WEBVTT - How Slinky Works 0:00:01.040 --> 0:00:04.520 Welcome to Stuff you Should Know from House Stuff Works 0:00:04.519 --> 0:00:13.320 dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, 0:00:13.360 --> 0:00:17.040 There's Charles W Chuck Bryant, and there's Jerry over there, 0:00:17.520 --> 0:00:20.480 and this is the stuff you should know projecting from 0:00:20.520 --> 0:00:26.239 Studio one A. Just us. It's not us on stage 0:00:26.239 --> 0:00:28.560 in front of hundreds of the doring fans. Now I 0:00:28.560 --> 0:00:31.920 feel all lift with We just got back from our 0:00:31.920 --> 0:00:37.680 tour and it's just us again. Yeah, there's a paper, 0:00:37.720 --> 0:00:39.599 I kea lamp with a dimmer that makes it turn 0:00:39.680 --> 0:00:41.760 into a strobe light even though it's not to post to. 0:00:42.080 --> 0:00:45.720 And yeah, it's a toolbox over there. That's it. It's 0:00:45.720 --> 0:00:48.000 a lot more fun to do this on stage in 0:00:48.040 --> 0:00:50.560 front of people, it turns out. I think we should 0:00:50.600 --> 0:00:54.160 do it again because the West Coast tour was pretty fun. Yeah, 0:00:54.280 --> 0:00:58.360 so keep your eyes peeled. Um, perhaps Philly, d C, 0:00:58.720 --> 0:01:02.200 New York in Boston, don't literally peel your eyes. Perhaps 0:01:02.320 --> 0:01:06.559 Chapel Hill. Oh, we can't announce anything yet, but we're 0:01:06.600 --> 0:01:10.520 just teasing with those cities that will be in in June. Yeah, 0:01:10.600 --> 0:01:17.800 we're actually going to Providence. Are we just kidding? They 0:01:17.800 --> 0:01:20.360 were like ten people in Providence going yeah. Oh man, 0:01:21.120 --> 0:01:24.480 I got to go to Boston a game. Uh so, 0:01:24.560 --> 0:01:27.640 how are you doing? You still jet lagged? I have 0:01:27.720 --> 0:01:31.280 recovered somewhat. Um. I have to say that the city 0:01:31.280 --> 0:01:34.280 of Seattle, there's a place I could live. It's beautiful 0:01:34.400 --> 0:01:37.200 except for the weather. Like we had a good and 0:01:37.200 --> 0:01:38.920 it's easy to fall in love both a place if 0:01:38.959 --> 0:01:41.040 you're there for like a great weekend, because it was 0:01:41.080 --> 0:01:43.600 beautiful when it was it was gorgeous. But I told 0:01:43.600 --> 0:01:46.080 Emily she was all fired up to um, it's like, 0:01:46.120 --> 0:01:48.920 you know, nine months out of the year, it's pretty 0:01:48.920 --> 0:01:52.120 depressing with the weather bleak, and I think you're just 0:01:52.200 --> 0:01:54.320 used to it. To feel about there, I guess you know, 0:01:54.440 --> 0:01:57.320 you're hearty. Everybody seemed to have their spirits up, though 0:01:57.600 --> 0:01:59.600 maybe it was the weather. I assumed it was because 0:01:59.640 --> 0:02:01.840 we were in town, but now that I think about it, 0:02:01.840 --> 0:02:05.040 it could have definitely been the weather. Well, Portland's fans 0:02:05.040 --> 0:02:07.000 stood in line in the rain, and I felt all bad, 0:02:07.080 --> 0:02:08.680 but that I was like, they stand in line for 0:02:08.840 --> 0:02:12.400 in the rain all the time, for everything, gas, donuts, 0:02:12.440 --> 0:02:15.520 what have you. Yeah. Yeah, So anyway, thanks to everyone 0:02:15.560 --> 0:02:18.200 who came out. It was so so fun. Yes, l 0:02:18.240 --> 0:02:21.560 A San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, from both of us, from 0:02:21.600 --> 0:02:25.680 Jerry to Ye, from everybody, heartfelt, hearty, thank you. Jerry 0:02:25.720 --> 0:02:31.000 was a regular hot shot, you know with ws so 0:02:31.200 --> 0:02:34.440 uh chuck. Yes, did you ever have a slinky when 0:02:34.480 --> 0:02:37.320 you were a kid. Sure, I feel like I played 0:02:37.360 --> 0:02:39.400 with them. I definitely played with them. I don't remember 0:02:39.440 --> 0:02:43.280 actually owning a slinky at any point, least yours. It was. 0:02:43.720 --> 0:02:45.239 It was just kind of one of those things that 0:02:45.240 --> 0:02:47.200 I was like, always around there was always a slinky. 