Speaker 2>at that point. Yeah, there's like a spring sitting between

0:21:33.280 --> 0:21:36.480
<v Speaker 2>those atomic age toys that that one shopkeeper was using

0:21:36.520 --> 0:21:37.680
<v Speaker 2>exclamation points about.

0:21:37.720 --> 0:21:40.000
<v Speaker 1>Right, yeah, I mean if there was ever a toy

0:21:40.080 --> 0:21:44.639
<v Speaker 1>that needed a demonstration to delight and amaze, it was

0:21:44.680 --> 0:21:45.200
<v Speaker 1>the slinky.

0:21:45.640 --> 0:21:51.480
<v Speaker 2>So very frustrated with this, Richard James apparently said to

0:21:51.520 --> 0:21:53.640
<v Speaker 2>his wife, like, I'm going down to Gimbals and I'm

0:21:53.680 --> 0:21:58.119
<v Speaker 2>going to deal with this head on. Yeah, and he

0:21:58.200 --> 0:22:00.760
<v Speaker 2>said meet me there in like ninety minutes or something

0:22:00.800 --> 0:22:01.080
<v Speaker 2>like that.

0:22:01.240 --> 0:22:01.520
<v Speaker 1>Yeah.

0:22:01.560 --> 0:22:03.520
<v Speaker 2>So he went down there, took a couple of Slinkies

0:22:03.560 --> 0:22:06.920
<v Speaker 2>out of their parchment paper and started lookie, dummies, Yeah,

0:22:06.920 --> 0:22:10.200
<v Speaker 2>you stupid kids, keep your hair away, but check this out.

0:22:10.840 --> 0:22:13.840
<v Speaker 2>And he started playing with them, and apparently by the

0:22:13.880 --> 0:22:16.879
<v Speaker 2>time Betty got down there, ninety minutes later, he had

0:22:16.920 --> 0:22:19.840
<v Speaker 2>sold all four hundred Slinkies and there was apparently a

0:22:19.880 --> 0:22:22.200
<v Speaker 2>line around the block asking for more.

0:22:22.560 --> 0:22:25.280
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, that sounds like such a trumped up story, but

0:22:26.080 --> 0:22:27.840
<v Speaker 1>you know, I love it though. It was like, within

0:22:27.960 --> 0:22:30.840
<v Speaker 1>ninety minutes, It's great. The world was slinky crazy.

0:22:30.960 --> 0:22:33.639
<v Speaker 2>Yeah. The Santa Fa Miracle on thirty fourth Street comes

0:22:33.680 --> 0:22:35.680
<v Speaker 2>through and does like a little towirl and goes out

0:22:35.680 --> 0:22:36.520
<v Speaker 2>of frame again.

0:22:37.080 --> 0:22:39.800
<v Speaker 1>But he did sell those four hundred units that day, supposedly,

0:22:39.840 --> 0:22:43.240
<v Speaker 1>and by Christmas they had sold twenty thousand, so it

0:22:43.280 --> 0:22:46.440
<v Speaker 1>really did take off super fast. Yeah, once kids understood

0:22:46.480 --> 0:22:47.200
<v Speaker 1>what the heck it was.

0:22:47.240 --> 0:22:50.080
<v Speaker 2>And that was that's a significant amount of money, Chuck,

0:22:50.560 --> 0:22:53.160
<v Speaker 2>I used west Egg this time. Oh yeah, a one

0:22:53.200 --> 0:22:55.439
<v Speaker 2>dollar They sold him for a dollar apiece. Yeah, so

0:22:55.520 --> 0:22:58.159
<v Speaker 2>he sold four hundred units and twenty thousand by the

0:22:58.240 --> 0:23:01.440
<v Speaker 2>end of Christmas. That it translates to like thirteen dollars

0:23:01.440 --> 0:23:02.240
<v Speaker 2>in today's money.

0:23:02.480 --> 0:23:02.960
<v Speaker 1>Oh wow.

0:23:03.040 --> 0:23:06.159
<v Speaker 2>So imagine being a parent today and being like, you

0:23:06.200 --> 0:23:08.159
<v Speaker 2>want me to pay thirteen dollars for a spring?

0:23:08.440 --> 0:23:08.680
<v Speaker 1>Yeah?

0:23:08.720 --> 0:23:11.879
<v Speaker 2>Are you crazy? But they still managed to capture the

0:23:11.880 --> 0:23:15.280
<v Speaker 2>public imagination just right. Yeah, and the thing just spread

0:23:15.320 --> 0:23:18.200
<v Speaker 2>like wildfire, not just in Christmas of nineteen forty five.

0:23:18.440 --> 0:23:21.040
<v Speaker 2>By Christmas of nineteen forty seven, there was a New

0:23:21.119 --> 0:23:24.280
<v Speaker 2>York Times article in like the fashion section talking about

0:23:24.320 --> 0:23:28.560
<v Speaker 2>how the must have adornment of the year was a

0:23:28.600 --> 0:23:30.479
<v Speaker 2>slinky dipped in gold with glitter.

0:23:30.920 --> 0:23:33.880
<v Speaker 1>It sounds like something Edward Brenees might have cooked up, right, Yeah,

0:23:34.000 --> 0:23:37.959
<v Speaker 1>I think so. I think Another cool thing is they

0:23:38.400 --> 0:23:42.480
<v Speaker 1>remained a dollar for a lot of their life, right.

0:23:42.640 --> 0:23:45.399
<v Speaker 1>And it said in this article here that in the

0:23:45.400 --> 0:23:48.240
<v Speaker 1>mid nineties are only a dollar eighty nine. Now they're

0:23:48.280 --> 0:23:49.240
<v Speaker 1>like four or five bucks.

0:23:49.280 --> 0:23:52.440
<v Speaker 2>It looks like I saw again on Amazon. Yeh, Amazon,

0:23:52.520 --> 0:23:56.280
<v Speaker 2>Amazon dot com. Amazon, it was like two twenty nine.

0:23:56.480 --> 0:23:57.680
<v Speaker 2>It was the lowest I saw.

0:23:57.760 --> 0:23:59.040
<v Speaker 1>Hey, that's a good deal for a slinky.

0:23:59.119 --> 0:24:01.280
<v Speaker 2>But even still, Yeah, if you want a great deal

0:24:01.320 --> 0:24:03.080
<v Speaker 2>on anything, go to Amazon dot com.

0:24:03.119 --> 0:24:07.440
<v Speaker 1>I saw others at other nameless online toy store retailers.

0:24:07.040 --> 0:24:08.600
<v Speaker 2>And always that we were supposed to do four or

0:24:08.680 --> 0:24:12.719
<v Speaker 2>five bucks. No Amazon, I could see that though, four

0:24:12.800 --> 0:24:14.840
<v Speaker 2>or five bucks it makes sense. Yeah, But the point

0:24:14.920 --> 0:24:17.360
<v Speaker 2>is is, for a very long time still pretty cheap. Yeah.

0:24:17.600 --> 0:24:20.680
<v Speaker 2>It stayed the same even as the cost of living increased,

0:24:20.720 --> 0:24:24.440
<v Speaker 2>so its relative price went down. Tremendously and they did

0:24:24.480 --> 0:24:25.200
<v Speaker 2>that on purpose.

0:24:25.440 --> 0:24:27.639
<v Speaker 1>Well, and that was yeah, exactly. That was one of

0:24:27.680 --> 0:24:31.280
<v Speaker 1>the things that as we'll see here shortly, Betty's one

0:24:31.320 --> 0:24:34.200
<v Speaker 1>of her favorite things. What is it that kids could

0:24:34.200 --> 0:24:37.040
<v Speaker 1>have a cheap toy and she wanted even poor kids

0:24:37.040 --> 0:24:40.920
<v Speaker 1>to be able to buy something, right, and here's my spring,

0:24:41.880 --> 0:24:43.520
<v Speaker 1>here's this link to just give me a dollar.