0:02:47.240 --> 0:02:48.840 You could get your hands on a slinky. But you 0:02:48.840 --> 0:02:51.520 don't remember getting a slinky right and saying this is 0:02:51.560 --> 0:02:53.880 Mike slinky, or going to the toy store and saying like, 0:02:54.120 --> 0:02:57.360 I want a slinky. But I did love slinkies whenever 0:02:57.400 --> 0:02:59.720 I played with them. Uh. It turns out I was 0:02:59.800 --> 0:03:04.440 just one of many many children over the last sixty 0:03:04.800 --> 0:03:09.120 seventy years that have loved slinky. I was frustrated by 0:03:09.200 --> 0:03:12.919 my slinky a bit because I never I never had 0:03:13.000 --> 0:03:16.080 stairs that it worked well on. You know, you gotta 0:03:16.080 --> 0:03:19.639 thought never had stairs, Like, yeah, I'll bet you're frustrated 0:03:19.680 --> 0:03:22.079 with slinky. No, I had stairs going up to my room. 0:03:22.120 --> 0:03:24.480 But it was you know, if you don't have the 0:03:24.600 --> 0:03:28.880 right height and depth of stair. It just stopped and 0:03:28.880 --> 0:03:30.600 they still got to do it again. Were they for 0:03:30.720 --> 0:03:33.359 like really long feet, were they wide stairs or were 0:03:33.400 --> 0:03:35.160 they really taller? What was the deal? I don't know. 0:03:35.240 --> 0:03:39.800 I felt like I felt like they were standard stairs. Um, 0:03:39.920 --> 0:03:41.520 and then it just didn't like them. Well, it would 0:03:41.520 --> 0:03:43.200 get all I had the metal ones, it would get 0:03:43.200 --> 0:03:46.960 all uh you know how they would tend to get tangled. Yeah, 0:03:47.480 --> 0:03:49.640 that was sort of the hallmark of the metal slinky. 0:03:49.720 --> 0:03:52.200 And again, like people's hair would get caught in. And 0:03:52.480 --> 0:03:54.480 now that I'm an adult looking back, I'm like, how 0:03:54.520 --> 0:03:56.840 did anybody's hair get caught in the slinky? What was 0:03:56.880 --> 0:04:00.280 the deal? But when it happened, it hurt. I've kids 0:04:00.320 --> 0:04:02.680 would like wrap slinkys around each other. I remember using 0:04:02.680 --> 0:04:06.440 slinky like as rope like handcuffs. Oh yeah, Like you'd 0:04:06.440 --> 0:04:08.760 wrap it around your friend and then sort of just 0:04:08.840 --> 0:04:13.360 latch it and you'd be like a slinky like attaching 0:04:13.360 --> 0:04:15.680 a knife to one end and like yeah, yeah, just 0:04:15.920 --> 0:04:20.360 jamming it toward somebody that there's this guy on YouTube. 0:04:20.839 --> 0:04:23.400 Well there's a YouTube video of a guy called slinky Master. 0:04:23.760 --> 0:04:26.560 Oh boy, and he is good. He's just like basically 0:04:26.600 --> 0:04:28.680 like moving it from one hand to another, making it 0:04:28.680 --> 0:04:31.240 do all this awesome stuff in the middle. And it's 0:04:31.279 --> 0:04:33.360 a rainbow slinky and I think it might be like 0:04:33.400 --> 0:04:35.880 Glow in the Dark too. Holy cow, but he is 0:04:35.960 --> 0:04:38.159 a pretty good I say, go check it out. I 0:04:38.200 --> 0:04:40.440 gotta definitely want to check that out. Oh and actually, 0:04:40.440 --> 0:04:42.400 we have a new thing on our website on our 0:04:42.440 --> 0:04:45.200 podcast pages, so like the page where you can go 0:04:45.320 --> 0:04:49.880 listen to any podcast on our site, there's now um 0:04:50.080 --> 0:04:54.480 a like an additional links section where it has stuff 0:04:54.520 --> 0:04:57.280 that we talk about. It links out to articles that 0:04:57.320 --> 0:05:00.760 we use for extra research. They'll be on this Slinky 0:05:00.800 --> 0:05:04.599 episode podcast page a link to that um Slinky Master. 0:05:05.160 --> 0:05:07.040 You don't even need to google that. You just basically 0:05:07.040 --> 0:05:08.719 make step You should know your homepage and we can 0:05:08.800 --> 0:05:10.400 take care of it for you. Yeah, and we're bringing 0:05:10.400 --> 0:05:13.800 back transcriptions right yep, which we are super happy about 0:05:13.839 --> 0:05:17.479 because we used to have transcriptions for our friends in 0:05:17.560 --> 0:05:19.839 the deaf and Heart of Hearing community and then we 0:05:19.880 --> 0:05:21.120 didn't do it for a while and they were like 0:05:21.160 --> 0:05:24.080 what gives Yeah, And so we've been working to get 0:05:24.120 --> 0:05:25.600 those back and I think they're going to be back now. 0:05:26.839 --> 0:05:30.839 So that's that's slinky good night. Oh wait, we didn't 0:05:30.839 --> 0:05:34.240 start yet, so um, I had no idea while I 0:05:34.320 --> 0:05:36.520 was watching people get their hair caught in slink ease 0:05:36.640 --> 0:05:40.800 or playing with them in general that um, they had 0:05:40.839 --> 0:05:43.240 a kind of a pretty neat history until I ran 0:05:43.279 --> 0:05:46.760 across this article from Price in Nomics, written by a 0:05:46.839 --> 0:05:49.960 dude named Zachary Crockett. Yeah, big, thanks, This is a 0:05:50.000 --> 0:05:52.560 good article. It is um. It's called the Invention of 0:05:52.600 --> 0:05:56.720 is Slinky? And in it, uh, Crockett starts at a 0:05:56.720 --> 0:06:01.600 pretty reasonable place, the birth of the inventors Thanky, Richard Thompson, James, 0:06:01.880 --> 0:06:05.920 Rick James, and then in this slinky, I don't think 0:06:05.920 --> 0:06:09.600 he went by Rick. No, he went by Mr James, 0:06:10.520 --> 0:06:15.440 inventors slinky. Yes. He was born in nineteen fourteen in Delaware, 0:06:16.080 --> 0:06:19.440 and uh apparently his brother Samuel said that he was 0:06:19.440 --> 0:06:25.480 always a pretty enterprising, mechanically oriented type of kid, because 0:06:25.480 --> 0:06:27.520 he had this one story about when he was like 0:06:27.520 --> 0:06:31.120 a thirteen, he found an old car and literally like 0:06:31.200 --> 0:06:33.159 fixed the car up well enough to sell it. Yeah, 0:06:33.160 --> 0:06:36.039 I had like mice running around living in um and 0:06:36.080 --> 0:06:38.479 he sold it for twenty five bucks, which I went 0:06:38.560 --> 0:06:42.840 to West Egg and converted that thirty seven dollars in 0:06:42.839 --> 0:06:45.400 two thousand fourteen. Money not bad for a thirteen year old, 0:06:46.880 --> 0:06:50.320 that's yeah. But it was a car. Whoever bought it 0:06:50.360 --> 0:06:52.560 got a good deal, that's what she's saying. But I mean, 0:06:52.800 --> 0:06:54.440 he probably didn't get rid of the mice. He just 0:06:54.480 --> 0:06:56.520 got the thing to run again. Plus it wasn't his 0:06:56.560 --> 0:07:00.200 car anyway, he just took it, licks it up. Um, 0:07:00.360 --> 0:07:03.560 it was the mice's car. So in the nineteen thirties 0:07:03.640 --> 0:07:09.040 he went to Penn State and did study mechanical engineering. Yeah, 0:07:09.080 --> 0:07:10.720 he was just a tinkerer, so it made a lot 0:07:10.720 --> 0:07:14.320 of sense. Yeah. Uh. I find that often when people 0:07:14.560 --> 0:07:18.480 like you've researched the people who invented like a circuit 0:07:18.480 --> 0:07:20.880 board for an amp or something. It seems like that 0:07:21.080 --> 0:07:24.000 starts when you're very very young. Just interesting, that kind 0:07:24.000 --> 0:07:26.880 of thing. You don't get into mechanical engineering in your twenties, 0:07:27.360 --> 0:07:32.080 you know, like you ditch psychology for a mechanical engineering degree. Yeah. 0:07:32.120 --> 0:07:34.440 My brother went the other way. He was an aerospace 0:07:34.480 --> 0:07:37.040 engineering major and he switched to psychology. Did he really? 0:07:37.400 --> 0:07:39.720 I didn't know that. Yeah, he wanted to be an astronaut. 