0:24:43.840 --> 0:24:46.719
<v Speaker 2>So the James is and by this time they were

0:24:47.040 --> 0:24:50.760
<v Speaker 2>they were in pretty much partnership from what I understand,

0:24:50.800 --> 0:24:53.320
<v Speaker 2>at the very least, Betty was playing some sort of

0:24:53.320 --> 0:24:57.159
<v Speaker 2>supporting role, at least as an advisor. Possibly sure, But

0:24:57.440 --> 0:24:59.960
<v Speaker 2>again they had like six kids and she was raised,

0:25:01.160 --> 0:25:04.000
<v Speaker 2>so it was really mostly Richard running the company. But

0:25:04.080 --> 0:25:07.040
<v Speaker 2>they took the Slinky to the toy Fair, the American

0:25:07.080 --> 0:25:09.800
<v Speaker 2>Toy Fair in New York, which is the same one

0:25:09.800 --> 0:25:12.359
<v Speaker 2>that Barbie debuted at in the fifties. I think, oh yeah,

0:25:12.440 --> 0:25:16.119
<v Speaker 2>Barbie registered trademark and they took Slinky there in nineteen

0:25:16.200 --> 0:25:19.639
<v Speaker 2>forty seven. And they did it all themselves. They'd pitched

0:25:19.680 --> 0:25:22.920
<v Speaker 2>the thing, and they had people from toy stores and

0:25:22.960 --> 0:25:26.359
<v Speaker 2>department stores from around the country just signing up. And

0:25:26.440 --> 0:25:30.600
<v Speaker 2>Slinky was he huge. Apparently they made the equivalent of

0:25:30.640 --> 0:25:32.800
<v Speaker 2>a billion dollars in the first two years.

0:25:33.000 --> 0:25:35.119
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, he sold more than one hundred million in the

0:25:35.160 --> 0:25:39.080
<v Speaker 1>first three years of production. That's crazy. One hundred million,

0:25:39.160 --> 0:25:42.440
<v Speaker 1>one hundred million, And this is the population of you know,

0:25:42.880 --> 0:25:45.960
<v Speaker 1>the mid forties, right, Yeah, it's not like you know nowadays,

0:25:45.960 --> 0:25:48.119
<v Speaker 1>that would be a little more believable, I think.

0:25:48.000 --> 0:25:50.399
<v Speaker 2>So well, no, think about it. I wish I would

0:25:50.400 --> 0:25:53.720
<v Speaker 2>have thought of that. Like, there probably weren't too terribly more,

0:25:54.000 --> 0:25:56.040
<v Speaker 2>much more than one hundred million people in the US

0:25:56.080 --> 0:25:58.880
<v Speaker 2>at the time, So that's like a slinky for every

0:25:58.920 --> 0:25:59.560
<v Speaker 2>person in the.

0:25:59.600 --> 0:26:04.000
<v Speaker 1>US, slinky in every pot. Right, So things were going

0:26:04.040 --> 0:26:07.440
<v Speaker 1>so well. He realized that my my machine shop here

0:26:07.440 --> 0:26:12.679
<v Speaker 1>in uh uh, Delaware, Delaware, suburban Pennsylvania, which whichever it was,

0:26:13.119 --> 0:26:16.160
<v Speaker 1>is not up to snuff, and I need to set

0:26:16.240 --> 0:26:19.040
<v Speaker 1>up my own shop. So he did that in Albany,

0:26:19.080 --> 0:26:22.320
<v Speaker 1>New York, and was like, I'm a I'm an inventor.

0:26:22.520 --> 0:26:25.440
<v Speaker 1>I'm just gonna make my own machine that can make

0:26:25.680 --> 0:26:31.080
<v Speaker 1>our own slinkies at a rate of five seconds a pop.

0:26:31.359 --> 0:26:33.480
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, the old machine shop was making them in a

0:26:33.520 --> 0:26:35.359
<v Speaker 2>couple of minutes per slinky.

0:26:35.000 --> 0:26:36.520
<v Speaker 1>Which was fast for back then, I think.

0:26:36.600 --> 0:26:38.919
<v Speaker 2>But yeah, so Richard James said, I'm gonna make my

0:26:38.960 --> 0:26:43.240
<v Speaker 2>own machine. That's that's really cool. Absolutely, I think it's

0:26:43.280 --> 0:26:45.680
<v Speaker 2>pretty neat. And not only did he make his own machine,

0:26:45.680 --> 0:26:47.720
<v Speaker 2>he made a machine that can do one in five seconds,

0:26:47.720 --> 0:26:50.359
<v Speaker 2>like you said. So, yeah, it took it, took the

0:26:50.680 --> 0:26:54.600
<v Speaker 2>round wire, huh, smushed it yep, and then coiled it. Yeah,

0:26:54.640 --> 0:26:57.520
<v Speaker 2>in nine seconds, crimp the ends. I guess that's crazy. Yeah,

0:26:57.560 --> 0:26:59.520
<v Speaker 2>and then bam, you got a slinky. You got a

0:26:59.560 --> 0:27:01.200
<v Speaker 2>dollar in your pocket right there.

0:27:01.520 --> 0:27:03.960
<v Speaker 1>This is when this is when it came in the

0:27:04.040 --> 0:27:07.240
<v Speaker 1>black box and they ditched the parchment and it was

0:27:07.320 --> 0:27:11.760
<v Speaker 1>labeled Slinky Colon, the famous walking spring toy, and it

0:27:11.800 --> 0:27:13.440
<v Speaker 1>was gangbusters.

0:27:13.000 --> 0:27:16.119
<v Speaker 2>Man, it was again. They sold one hundred million in

0:27:16.160 --> 0:27:20.320
<v Speaker 2>the first two years. To put that in perspective, I

0:27:20.400 --> 0:27:23.480
<v Speaker 2>did find out how many people there were in America

0:27:23.520 --> 0:27:26.119
<v Speaker 2>in nineteen forty seven. There was one hundred and forty

0:27:26.160 --> 0:27:28.400
<v Speaker 2>four million people in the US.

0:27:28.200 --> 0:27:29.880
<v Speaker 1>And he sold one hundred million slinky huh.

0:27:29.880 --> 0:27:32.360
<v Speaker 2>So for every one point four people there was, one

0:27:32.359 --> 0:27:33.280
<v Speaker 2>of them had a slinky.

0:27:33.359 --> 0:27:37.479
<v Speaker 1>So that means adults were buying slinkys too. Yeah, you know. Yeah,

0:27:37.520 --> 0:27:40.359
<v Speaker 1>So in the nineteen fifties they started to do what

0:27:40.400 --> 0:27:43.480
<v Speaker 1>all great inventors do, They started to expand the line

0:27:43.520 --> 0:27:47.479
<v Speaker 1>a bit. Yeah, they came up with courtesy of a

0:27:47.520 --> 0:27:50.320
<v Speaker 1>woman named Helen Malsaid came up with a slinky dog

0:27:50.600 --> 0:27:55.280
<v Speaker 1>and the slinky train because she was a fan that

0:27:55.440 --> 0:27:58.040
<v Speaker 1>they would like solicit ideas, and she wrote them in

0:27:58.080 --> 0:27:59.840
<v Speaker 1>and said, Hey, I think it would be pretty neat

0:27:59.840 --> 0:28:02.119
<v Speaker 1>if you made like a dog that walked, but the

0:28:02.119 --> 0:28:03.720
<v Speaker 1>middle of them was a slinky.

0:28:03.520 --> 0:28:06.560
<v Speaker 2>Right, and so like the rear end up to the front.

0:28:06.640 --> 0:28:09.720
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, like in toy Story exactly, which they got some

0:28:10.000 --> 0:28:11.119
<v Speaker 1>nice kickback money on that.

0:28:11.480 --> 0:28:13.920
<v Speaker 2>There was also the uh yeah, oh yes, So then

0:28:13.960 --> 0:28:15.680
<v Speaker 2>they didn't steal people's ideas either.

0:28:16.359 --> 0:28:19.000
<v Speaker 1>No, that was waiting for that to read that. When

0:28:19.040 --> 0:28:21.160
<v Speaker 1>I was reading this, I was all nervous that, like.

0:28:21.160 --> 0:28:23.640
<v Speaker 2>Paul said, died bitter and penniless in New York.