0:07:40.480 --> 0:07:42.560 That's awesome, but not like a six year old. He 0:07:42.600 --> 0:07:46.400 was like, I wanted to be an astronaut. He liked 0:07:46.440 --> 0:07:48.280 to be a cowboy to cowboys, you grew up to 0:07:48.280 --> 0:07:51.760 actually be cowboys. Um So, anyway, he got a mechanical 0:07:51.760 --> 0:07:56.280 engineering degree and then uh started work as a naval engineer. Yeah, 0:07:56.280 --> 0:07:58.560 because it makes sense. It was World War two, so 0:07:58.640 --> 0:08:00.960 that's what you did. Yeah, and to go fight Hitler. 0:08:01.560 --> 0:08:03.600 So he did. He fought it from behind a desk 0:08:03.640 --> 0:08:06.240 because they're like, you're a mechanical engineer, you just sit 0:08:06.280 --> 0:08:08.200 here and figure out how you can make our weapons 0:08:08.200 --> 0:08:11.320 of war better. And he was actually working on something, 0:08:11.520 --> 0:08:16.880 um that you springs, something that basically kept some sort 0:08:16.920 --> 0:08:20.400 of electronics on battleships. I think it had to do 0:08:20.440 --> 0:08:23.600 with the measuring horsepower. Yeah, it was a horsepower meter 0:08:23.760 --> 0:08:26.880 that I guess if you're in rough waves that would 0:08:26.920 --> 0:08:28.520 mess with the meter. Yeah, and you didn't want it 0:08:28.640 --> 0:08:30.600 rocking all over the place, that you would use springs 0:08:30.640 --> 0:08:33.600 to keep it intact or keep it from moving around 0:08:33.600 --> 0:08:37.200 too much. Right. Um So, while he was tinkering around 0:08:37.240 --> 0:08:39.280 with one of this, he quite by accident knocked over 0:08:39.360 --> 0:08:41.079 some stuff. I don't think it was in a fit 0:08:41.120 --> 0:08:43.920 of rage. It was accidental and one of the things 0:08:43.960 --> 0:08:47.240 he knocked over included a spring, and he watched the 0:08:47.320 --> 0:08:51.000 spring fall off the shelf in a nice graceful arc 0:08:51.160 --> 0:08:53.960 hit a book go over from the book onto the desk, 0:08:54.000 --> 0:08:55.599 and then from the desk onto the floor in this 0:08:55.800 --> 0:09:03.880 nice our arching manner exactly, and he said, let's try 0:09:03.960 --> 0:09:06.960 that again. Yeah, it's apparently captivated by it. It's pretty neat, 0:09:07.000 --> 0:09:09.360 Like this is literally one of those toys you can 0:09:09.400 --> 0:09:13.160 trace back to one of those silly fluke moments, like 0:09:13.200 --> 0:09:16.600 the microwave. Was that the same thing? He was, Yeah, 0:09:17.160 --> 0:09:20.920 it was. Oh man, I can't remember what the actual 0:09:21.080 --> 0:09:24.160 the actual thing that makes the microwave. The microwave was 0:09:24.480 --> 0:09:28.000 discovered by accident that it was, Yeah, that it had 0:09:28.080 --> 0:09:31.480 these properties that um like a guy had a chocolate 0:09:31.480 --> 0:09:34.960 bar in his shirt because melted melt. He's like, wait 0:09:35.000 --> 0:09:37.439 a minute, So of course he logically brand and grabbed 0:09:37.440 --> 0:09:39.200 some popcorn and saw that that happened, and then the 0:09:39.240 --> 0:09:41.720 microwave is born. Yeah, I think a slinky is actually 0:09:41.720 --> 0:09:43.439 the only place that's on our website is one of 0:09:43.480 --> 0:09:47.160 those our top ten accidental inventions or something, And I'll 0:09:47.200 --> 0:09:51.120 bet microwaves are in there too. I'm sure it is UM. 0:09:51.240 --> 0:09:54.000 So basically, you're right. The lightbulb went off over his 0:09:54.080 --> 0:09:59.280 head and he went home and told his lovely wife Betty, Betty, Betty, 0:09:59.559 --> 0:10:01.839 I think I got something here, and I just need 0:10:01.880 --> 0:10:04.000 to figure out how to how to make it to 0:10:04.080 --> 0:10:07.079 where it keeps doing this thing. I'm gonna try, because 0:10:07.080 --> 0:10:08.480 you can't just get any spring and throw it on 0:10:08.520 --> 0:10:10.520 a step, No you can. There's all sorts of different 0:10:10.559 --> 0:10:12.760 kinds of springs that turns out, you know, like there's 0:10:12.800 --> 0:10:16.480 a tension spring that they use on mouse traps, and 0:10:16.520 --> 0:10:19.240 then there's the slinky spring. But now the slinky spring 0:10:19.320 --> 0:10:23.559 is this super refined type of spring that was designed 0:10:23.559 --> 0:10:26.360 over the course of a year through trial and error 0:10:26.520 --> 0:10:29.320 to have just the right tension, just the right shape, 0:10:29.360 --> 0:10:31.240 just the right size of the coils, just the right 0:10:31.320 --> 0:10:36.120 everything so that it really accentuated that graceful flow, that 0:10:36.320 --> 0:10:40.840 arcing flow that it it has that makes it the slinky. 0:10:40.880 --> 0:10:42.600 And it took him like a year of tinkering with 0:10:42.640 --> 0:10:46.079 all these different tensions and um types of materials before 0:10:46.080 --> 0:10:47.959 he finally hit upon it. Yeah, and I think he 0:10:48.040 --> 0:10:52.920 settled on a point zero five seven in diameter high 0:10:52.920 --> 0:10:59.680 carbon steel UM the original slinkys were black metal, which 0:10:59.679 --> 0:11:02.720 was kind a cool looking um by the time, like 0:11:02.800 --> 0:11:05.400 we were kids. I think they just um they had 0:11:05.679 --> 0:11:08.840 the shiny silver ones, and then of course we'll get 0:11:08.880 --> 0:11:11.120 to the plastic that came along later too, but the 0:11:11.120 --> 0:11:16.680 first ones were black um and it demonstrates uh property 0:11:16.720 --> 0:11:20.280 and physics called So I ran across this like super 0:11:20.320 --> 0:11:24.200 hardcore physics forum where somebody posted that they were talking 0:11:24.200 --> 0:11:26.360 about the physics of slinky and somebody's like, it seems 0:11:26.360 --> 0:11:28.320 like Hook's law is a good place to start, and 0:11:28.360 --> 0:11:31.960 they got piled off. They said that Hooks law has 0:11:32.000 --> 0:11:34.920 to do with the amount of force a spring exerts 0:11:34.960 --> 0:11:38.280 on something it's attached to. So I think with Hook's law, 0:11:38.320 --> 0:11:41.240 if it does apply, what you're talking about is the 0:11:41.280 --> 0:11:44.000 force being transferred from one end of the slinky to 0:11:44.120 --> 0:11:47.720 the other, and that as the as the momentum at 0:11:47.720 --> 0:11:51.280 the front of the slinky goes downward, that same amount 0:11:51.360 --> 0:11:53.800 is transferred to the back and it's pulled forward and 0:11:53.840 --> 0:11:56.240 it just keeps going end over end. So I don't 0:11:56.240 --> 0:11:58.520 know if Hook's law does apply or not, but if 0:11:58.520 --> 0:12:01.240 it does, that's my understanding of how it would apply. Yeah, 0:12:01.280 --> 0:12:04.360 the one definition I saw was that. Um. It basically 0:12:04.400 --> 0:12:07.880 means a spring will return to its original shape once 0:12:07.960 --> 0:12:11.360 the load is removed. So that makes sense, right, Um. 0:12:11.520 --> 0:12:13.720 But there's another thing, at least one other thing going 0:12:13.760 --> 0:12:16.040 on with the slinky, and that is that it goes 0:12:16.080 --> 0:12:19.800 along a longitudinal wave. So just like a sound wave, 0:12:20.400 --> 0:12:23.839 basically a slinky is a sound wave slowed down or 0:12:23.880 --> 0:12:26.400 the same type of wave as a as a sound wave, 0:12:26.600 --> 0:12:29.760 and it slowed down and as the slinky is moving 0:12:30.360 --> 0:12:33.480 on a molecular level molecule, the molecule is pushing the 0:12:33.520 --> 0:12:35.960 ones in front of it forward, and then the whole 0:12:36.000 --> 0:12:41.280 thing starts over again once it reaches uh equilibrium. That 0:12:41.360 --> 0:12:44.400 sounds like a great explanation to me. Yes, No, that's 0:12:44.400 --> 0:12:47.640 all right. It avoids equilibrium. Once it hits equilibrium, it stops. 