0:28:23.760 --> 0:28:26.920
<v Speaker 1>No, she actually was a ended up creating twenty six

0:28:26.960 --> 0:28:30.560
<v Speaker 1>toys and games in her career. Wow, the slinky dog

0:28:30.600 --> 0:28:34.120
<v Speaker 1>and slinky train were her biggest successes. But they basically

0:28:34.160 --> 0:28:38.000
<v Speaker 1>paid her sixty five grand a year for seventeen years

0:28:38.600 --> 0:28:41.960
<v Speaker 1>on that royalty. That's awesome, which is a ton of money. Yeah,

0:28:42.160 --> 0:28:43.840
<v Speaker 1>so hats off to you.

0:28:43.960 --> 0:28:46.520
<v Speaker 2>Helen mal said, there, did you get the idea of

0:28:46.520 --> 0:28:48.920
<v Speaker 2>whether she was already a toy inventor or that this

0:28:49.160 --> 0:28:51.680
<v Speaker 2>kind of gave her the boost she needed to become

0:28:51.680 --> 0:28:53.000
<v Speaker 2>a toy inventor for a career.

0:28:53.040 --> 0:28:55.600
<v Speaker 1>I think she was. I read her New York Times,

0:28:55.600 --> 0:28:58.920
<v Speaker 1>oh bit, and I talked about some other games that

0:28:59.000 --> 0:28:59.960
<v Speaker 1>she had tried to create.

0:29:00.240 --> 0:29:00.600
<v Speaker 2>Gotcha.

0:29:00.640 --> 0:29:02.720
<v Speaker 1>I don't think she had like burst onto the scene

0:29:02.720 --> 0:29:03.280
<v Speaker 1>though or anything.

0:29:03.400 --> 0:29:06.360
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, but that's a pretty comfortable living back then.

0:29:06.440 --> 0:29:09.160
<v Speaker 1>Oh heck. Yeah. So they also had this SUSI the

0:29:09.200 --> 0:29:13.120
<v Speaker 1>slinky worm and slinky crazy eyes.

0:29:13.280 --> 0:29:14.040
<v Speaker 2>Yeah you know those.

0:29:14.080 --> 0:29:14.680
<v Speaker 1>I remember those.

0:29:14.760 --> 0:29:17.840
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, those glasses that have like the slinkies attached to

0:29:17.880 --> 0:29:22.200
<v Speaker 2>the big bloodshot eyeballs. Yeah, those are slinky brand hysterical.

0:29:22.520 --> 0:29:25.480
<v Speaker 2>And it turns out that it wasn't just toys. This

0:29:25.640 --> 0:29:29.239
<v Speaker 2>slinky patent that Richard James originally got back in the

0:29:29.240 --> 0:29:32.040
<v Speaker 2>forties was also licensed out for other stuff, like it

0:29:32.080 --> 0:29:35.040
<v Speaker 2>was used in antennas. It ended up being used on

0:29:35.440 --> 0:29:38.360
<v Speaker 2>battleships or other kinds of ships. Is a stabilizing thing

0:29:38.440 --> 0:29:42.680
<v Speaker 2>like he was originally after. Yeah, gutter protectors.

0:29:42.120 --> 0:29:45.280
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I saw that too, Light fixtures, total sense.

0:29:45.360 --> 0:29:48.760
<v Speaker 2>So They also made a ton of cash sub licensing

0:29:48.800 --> 0:29:51.960
<v Speaker 2>this whole that, like the slinky patent out for other

0:29:52.080 --> 0:29:54.520
<v Speaker 2>uses besides just the toys and the slinky hippo and

0:29:54.560 --> 0:29:55.240
<v Speaker 2>all that stuff.

0:29:55.360 --> 0:30:00.120
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, and they gave soldiers in Vietnam slinkies. Didn't license that,

0:30:00.240 --> 0:30:02.960
<v Speaker 1>like just straight up gave them slinkies to use in

0:30:03.000 --> 0:30:08.280
<v Speaker 1>the field as antennas. So they would throw the slinky

0:30:08.400 --> 0:30:11.200
<v Speaker 1>like over a tree branch and then pull it down

0:30:11.200 --> 0:30:13.680
<v Speaker 1>and connect it to their radio to boost their intenna signal.

0:30:13.880 --> 0:30:16.200
<v Speaker 2>That is pretty smart, pretty neat. You know it's being

0:30:16.320 --> 0:30:20.040
<v Speaker 2>used today in space. Oh really, they're using the same

0:30:20.920 --> 0:30:24.280
<v Speaker 2>I think the same patent originally to deploy solar sales

0:30:24.520 --> 0:30:26.960
<v Speaker 2>in space. Oh wow, yeah, pretty cool.

0:30:27.200 --> 0:30:29.680
<v Speaker 1>I wonder if they're licensing the actual.

0:30:29.800 --> 0:30:32.440
<v Speaker 2>They I mean, NASA was using the slinky name all

0:30:32.480 --> 0:30:36.360
<v Speaker 2>over the article I was reading. And there's another one too.

0:30:37.040 --> 0:30:40.360
<v Speaker 2>There's a paper slinky that has it's coated with a

0:30:40.440 --> 0:30:44.880
<v Speaker 2>metal on one side, and so the when you make

0:30:44.920 --> 0:30:47.880
<v Speaker 2>it go springing to non springy I think is the

0:30:47.880 --> 0:30:52.440
<v Speaker 2>physics terms that I'm searching for sure, it creates static electricity,

0:30:52.440 --> 0:30:55.160
<v Speaker 2>and it creates enough that that can be captured and

0:30:55.240 --> 0:30:58.400
<v Speaker 2>used to generate power. No way, yeah, way, And it's

0:30:58.400 --> 0:31:00.000
<v Speaker 2>people at Georgia Tech who are doing it.

0:31:00.960 --> 0:31:05.560
<v Speaker 1>Well, that makes sense, all right, So where are we

0:31:05.560 --> 0:31:08.280
<v Speaker 1>He has sold one hundred million of these. He's expanding

0:31:08.280 --> 0:31:11.920
<v Speaker 1>the line. And right after this break, we are going

0:31:11.960 --> 0:31:15.160
<v Speaker 1>to talk about a very interesting turn in this story

0:31:16.520 --> 0:31:30.240
<v Speaker 1>that has to do with well, you'll see.

0:31:36.120 --> 0:31:39.360
<v Speaker 2>So we're back, Chuck. Slinky's doing well. It's the fifties.

0:31:39.400 --> 0:31:43.920
<v Speaker 2>There's a ton of different slinky stuff, slinky eyeballs. Everybody's

0:31:43.960 --> 0:31:47.440
<v Speaker 2>freaking out their teachers. Yeah, and things are going great

0:31:47.480 --> 0:31:48.440
<v Speaker 2>for the Jameses, right.

0:31:48.600 --> 0:31:51.520
<v Speaker 1>I think teacher's desk drawers are loaded with slinky products,

0:31:51.520 --> 0:31:57.240
<v Speaker 1>the shattering teeth and rotten apples. Wonder where that came.

0:31:57.120 --> 0:31:59.840
<v Speaker 2>From giving the teacher an apple. Yeah, I don't know,

0:31:59.840 --> 0:32:01.760
<v Speaker 2>but I'll bet somebody out there will let us know.

0:32:02.080 --> 0:32:05.800
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, all right, So it's the mid nineteen fifties. They

0:32:05.840 --> 0:32:09.120
<v Speaker 1>are loaded at this point, loaded making tons of money.

0:32:09.160 --> 0:32:12.200
<v Speaker 1>At this point, they had moved to a wealthy suburb

0:32:12.280 --> 0:32:18.920
<v Speaker 1>of Philadelphia with a thirty one bedroom estate on twelve acres. Rich,

0:32:19.080 --> 0:32:21.320
<v Speaker 1>super rich people. Yes, good for them.

0:32:21.400 --> 0:32:25.320
<v Speaker 2>They're in Bryn Mahr, which is like the wealthiest of

0:32:25.360 --> 0:32:28.360
<v Speaker 2>the suburbs. I bet it still is Bryn Mahr.

0:32:29.080 --> 0:32:31.160
<v Speaker 1>It doesn't sound like a place has gone down the tubes.

0:32:31.520 --> 0:32:36.960
<v Speaker 2>No, you know, no, so Welsh Brynn looks pretty Welsh.

0:32:37.000 --> 0:32:39.440
<v Speaker 2>V r y n m awr.

0:32:39.600 --> 0:32:41.000
<v Speaker 1>It's definitely something uk.

0:32:42.200 --> 0:32:43.560
<v Speaker 2>I'm gonna say Welsh, all right.

0:32:44.520 --> 0:32:48.360
<v Speaker 1>So Betty, things were going well with the business, but

0:32:48.600 --> 0:32:52.080
<v Speaker 1>within the family things weren't so great because Betty found

0:32:52.120 --> 0:32:56.800
<v Speaker 1>out that Rick James was stepping out. He was a

0:32:56.840 --> 0:33:00.800
<v Speaker 1>super freak and he was fulling around on her quite

0:33:00.800 --> 0:33:02.880
<v Speaker 1>a bit from the sounds of it, right, And she was.

0:33:02.880 --> 0:33:06.280
<v Speaker 2>Like, Okay, let's see, am I gonna ditch this zero

0:33:06.360 --> 0:33:09.080
<v Speaker 2>and go find a hero or what am I going

0:33:09.160 --> 0:33:11.320
<v Speaker 2>to do? And she said, well, I have six kids

0:33:11.400 --> 0:33:13.320
<v Speaker 2>and I'm gonna stick with this dude for the benefit

0:33:13.360 --> 0:33:17.440
<v Speaker 2>of the kids. And she did. But apparently things were

0:33:17.520 --> 0:33:20.800
<v Speaker 2>never the same after that, I'm sure. And as a result,

0:33:21.040 --> 0:33:24.360
<v Speaker 2>Richard James started going to church a lot more and

0:33:24.400 --> 0:33:27.200
<v Speaker 2>it really got to him. It really spoke to him

0:33:27.240 --> 0:33:30.000
<v Speaker 2>a lot going to church and became something of a

0:33:30.240 --> 0:33:32.440
<v Speaker 2>I guess I took it, although he didn't say he

0:33:32.520 --> 0:33:33.920
<v Speaker 2>became something of a born again.

0:33:34.360 --> 0:33:35.760
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, that's exactly what he game.

0:33:35.880 --> 0:33:38.480
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, but he started out obviously as a Catholic because

0:33:38.480 --> 0:33:41.640
<v Speaker 2>he used to go to confession all the time, which

0:33:41.680 --> 0:33:44.160
<v Speaker 2>seems like, okay, well that guy felt really bad about

0:33:44.200 --> 0:33:46.400
<v Speaker 2>things and he wanted to get stuff off of his chest.

0:33:46.840 --> 0:33:51.200
<v Speaker 2>Not so, says Betty, his ex wife. Betty said that

0:33:51.400 --> 0:33:54.680
<v Speaker 2>he liked the attention that he would get from confessing

0:33:55.560 --> 0:33:56.240
<v Speaker 2>in confession.

0:33:56.680 --> 0:33:59.200
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, he pretty he was sort of a hot shot,

0:33:59.200 --> 0:34:02.680
<v Speaker 1>and I think he liked to just be revered maybe

0:34:02.720 --> 0:34:03.240
<v Speaker 1>I don't know.

0:34:03.480 --> 0:34:06.520
<v Speaker 2>Or just for people to listen to him or who knows.

0:34:06.840 --> 0:34:09.040
<v Speaker 2>That's just a that's a weird thing. That's a weird

0:34:09.040 --> 0:34:12.360
<v Speaker 2>little thing to do, is go to confession to get attention.

0:34:12.680 --> 0:34:13.960
<v Speaker 1>I thought it was very strange.

0:34:14.160 --> 0:34:18.000
<v Speaker 2>So as he's going to confession, as he's going to

0:34:18.080 --> 0:34:22.080
<v Speaker 2>church more and more and more, he's also his family.

0:34:22.480 --> 0:34:24.879
<v Speaker 2>He's even though yeah he's still at home and he's

0:34:24.920 --> 0:34:27.759
<v Speaker 2>living with his family, he's becoming isolated, not just from

0:34:27.760 --> 0:34:31.200
<v Speaker 2>society at large, he's becoming pretty isolated from his family

0:34:31.200 --> 0:34:33.360
<v Speaker 2>as well. I got the impression that they didn't go

0:34:33.400 --> 0:34:35.879
<v Speaker 2>down the church path quite the same degree he did,

0:34:36.440 --> 0:34:38.799
<v Speaker 2>and so that was causing him to feel more and

0:34:38.840 --> 0:34:43.200
<v Speaker 2>more isolated. Causing him to withdraw more and more, and

0:34:43.239 --> 0:34:47.560
<v Speaker 2>there was at some point a moment where he revealed

0:34:47.600 --> 0:34:51.600
<v Speaker 2>that they didn't have much money anymore.

0:34:51.640 --> 0:34:54.160
<v Speaker 1>Not only that they were in debt to like seven

0:34:54.239 --> 0:34:57.239
<v Speaker 1>figure debt, yeah, about a million dollars in debt. Yeah,

0:34:57.320 --> 0:35:04.240
<v Speaker 1>because he started funneling all their millions to dogmatic evangelical

0:35:04.400 --> 0:35:07.719
<v Speaker 1>religious groups, donating all their money.

0:35:07.480 --> 0:35:10.680
<v Speaker 2>Not only donating some Yeah, exactly. He was like not

0:35:10.719 --> 0:35:15.520
<v Speaker 2>paying creditors for the LLC that owns slinky. He was

0:35:15.600 --> 0:35:20.279
<v Speaker 2>diverting that revenue from the business to religious groups that

0:35:20.360 --> 0:35:21.160
<v Speaker 2>he was a member of.

0:35:21.360 --> 0:35:23.880
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. And this article said straight up like if you

0:35:23.960 --> 0:35:29.560
<v Speaker 1>bought a slinky before nineteen sixty, your money went exactly there, right.

0:35:30.480 --> 0:35:31.759
<v Speaker 2>So it was kind of a big deal. This is

0:35:31.800 --> 0:35:35.520
<v Speaker 2>a big revelation that was you know, started in the

0:35:35.560 --> 0:35:38.560
<v Speaker 2>mid fifties and really things just got weird in the

0:35:38.640 --> 0:35:43.040
<v Speaker 2>James family from the mid fifties till nineteen sixty, and

0:35:43.080 --> 0:35:45.640
<v Speaker 2>then all of a sudden in nineteen sixty, Richard James said,

0:35:46.440 --> 0:35:50.560
<v Speaker 2>have you guys ever heard of Bolivia? No, Well, it's

0:35:50.560 --> 0:35:52.720
<v Speaker 2>too bad because I just bought a one way ticket

0:35:52.719 --> 0:35:56.480
<v Speaker 2>there and I'm going now. Don't ask me why I'm

0:35:56.520 --> 0:35:59.120
<v Speaker 2>just going to join a religious group in the wilds

0:35:59.160 --> 0:35:59.799
<v Speaker 2>of Bolivia.

0:36:00.360 --> 0:36:03.440
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, and I've seen it characterized as a cult. That

0:36:03.680 --> 0:36:07.640
<v Speaker 1>is not quite the deal. They were called the Wycliffe

0:36:07.640 --> 0:36:11.280
<v Speaker 1>Bible Translators and they're still around, but it was basically

0:36:11.480 --> 0:36:14.680
<v Speaker 1>their mission is to translate the Bible into as many

0:36:14.760 --> 0:36:17.680
<v Speaker 1>languages and get it into as many hands around the

0:36:17.680 --> 0:36:22.160
<v Speaker 1>world as possible. And he felt that call and straight

0:36:22.239 --> 0:36:26.439
<v Speaker 1>up left. His family said smell you later, and never

0:36:26.480 --> 0:36:28.440
<v Speaker 1>got back in touch with him again. No, so as

0:36:28.480 --> 0:36:29.200
<v Speaker 1>far as I could deal.

0:36:29.320 --> 0:36:31.480
<v Speaker 2>That was February of nineteen sixty. And I think it

0:36:31.560 --> 0:36:34.759
<v Speaker 2>was Betty who called it a cult, an evangelical Christian cult.

0:36:34.920 --> 0:36:37.960
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, which you know, she was upset, sure, you know,

0:36:38.040 --> 0:36:39.800
<v Speaker 1>and she read up about him and said this seems

0:36:39.840 --> 0:36:42.279
<v Speaker 1>really weird to me, right, But yeah, it wasn't quite

0:36:42.320 --> 0:36:44.280
<v Speaker 1>a cult, but I get it. She was scorned.