0:12:48.800 --> 0:12:50.880 But the whole thing starts with the slinky just sitting 0:12:50.920 --> 0:12:52.200 there at the top of the step, and what it 0:12:52.240 --> 0:12:54.640 has there is potential energy. It's story. Yeah, you gotta 0:12:54.679 --> 0:12:58.280 move it to get that kinetic energy going. When I 0:12:58.320 --> 0:13:01.000 was a kid, I just remember staring at it. It's 0:13:01.040 --> 0:13:03.320 like it's not doing nothing. This is where slinky and 0:13:03.400 --> 0:13:08.280 our ESP episodes collide. How's that you're just staring at slinky, 0:13:08.320 --> 0:13:11.840 willing it to move. All right, So he comes up 0:13:11.840 --> 0:13:14.319 with this little slinky. It works like a charm, his 0:13:14.400 --> 0:13:17.760 little prototype. Uh. He does the smart thing, which is 0:13:17.800 --> 0:13:20.040 if you want to find out if kids actually will 0:13:20.120 --> 0:13:24.360 enjoy it. He got the neighborhood together and uk to 0:13:24.480 --> 0:13:26.160 some kids and they went nuts. They were like, this 0:13:26.200 --> 0:13:29.719 thing is amazing. Yeah, stop hitting that other kid with 0:13:29.800 --> 0:13:31.600 those sticks and come over and play with this toy 0:13:31.720 --> 0:13:34.040 that I came up with. Let me know what you think. 0:13:34.240 --> 0:13:37.080 And they wrapped up that kid in the spring, got 0:13:37.080 --> 0:13:39.920 it caught in that kid's hair. So this is perfect. 0:13:39.960 --> 0:13:42.520 He's like, this is Gangbusters. And I mean like he 0:13:42.600 --> 0:13:47.600 saw from that very early back of the envelope market 0:13:47.640 --> 0:13:50.520 research that he did with the neighborhood kids, it made 0:13:50.559 --> 0:13:53.480 him a believer. Yeah, Like he saw that kids really 0:13:53.520 --> 0:13:57.040 were into this thing, and I got the impression that 0:13:57.120 --> 0:13:59.800 it At no point was he like this thing is 0:14:00.120 --> 0:14:03.520 is amazing, it's supernatural. He's like, this is a it's 0:14:03.559 --> 0:14:06.040 really cool. It's a spring. It's physics, but it just 0:14:06.080 --> 0:14:09.440 looks really neat and it is somehow weirdly captivating. Yeah. 0:14:09.480 --> 0:14:11.760 I think they say that one in a thousand toys 0:14:12.160 --> 0:14:15.640 hits it big, yeah, something like that. Yeah. So, I 0:14:15.640 --> 0:14:19.640 mean there are toy inventors that labor for their entire 0:14:19.680 --> 0:14:22.160 lives and never hit on something like the slinky. I mean, 0:14:22.160 --> 0:14:24.720 it's one of the top ten toys in history when 0:14:24.760 --> 0:14:33.200 they go slinky. So Betty, his wife, wasn't super Um. Well, 0:14:33.280 --> 0:14:35.680 she was a little skeptical at first, which will learn 0:14:35.760 --> 0:14:38.960 later is pretty ironic, very ironic. Um. And he actually 0:14:39.000 --> 0:14:41.280 tasted her with naming it though. And she is the 0:14:41.280 --> 0:14:44.080 one that found the word slinky in the dictionary. Apparently 0:14:44.120 --> 0:14:47.760 she spent like several weeks looking for just the right word. Well, 0:14:47.800 --> 0:14:50.480 I mean, what else was she doing? Kids? Right, exactly? 0:14:50.600 --> 0:14:53.560 She had a lot of downtime. So um, right after 0:14:53.600 --> 0:14:55.560 this break, we will talk a little bit about how 0:14:55.600 --> 0:14:59.720 it went from a just a garage neighborhood idea to 0:15:00.160 --> 0:15:19.160 one of the biggest selling toys ever. All right, so 0:15:19.200 --> 0:15:22.320 he's got a slinky, he's got the prototype, he gets 0:15:22.320 --> 0:15:25.440 a five hundred dollar a loan to start from a 0:15:25.480 --> 0:15:29.920 friend to start James Spring and Wire Company LC. Yeah, 0:15:30.240 --> 0:15:32.240 pretty good name. Yeah. Well, and you got the five 0:15:32.600 --> 0:15:35.160 bucks apparently pretty easy from the friend by just showing 0:15:35.200 --> 0:15:37.080 him the slinky. Yeah, and he was like, how much 0:15:37.080 --> 0:15:39.000 do you need? I didn't look up how much five 0:15:39.440 --> 0:15:43.520 bucks is, but uh, in but we can guess that 0:15:43.640 --> 0:15:47.880 it's uh about forty million. No, no, no, because I 0:15:47.920 --> 0:15:53.720 think it's about let's see, it was about I think 0:15:55.520 --> 0:15:58.880 bucks probably roughly today, which I mean that's substantial. They 0:15:58.920 --> 0:16:02.000 give a friend and it was enough to get things going. 