0:36:44.400 --> 0:36:49.000
<v Speaker 2>So that was February nineteen sixty that Richard leaves for Bolivia.

0:36:49.800 --> 0:36:53.840
<v Speaker 2>And before he left, he sat Betty down and said,

0:36:54.440 --> 0:36:58.080
<v Speaker 2>as you know, we're a million dollars in debt. I'm leaving.

0:37:00.520 --> 0:37:03.040
<v Speaker 2>You have a choice here. We can either liquidate the

0:37:03.040 --> 0:37:06.879
<v Speaker 2>company or you can take over your choice. I really

0:37:06.880 --> 0:37:09.520
<v Speaker 2>don't care. I'm going to Bolivia and I'm probably never

0:37:09.600 --> 0:37:10.120
<v Speaker 2>coming back.

0:37:10.239 --> 0:37:12.759
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. I was kind of surprised that she got that

0:37:12.960 --> 0:37:16.480
<v Speaker 1>opportunity to decide at least what to do with her future. Yeah, Like,

0:37:16.560 --> 0:37:19.280
<v Speaker 1>I was glad to know that it was within her power.

0:37:19.520 --> 0:37:23.000
<v Speaker 2>R Right. It took me a couple of times of

0:37:23.040 --> 0:37:25.080
<v Speaker 2>reading this before I finally called on to that. At

0:37:25.080 --> 0:37:27.960
<v Speaker 2>first I thought he just laughed and she slid into

0:37:27.960 --> 0:37:29.840
<v Speaker 2>that position. But yeah, he gave her the choice, like,

0:37:30.080 --> 0:37:33.040
<v Speaker 2>you can liquidate, you're raising six kids. You'll probably make

0:37:33.040 --> 0:37:36.160
<v Speaker 2>some money off of it after the creditors are paid off.

0:37:36.239 --> 0:37:38.880
<v Speaker 2>So do you want to do that? She said, you

0:37:38.960 --> 0:37:41.800
<v Speaker 2>know what, No, I'm going to try taking over the company.

0:37:41.920 --> 0:37:43.440
<v Speaker 1>I'm going all in on Slinky.

0:37:43.600 --> 0:37:46.160
<v Speaker 2>So she took over this company, Chuck, that was in

0:37:46.239 --> 0:37:47.719
<v Speaker 2>really dire straits.

0:37:47.800 --> 0:37:50.399
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. I don't think we even mentioned that Slinky's had

0:37:50.440 --> 0:37:53.120
<v Speaker 1>started to wane in popularity, right, So not only were

0:37:53.120 --> 0:37:55.440
<v Speaker 1>they in debt, but toward the end of the nineteen fifties,

0:37:55.440 --> 0:37:58.080
<v Speaker 1>everyone had like the slinky craze had sort of passed.

0:37:58.120 --> 0:38:00.000
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, so we said that it sold one hundred million

0:38:00.320 --> 0:38:05.600
<v Speaker 2>units in its first two years. Since nineteen forty seven. No,

0:38:05.920 --> 0:38:09.479
<v Speaker 2>nineteen forty five, they've sold three hundred million total. Oh wow,

0:38:09.520 --> 0:38:11.680
<v Speaker 2>so a full one third of all the slinky sold

0:38:11.680 --> 0:38:13.920
<v Speaker 2>were sold in the first two years. So yeah, it's

0:38:13.960 --> 0:38:15.839
<v Speaker 2>star crested and then started to fall.

0:38:16.040 --> 0:38:16.200
<v Speaker 1>Yeah.

0:38:16.239 --> 0:38:18.440
<v Speaker 2>And so this lady took over a company that was

0:38:18.800 --> 0:38:23.439
<v Speaker 2>saddled with debt. It's star product was not so much

0:38:23.440 --> 0:38:24.640
<v Speaker 2>of a star any longer.

0:38:25.480 --> 0:38:27.120
<v Speaker 1>And she had six kids.

0:38:27.160 --> 0:38:29.640
<v Speaker 2>She had six kids. Yeah, and she decided, rather than

0:38:29.640 --> 0:38:32.239
<v Speaker 2>to liquidate the company, to say, no, I'm going to

0:38:32.280 --> 0:38:33.440
<v Speaker 2>see what I can do with this. I'm going to

0:38:33.520 --> 0:38:35.320
<v Speaker 2>try to bring it back. And she did.

0:38:35.800 --> 0:38:38.120
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. I mean, reading this, she's truly one of like

0:38:38.280 --> 0:38:39.879
<v Speaker 1>the great women in American history.

0:38:39.920 --> 0:38:42.520
<v Speaker 2>I think she's She's definitely the hero of this story too.

0:38:42.400 --> 0:38:46.520
<v Speaker 1>And revered by toy enthusiasts. But I don't think a

0:38:46.560 --> 0:38:47.920
<v Speaker 1>lot of people even know her name, you know.

0:38:48.200 --> 0:38:50.480
<v Speaker 2>Nope, it's Betty James everybody.

0:38:51.280 --> 0:38:54.480
<v Speaker 1>So her first plan was, I have all these creditors

0:38:54.520 --> 0:38:57.719
<v Speaker 1>at least let me try and get this deferred for now,

0:38:58.239 --> 0:39:00.400
<v Speaker 1>and was somehow able to talk them into the some

0:39:00.440 --> 0:39:04.560
<v Speaker 1>of these payments. Yeah, thank god. And then in nineteen

0:39:04.600 --> 0:39:09.680
<v Speaker 1>sixty two, she hired three dudes from Columbia, South Carolina.

0:39:10.960 --> 0:39:15.120
<v Speaker 1>Johnny McCullough and Homer Fesperman wrote the music, and Charles

0:39:15.120 --> 0:39:21.560
<v Speaker 1>Weegley wrote the lyrics to what would later become the

0:39:21.600 --> 0:39:26.799
<v Speaker 1>longest running Dare I say most successful commercial jingle of

0:39:26.840 --> 0:39:27.319
<v Speaker 1>all time?

0:39:28.840 --> 0:39:32.520
<v Speaker 2>Yes? I would say it's possibly the most well known

0:39:32.560 --> 0:39:33.080
<v Speaker 2>at least.

0:39:33.280 --> 0:39:35.720
<v Speaker 1>So let's let's play a little bit of that right now.

0:39:35.960 --> 0:39:40.560
<v Speaker 1>Everyone's heard it, and here it is who walks to

0:39:40.680 --> 0:39:43.800
<v Speaker 1>day without to get and makes the happiest sounds that

0:39:43.960 --> 0:39:44.880
<v Speaker 1>bumping down.

0:39:44.760 --> 0:39:47.280
<v Speaker 2>Just like a club. Everyone else is ninety.

0:39:47.560 --> 0:39:50.040
<v Speaker 1>That's been the get to give, I get the favorite

0:39:50.120 --> 0:39:50.719
<v Speaker 1>all over town.

0:39:51.000 --> 0:39:55.320
<v Speaker 2>So I mean that surely sounds familiar. Apparently there was

0:39:55.480 --> 0:39:58.680
<v Speaker 2>a nineteen ninety survey that was conducted that found that

0:39:58.840 --> 0:40:02.440
<v Speaker 2>eighty nine point eight percent of Americans either know what

0:40:02.560 --> 0:40:05.920
<v Speaker 2>a slinky is or are familiar with that jingle. So

0:40:06.239 --> 0:40:09.680
<v Speaker 2>that's yeah, definitely, it's got to be the most successful

0:40:09.760 --> 0:40:12.200
<v Speaker 2>jingle of all time. Like, what else is there? I

0:40:12.320 --> 0:40:14.239
<v Speaker 2>can't think of anything else to put up against it.

0:40:14.560 --> 0:40:16.560
<v Speaker 1>Have a coca and a smile whatever.

0:40:16.840 --> 0:40:18.080
<v Speaker 2>I don't even know how that goes.