0:16:02.080 --> 0:16:04.560 I think he really, I mean he had the prototype, 0:16:04.600 --> 0:16:08.800 he just needed an official company banner basically. So he 0:16:08.840 --> 0:16:13.960 has his machine shop and he has his prototype, and 0:16:14.160 --> 0:16:16.360 he gets a bunch of wire and he makes a 0:16:16.400 --> 0:16:18.880 bunch of slinkies. Well, he goes through his local machine 0:16:18.880 --> 0:16:21.760 shop first, right, So he's at his local machine shop 0:16:22.000 --> 0:16:25.920 and he and he makes four slinkies. Uh there were 0:16:25.920 --> 0:16:29.040 two and a half inches tall, contained eighty feet of wire, 0:16:29.080 --> 0:16:31.680 which that's pretty impressive. I didn't know it was nearly 0:16:31.680 --> 0:16:34.520 that much. But it makes sense, I guess because I 0:16:34.520 --> 0:16:38.080 think every kid's tried to uncoil theirs fully, you know. Yeah, 0:16:38.080 --> 0:16:41.840 And apparently slinky starts out as like normal round wire, 0:16:42.200 --> 0:16:44.760 but then they smush it to make it flat. Yeah, 0:16:44.760 --> 0:16:47.440 because it's got to be flat to perform and sit 0:16:47.480 --> 0:16:50.600 on itself. Yeah. I didn't I didn't realize though that 0:16:50.920 --> 0:16:52.760 I mean, yeah, it makes sense, but he didn't realize 0:16:52.760 --> 0:16:56.920 it started out as like a round, like diameter type wire. Yeah, 0:16:57.000 --> 0:16:59.360 but what kind of what kind of metal did he 0:16:59.440 --> 0:17:04.840 started out? Um, Swedish steel, high grade blue black Swedish steel. 0:17:05.119 --> 0:17:07.960 Guess that was the wire of the day. Um. And 0:17:08.040 --> 0:17:10.760 it was in ninety eight coils and at first they 0:17:10.800 --> 0:17:13.639 just wrapped it in parchment paper. Um. Later on I 0:17:13.640 --> 0:17:16.680 think they packaged it in just a box like it's 0:17:16.720 --> 0:17:19.159 in today, right, Actually today, I think it's in that 0:17:19.320 --> 0:17:23.000 awful plastic stuff that you can't open. Oh is it now? Well, 0:17:23.040 --> 0:17:26.120 they have a throwback you can get yeah that it's 0:17:26.119 --> 0:17:29.720 still like modeled after the original box, which is kind 0:17:29.720 --> 0:17:31.520 of neat. Yeah, So I don't see why he wouldn't 0:17:31.600 --> 0:17:35.040 get that one personally. So with the original metal slinky 0:17:35.400 --> 0:17:37.440 and the whole history from the time he walked into 0:17:37.480 --> 0:17:40.000 that metal shop the first time, once he had the 0:17:40.320 --> 0:17:46.200 prototype figured out h throughout today, there was only one 0:17:46.359 --> 0:17:48.800 design change in the whole time, and that was to 0:17:48.880 --> 0:17:51.880 crimp the ends that after it was produced to keep 0:17:51.920 --> 0:17:56.080 it from tangling. Is easy and um for safety. So 0:17:56.119 --> 0:17:58.119 it didn't like cut some kid's eye out right. So 0:17:58.160 --> 0:18:00.600 after a bunch of kid's eyes were cut out, they Acrymthian. 0:18:00.720 --> 0:18:02.480 I don't know if they had four sight or if 0:18:02.800 --> 0:18:05.600 if it wasn't response to eyes being gouged out, but 0:18:08.320 --> 0:18:10.040 and I mean still today I went on Amazon to 0:18:10.400 --> 0:18:13.280 double check and the slinky is still two and a 0:18:13.320 --> 0:18:16.439 half inches tall. It didn't say how many coils it 0:18:16.560 --> 0:18:19.800 was because they didn't get that descriptive, but that it's 0:18:19.840 --> 0:18:23.200 the same thing as it was back in five. Yeah, 0:18:23.200 --> 0:18:27.360 I'm surprised they didn't have