0:40:18.719 --> 0:40:20.480
<v Speaker 1>No, I think that was just a slogan that wasn't

0:40:20.520 --> 0:40:24.000
<v Speaker 1>a song. Oh, yeah, No, you're totally right. And you

0:40:24.080 --> 0:40:26.520
<v Speaker 1>and I, of course all day have been singing it's log,

0:40:26.800 --> 0:40:27.440
<v Speaker 1>It's log.

0:40:27.719 --> 0:40:29.960
<v Speaker 2>And I was like, sure, that was obviously based on

0:40:30.120 --> 0:40:32.120
<v Speaker 2>the Slinky jingle. And I went back and listened to

0:40:32.120 --> 0:40:33.960
<v Speaker 2>I was like, no, it is the slinky jingle. They

0:40:34.280 --> 0:40:37.600
<v Speaker 2>replace the lyrics. I didn't get the joke.

0:40:37.840 --> 0:40:41.400
<v Speaker 1>Well, Ren and stimpy fans obviously know what I just did.

0:40:41.480 --> 0:40:43.160
<v Speaker 1>But if you were like I don't get it, what

0:40:43.200 --> 0:40:44.279
<v Speaker 1>does log have to do anything?

0:40:44.640 --> 0:40:46.959
<v Speaker 2>Just look up log. I guess log jingle maybe.

0:40:47.120 --> 0:40:50.160
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. So this was a huge it and it's funny.

0:40:50.160 --> 0:40:52.759
<v Speaker 1>I was looking on the internet to see if I

0:40:52.800 --> 0:40:56.000
<v Speaker 1>could find anything on these guys that wrote this thing,

0:40:56.920 --> 0:41:00.759
<v Speaker 1>and Homer Fesperman has a face book page. It's got

0:41:00.880 --> 0:41:01.200
<v Speaker 1>to be him.

0:41:01.600 --> 0:41:01.799
<v Speaker 2>Wow.

0:41:01.920 --> 0:41:03.400
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I just clicked on it and the first thing

0:41:03.440 --> 0:41:05.800
<v Speaker 1>I saw was South Carolina game Cocks. Yeah, And I

0:41:05.920 --> 0:41:08.319
<v Speaker 1>was like, well Columbia, South Carolina. Yeah, And it looks

0:41:08.360 --> 0:41:16.439
<v Speaker 1>like he's making like a video scrapbooks for people. Well,

0:41:16.719 --> 0:41:18.800
<v Speaker 1>that's Facebook page was wide open, and I wanted to

0:41:18.840 --> 0:41:20.359
<v Speaker 1>get touch and say are you are.

0:41:20.280 --> 0:41:21.399
<v Speaker 2>You the Homer Fest?

0:41:21.840 --> 0:41:23.799
<v Speaker 1>Maybe we could just get a like a little quick

0:41:23.880 --> 0:41:26.719
<v Speaker 1>interview or something, but I didn't know. So look him up,

0:41:26.920 --> 0:41:27.760
<v Speaker 1>Homer Fest Perman.

0:41:28.280 --> 0:41:29.800
<v Speaker 2>He's on the he's on the internet.

0:41:29.920 --> 0:41:32.200
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, everybody friend him. He'll be like, what is going on?

0:41:33.640 --> 0:41:37.520
<v Speaker 2>Have been spam by the friendliest people on Facebook?

0:41:37.960 --> 0:41:40.080
<v Speaker 1>Who are fans? Yeah, most of them.

0:41:42.440 --> 0:41:45.840
<v Speaker 2>So Betty's got this jingle out there. This was a

0:41:45.960 --> 0:41:46.680
<v Speaker 2>master stroke.

0:41:46.800 --> 0:41:47.200
<v Speaker 1>Oh yeah.

0:41:47.360 --> 0:41:51.520
<v Speaker 2>She also did some the advertising. She really put a

0:41:51.600 --> 0:41:54.239
<v Speaker 2>lot of money into advertising. But apparently I get the

0:41:54.239 --> 0:41:56.800
<v Speaker 2>impression that she had like some she cut some good deals.

0:41:57.640 --> 0:42:00.000
<v Speaker 2>It wasn't she's she went hemorrhaging money on every time.

0:42:00.280 --> 0:42:05.560
<v Speaker 2>It was all very smart and Slinky's star started to

0:42:05.680 --> 0:42:06.560
<v Speaker 2>rise once again.

0:42:06.800 --> 0:42:10.840
<v Speaker 1>Well, she moved the facility closer to Philadelphia too. I

0:42:10.920 --> 0:42:12.759
<v Speaker 1>think it saved some money and allowed her to be

0:42:12.840 --> 0:42:15.880
<v Speaker 1>with her kids more, although she did, you know, she

0:42:15.960 --> 0:42:18.480
<v Speaker 1>had a caretaker. So the kids, I think they said,

0:42:18.520 --> 0:42:22.840
<v Speaker 1>like Sunday through Thursday, they had a lot of attention

0:42:22.920 --> 0:42:25.239
<v Speaker 1>from nanny's and things right, But I get the idea

0:42:25.320 --> 0:42:26.520
<v Speaker 1>she was a good mom. She was trying to do

0:42:26.640 --> 0:42:27.839
<v Speaker 1>right by her family, you know right.

0:42:27.840 --> 0:42:31.520
<v Speaker 2>And not only her family this This article on Perisonomics

0:42:31.520 --> 0:42:34.440
<v Speaker 2>points out that she was also helping out the families

0:42:34.480 --> 0:42:36.839
<v Speaker 2>of I think the one hundred and twenty person team

0:42:36.920 --> 0:42:39.120
<v Speaker 2>that she put together. Yeah, and it says they were

0:42:39.160 --> 0:42:43.040
<v Speaker 2>a close knit, which definitely kind of jibes with the

0:42:43.120 --> 0:42:47.480
<v Speaker 2>impression that I've gotten of her totally. So she's she's

0:42:47.600 --> 0:42:51.000
<v Speaker 2>got this jingle down. Slinky's starting to come back a

0:42:51.040 --> 0:42:53.600
<v Speaker 2>little bit. And also I think the tact that she's

0:42:53.680 --> 0:42:57.719
<v Speaker 2>taking iss a. It's an inexpensive toy that everybody can enjoy, right,

0:42:58.920 --> 0:43:00.880
<v Speaker 2>but it's still I mean, I don't know if all

0:43:00.960 --> 0:43:03.640
<v Speaker 2>of it would have been quite so possible had a

0:43:03.680 --> 0:43:07.200
<v Speaker 2>bit of serendipity not happened. In the mid nineteen seventies.

0:43:07.760 --> 0:43:09.520
<v Speaker 1>Plastic plastic was that the thing.

0:43:09.680 --> 0:43:12.600
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, there was a dude in Minnesota who was a

0:43:12.680 --> 0:43:16.279
<v Speaker 2>plastic worker who figured out basically a way to make

0:43:16.320 --> 0:43:20.680
<v Speaker 2>a plastic slinky and went directly to Betty James and

0:43:22.320 --> 0:43:24.320
<v Speaker 2>her company and said, what do you think about this?

0:43:25.080 --> 0:43:27.759
<v Speaker 2>She said, you know what, I don't steal ideas I

0:43:27.840 --> 0:43:29.680
<v Speaker 2>pay for him. How much do you want me to

0:43:29.760 --> 0:43:30.600
<v Speaker 2>make the checkout for?

0:43:31.160 --> 0:43:33.600
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. His name was Donald James Room, and he was

0:43:34.400 --> 0:43:37.080
<v Speaker 1>of master Mark Plastics, and he was trying to make

0:43:37.120 --> 0:43:40.920
<v Speaker 1>a garden hose that coiled like they have now, like

0:43:41.000 --> 0:43:44.880
<v Speaker 1>a plastic garden hose that self coiled, and he failed

0:43:44.920 --> 0:43:46.680
<v Speaker 1>and his kids apparently were like, that looks like a

0:43:46.760 --> 0:43:49.439
<v Speaker 1>slinky and he was like, oh well let.

0:43:49.360 --> 0:43:52.520
<v Speaker 2>Me, stupid kids, I'm trying to concentrate.

0:43:52.640 --> 0:43:57.040
<v Speaker 1>I'm trying to make a garden hose. So, like you said,

0:43:57.080 --> 0:44:00.520
<v Speaker 1>they made a great deal and he he ended up

0:44:00.520 --> 0:44:02.960
<v Speaker 1>with tons of money too. Yeah, and it made slinky

0:44:03.000 --> 0:44:04.240
<v Speaker 1>super popular again.

0:44:04.480 --> 0:44:07.799
<v Speaker 2>And it became the Slinky Rainbow, the Rainbow Slink, And Yeah,

0:44:07.840 --> 0:44:10.800
<v Speaker 2>all of a sudden, not just original slinky. Now you

0:44:10.880 --> 0:44:13.760
<v Speaker 2>had this what they call it, a less tangle prone

0:44:13.800 --> 0:44:16.759
<v Speaker 2>alternative to slinky. Yeah, which is pretty bold because you're

0:44:16.760 --> 0:44:20.400
<v Speaker 2>saying your original product is tangle prone. Yeah, still worked.

0:44:20.800 --> 0:44:22.880
<v Speaker 2>I think maybe they just knew that everybody knew that

0:44:23.000 --> 0:44:26.040
<v Speaker 2>the slinky is tangle prone. And now they had a

0:44:26.120 --> 0:44:30.279
<v Speaker 2>couple of products again that were really saleable, and the

0:44:30.360 --> 0:44:31.799
<v Speaker 2>slinky star rose once more.

0:44:31.960 --> 0:44:33.960
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, and like I said, the Toy Story, they did

0:44:34.080 --> 0:44:38.799
<v Speaker 1>make a great deal with I guess it was Pixar. Yeah,

0:44:39.160 --> 0:44:43.040
<v Speaker 1>and sold a ton more slinkies when Toy Story came

0:44:43.080 --> 0:44:46.360
<v Speaker 1>out because of the dog right exactly. And in nineteen

0:44:46.560 --> 0:44:51.240
<v Speaker 1>seventy four, Betty Heard received news that her husband, Rick James,

0:44:51.320 --> 0:44:52.160
<v Speaker 1>had passed away.

0:44:52.320 --> 0:44:55.080
<v Speaker 2>Who she hadn't he cues within a few months of

0:44:55.200 --> 0:44:57.680
<v Speaker 2>going to Bolivia, like she hadn't heard anything from him.

0:44:58.080 --> 0:45:03.040
<v Speaker 1>That's just unbelievable. But she was doing fine, and so

0:45:03.239 --> 0:45:06.960
<v Speaker 1>she was probably like, thanks for letting me know who cares.

0:45:08.440 --> 0:45:10.319
<v Speaker 1>I'm sure it might have been a little sad. Yeah,

0:45:10.560 --> 0:45:14.440
<v Speaker 1>I'm not gonna say that. But she then sold to

0:45:14.680 --> 0:45:18.040
<v Speaker 1>poof Products in nineteen ninety eight for what she called

0:45:18.080 --> 0:45:21.040
<v Speaker 1>a quote boatload of money and good for her.

0:45:21.239 --> 0:45:23.120
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, And she lived on for another ten years, to

0:45:23.200 --> 0:45:25.960
<v Speaker 2>the ripe old age of ninety and I think before

0:45:26.000 --> 0:45:28.880
<v Speaker 2>then she was recognized by the Toy Industry Association's Hall

0:45:28.920 --> 0:45:31.840
<v Speaker 2>of Fame. I think Slinky was inducted in two thousand,

0:45:32.400 --> 0:45:35.719
<v Speaker 2>so she would have been alive for that. Pretty neat. Yeah,

0:45:36.640 --> 0:45:37.440
<v Speaker 2>so that's slinky.

0:45:38.480 --> 0:45:40.680
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, you know what. The only other thing I had

0:45:40.840 --> 0:45:44.440
<v Speaker 1>was you can make the Star Wars blaster sound with

0:45:44.560 --> 0:45:45.040
<v Speaker 1>a slinky?

0:45:45.239 --> 0:45:45.719
<v Speaker 2>Oh really?

0:45:46.160 --> 0:45:48.759
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, Well you can do it with the microphone, or

0:45:48.880 --> 0:45:50.960
<v Speaker 1>you can you put a cup, like a paper cup

0:45:51.080 --> 0:45:53.640
<v Speaker 1>in the end of the slinky and you hold that

0:45:53.800 --> 0:45:55.799
<v Speaker 1>in the air just at like the height of your

0:45:55.880 --> 0:45:58.400
<v Speaker 1>head and the rest of this slinky falls to the

0:45:58.440 --> 0:46:02.839
<v Speaker 1>ground and then you just start. Basically, there are all

0:46:02.920 --> 0:46:04.399
<v Speaker 1>kinds of noises you can make, but if you want

0:46:04.400 --> 0:46:06.520
<v Speaker 1>to make that sound, you can pick up the bottom

0:46:07.040 --> 0:46:08.759
<v Speaker 1>off the floor and then just let it drop on

0:46:08.800 --> 0:46:10.920
<v Speaker 1>the floor and catch it real quick and it does

0:46:11.000 --> 0:46:13.839
<v Speaker 1>that nice, makes a neat sound.

0:46:14.000 --> 0:46:15.200
<v Speaker 2>That's a chuck tip right there.

0:46:15.280 --> 0:46:16.799
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, you can go to YouTube and look up Star

0:46:16.840 --> 0:46:20.560
<v Speaker 1>Wars slinky sound and there's a couple of dudes of

0:46:20.680 --> 0:46:22.360
<v Speaker 1>course that'll show you just how to do it.

0:46:22.560 --> 0:46:25.040
<v Speaker 2>Well. That's one of the reasons too, why Betty James

0:46:25.360 --> 0:46:27.480
<v Speaker 2>chose the word slinky is not only because it was

0:46:28.040 --> 0:46:31.360
<v Speaker 2>sleek and attractive, but also thinks she thought that that

0:46:31.480 --> 0:46:34.080
<v Speaker 2>was a good description of what the sound it may does.

0:46:34.160 --> 0:46:35.200
<v Speaker 2>It went downstairs.

0:46:35.520 --> 0:46:37.480
<v Speaker 1>That was before the Star Wars blaster, or she would

0:46:37.520 --> 0:46:39.040
<v Speaker 1>have called it exact the blaster.

0:46:40.000 --> 0:46:42.440
<v Speaker 2>And there's one last thing about slinky physics that are

0:46:42.560 --> 0:46:43.360
<v Speaker 2>pretty amazing.

0:46:43.760 --> 0:46:44.200
<v Speaker 1>Let's hear it.

0:46:44.680 --> 0:46:48.080
<v Speaker 2>So, if you dangle a slinky out to where it's

0:46:48.719 --> 0:46:50.879
<v Speaker 2>completely stretched out as much as it's going to without

0:46:50.920 --> 0:46:53.080
<v Speaker 2>putting any pressure on, just letting the force of gravity

0:46:53.120 --> 0:46:54.400
<v Speaker 2>stretch out the slinky until.

0:46:54.239 --> 0:46:55.680
<v Speaker 1>It reaches equally about out a window.

0:46:55.760 --> 0:46:58.960
<v Speaker 2>Let's say, okay, but without this bottom touching the ground

0:46:59.080 --> 0:47:03.120
<v Speaker 2>out a fourth story though awesome, and you actually, if

0:47:03.160 --> 0:47:05.120
<v Speaker 2>it was like eighty something feet, it'd have to be

0:47:05.200 --> 0:47:06.920
<v Speaker 2>higher than that. Because it's slink, you would go right

0:47:06.920 --> 0:47:07.560
<v Speaker 2>down to the ground.

0:47:07.640 --> 0:47:10.040
<v Speaker 1>Man, Well, I mean you have to weight the bottom

0:47:10.080 --> 0:47:10.239
<v Speaker 1>of it.

0:47:10.719 --> 0:47:13.920
<v Speaker 2>Okay, So let's say four stories. You're right then, and

0:47:14.239 --> 0:47:17.520
<v Speaker 2>if you have it, you're holding it steady, it's not moving,

0:47:17.800 --> 0:47:20.520
<v Speaker 2>and then you release the top, the top will start

0:47:20.560 --> 0:47:23.760
<v Speaker 2>to fall, but if you pay close attention, the bottom

0:47:24.280 --> 0:47:28.400
<v Speaker 2>stays where it is. Whoa slinkys actually have this amazing

0:47:28.480 --> 0:47:33.440
<v Speaker 2>property of managing to levitate momentarily when the top is released.

0:47:34.040 --> 0:47:38.160
<v Speaker 2>And some very smart scientists studied this and they measured

0:47:38.160 --> 0:47:40.319
<v Speaker 2>it and they found yes, indeed, the top is moving

0:47:40.400 --> 0:47:43.480
<v Speaker 2>and the bottom is remaining. It's floating in mid air.

0:47:44.040 --> 0:47:46.120
<v Speaker 2>And they figured out that the reason why is because

0:47:46.360 --> 0:47:50.520
<v Speaker 2>the tension is still acting against the force of gravity,

0:47:50.719 --> 0:47:53.200
<v Speaker 2>which has reached the equilibrium on the lower part of

0:47:53.239 --> 0:47:56.600
<v Speaker 2>the coil. And basically, the information that gravity is that

0:47:56.719 --> 0:47:59.759
<v Speaker 2>tension is released and gravity's about to win hasn't reached

0:47:59.800 --> 0:48:03.279
<v Speaker 2>that bottom part yet. Each coil stacks upon the next

0:48:03.320 --> 0:48:04.800
<v Speaker 2>one and the next one, in the next one. So

0:48:04.920 --> 0:48:08.839
<v Speaker 2>as it's happening up top down below, it's all hunky dory.

0:48:08.960 --> 0:48:11.239
<v Speaker 1>Still it's like you're still holding on to me.

0:48:11.600 --> 0:48:15.439
<v Speaker 2>As far as I know, it's literally floating in mid air. Wow,

0:48:17.600 --> 0:48:19.840
<v Speaker 2>it's ceaselessly amazing, basically the slinky.

0:48:19.920 --> 0:48:23.520
<v Speaker 1>Yes, well those are two pretty boss slinky tricks.

0:48:23.680 --> 0:48:23.879
<v Speaker 2>Yep.

0:48:24.200 --> 0:48:26.600
<v Speaker 1>And what a great way to finish, I think.

0:48:26.960 --> 0:48:29.200
<v Speaker 2>So if you want to know more about slinkies, you

0:48:29.320 --> 0:48:32.080
<v Speaker 2>can go to the podcast page on how Stuff you

0:48:32.080 --> 0:48:35.440
<v Speaker 2>Should Know dot com and check out our slinky episode

0:48:35.440 --> 0:48:38.160
<v Speaker 2>and there should be links to this PRIs Nomics article

0:48:38.480 --> 0:48:41.560
<v Speaker 2>and the YouTube slinky mast or all that jam. Just

0:48:41.640 --> 0:48:45.120
<v Speaker 2>go check that out. And I didn't say search bar,

0:48:45.239 --> 0:48:48.160
<v Speaker 2>but you can imagine that I would have under normal circumstances,

0:48:48.200 --> 0:48:49.719
<v Speaker 2>which means it's time for a listener mail.

0:48:51.960 --> 0:48:56.359
<v Speaker 1>I'm gonna call this Sage from Portland. Remember Sage. Yeah,

0:48:56.440 --> 0:48:57.759
<v Speaker 1>we do a little Q and A at the end

0:48:57.800 --> 0:48:59.840
<v Speaker 1>of these live shows and where people can get up

0:48:59.880 --> 0:49:02.800
<v Speaker 1>in it ask us questions and sages was great, so

0:49:02.920 --> 0:49:05.560
<v Speaker 1>I told her to scend it in. Hey, guys, just

0:49:05.640 --> 0:49:08.080
<v Speaker 1>got back from your live show in Portland, and Chuck

0:49:08.120 --> 0:49:10.840
<v Speaker 1>said to ride in to my amazing fact. I was

0:49:10.920 --> 0:49:14.279
<v Speaker 1>super nervous to go up there. We'll saved. You did great.

0:49:14.360 --> 0:49:17.120
<v Speaker 1>By the way, my fact is that you can actually

0:49:17.120 --> 0:49:19.680
<v Speaker 1>tell how old a humpback whale is by looking at

0:49:19.680 --> 0:49:23.000
<v Speaker 1>their earwax because it forms rings like a tree. Oh yeah,

0:49:23.200 --> 0:49:23.600
<v Speaker 1>remember that.

0:49:23.760 --> 0:49:24.000
<v Speaker 2>Yeah.

0:49:24.360 --> 0:49:27.520
<v Speaker 1>Humpback whales migrate from Alaska Towaii each year for mating.

0:49:27.960 --> 0:49:30.959
<v Speaker 1>The temperature shift of the ocean water causes the rings

0:49:31.000 --> 0:49:34.360
<v Speaker 1>to form. Researchers will examine the ear wax of deceased

0:49:34.360 --> 0:49:36.600
<v Speaker 1>whales there were beached to find out their age and

0:49:36.640 --> 0:49:39.799
<v Speaker 1>a lot of other facts about them. Gross and fascinating,

0:49:40.320 --> 0:49:43.160
<v Speaker 1>just like the actual ear Wax podcast. Guys. I found

0:49:43.200 --> 0:49:46.480
<v Speaker 1>out this while snorkeling on a cruise in Hawaii last

0:49:46.520 --> 0:49:49.680
<v Speaker 1>week for spring break. Thanks for everything, and thanks for

0:49:49.760 --> 0:49:53.239
<v Speaker 1>the live show especially. It was totally awesome with four

0:49:53.360 --> 0:49:56.719
<v Speaker 1>exclamation points. Oh four, that's pretty good, rating, men a lot.

0:49:56.960 --> 0:49:58.440
<v Speaker 1>I had so much fun and I think I got

0:49:58.480 --> 0:49:59.719
<v Speaker 1>my mom hooked on your show, too.

0:50:00.160 --> 0:50:00.359
<v Speaker 2>Cool.

0:50:00.480 --> 0:50:03.000
<v Speaker 1>So thanks to Sage and her mom for bringing her.

0:50:03.400 --> 0:50:05.200
<v Speaker 1>And it was good to meet you. You did a

0:50:05.239 --> 0:50:06.719
<v Speaker 1>great job. You didn't seem nervous at all.

0:50:06.800 --> 0:50:10.520
<v Speaker 2>No, totally large and in charge like you do audience

0:50:10.640 --> 0:50:11.759
<v Speaker 2>QA stuff every night.

0:50:11.880 --> 0:50:12.239
<v Speaker 1>That's right.

0:50:12.920 --> 0:50:15.120
<v Speaker 2>Thanks to everybody in Portland, you guys, I think chuck.

0:50:15.160 --> 0:50:19.600
<v Speaker 2>Every single person that we met before and after said

0:50:19.960 --> 0:50:22.960
<v Speaker 2>welcome to Portland, Like we were literally welcome by every

0:50:23.000 --> 0:50:23.640
<v Speaker 2>single person.

0:50:23.760 --> 0:50:25.960
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, it was really neat that they're proud of their

0:50:26.000 --> 0:50:28.239
<v Speaker 1>city as they should be. Yes.

0:50:28.560 --> 0:50:30.240
<v Speaker 2>If you want to get in touch with us about

0:50:30.560 --> 0:50:33.040
<v Speaker 2>anything to do with whales or slinkys or live shows

0:50:33.160 --> 0:50:35.960
<v Speaker 2>or any of that jazz, you can tweet to us

0:50:35.960 --> 0:50:39.680
<v Speaker 2>at sysk podcast. You can join us on Facebook dot com,

0:50:39.800 --> 0:50:41.839
<v Speaker 2>slash Stuff you Should Know. You can send us an

0:50:41.840 --> 0:50:45.920
<v Speaker 2>email to Stuff Podcast at houstuffworks dot com, and as always,

0:50:46.280 --> 0:50:48.680
<v Speaker 2>joined us at our luxurious home on the web. Stuff

0:50:48.719 --> 0:50:53.360
<v Speaker 2>you Should Know dot com. Stuff you Should Know is

0:50:53.400 --> 0:50:54.719
<v Speaker 2>a production of iHeartRadio.

0:50:55.239 --> 0:50:58.720
<v Speaker 1>For more podcasts my Heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio.

0:50:58.200 --> 0:51:01.520
<v Speaker 2>App Apple Podcasts. Have you listen to your favorite shows