like, uh, you know the 0:18:27.400 --> 0:18:33.160 Mega X streamlink that like um powered by Mountain Dew 0:18:33.280 --> 0:18:36.960 or something like that. You know, they probably do have that. Actually, 0:18:40.080 --> 0:18:41.960 I love that though the original slinky is still like 0:18:42.040 --> 0:18:46.560 it exact same Yeah, the original metal ones. Yeah, why 0:18:46.640 --> 0:18:50.600 change something that's perfect? Right? Right? And and so the 0:18:50.600 --> 0:18:53.840 the the James has knew that this thing was perfect, 0:18:54.080 --> 0:18:57.360 had a great name, worked really well. The neighborhood kids 0:18:57.359 --> 0:18:59.840 loved it. So of course this thing's gonna become like 0:19:00.680 --> 0:19:02.680 a hit right out of the gate, right. Nope, No, 0:19:03.960 --> 0:19:07.400 you're being coy. My friend uh he took it to 0:19:07.119 --> 0:19:11.520 uh toy stores and the there was one storekeeper said, 0:19:11.560 --> 0:19:14.199 this is the atomic age it's want big, bright, fancy 0:19:14.200 --> 0:19:16.480 things with lots of colors and lights. We couldn't give 0:19:16.480 --> 0:19:18.520 the thing away if it played God Bless America and 0:19:18.520 --> 0:19:21.240 picked up the Daily Double as it walked down the steps. 0:19:22.080 --> 0:19:25.400 That's very cynical. It is very cynical. He used exclamation 0:19:25.480 --> 0:19:29.199 points and stuff. Um, but James, Rick James was like, 0:19:29.200 --> 0:19:32.240 I'm Rick James, and you don't tell me what to 0:19:32.280 --> 0:19:35.760 do with my toys. And he got in such a Gimbals, 0:19:35.800 --> 0:19:38.760 who is very famous as the Macy's competitor from le 0:19:38.920 --> 0:19:41.199 thirty fourth Street, the only reason most of us have 0:19:41.280 --> 0:19:45.800 ever heard of Gimbals. Um and Gimbals in Philadelphia apparently 0:19:45.840 --> 0:19:48.919 said do you know what I like you? I like 0:19:49.000 --> 0:19:51.959 the way you smell. I'm going to put your toys 0:19:52.119 --> 0:19:54.560 in our Christmas display and we'll just see where it 0:19:54.600 --> 0:19:57.200 goes from there. Yeah, he was local at that, living 0:19:57.200 --> 0:19:59.200 outside of Philly, right. I wonder if that so he 0:19:59.280 --> 0:20:02.360 eventually moved outside of Philly, but I'm not sure exactly 0:20:02.400 --> 0:20:04.480 where they were at this point. It would make sense, 0:20:04.920 --> 0:20:07.560 although it's entirely possible he was hustling hard enough that 0:20:07.760 --> 0:20:10.840 he was just hitting department stores all over the Northeast. 0:20:10.960 --> 0:20:13.159 Well and Delawares not too far anyway, so yeah, they 0:20:13.200 --> 0:20:16.040 may have still been in Delaware, but they m they 0:20:16.080 --> 0:20:19.000 did talk the Philadelphia Gimbals into putting this on their 0:20:19.119 --> 0:20:25.159 Christmas display. So in Christmas November, the slinky debuts to 0:20:25.760 --> 0:20:28.320 public and it immediately takes off like a rocket. Right. 0:20:28.560 --> 0:20:35.199 No again that was double koy. Uh no it it 0:20:35.359 --> 0:20:37.639 for weeks just sat there because of course it's just 0:20:37.760 --> 0:20:41.119 this thing that kids had never seen before, the spring 0:20:41.160 --> 0:20:44.560 and parchment paper sitting between like really awesome toys. Yeah, 0:20:44.560 --> 0:20:47.280 it's just like all it's nothing but potential energy at 0:20:47.320 --> 0:20:51.080 that point, there's like a spring sitting between those atomic 0:20:51.119 --> 0:20:54.800 aged toys that that one shopkeeper was using exclamation points about, 0:20:54.920 --> 0:20:56.680 right yeah, I mean if there if there was ever 0:20:56.760 --> 0:21:01.560 a toy that needed a demonstration um to delight in amaze, 0:21:01.600 --> 0:21:06.400 it was the slinky. So very frustrated with this um, 0:21:06.680 --> 0:21:09.680 Richard James apparently said to his wife, like, I'm going 0:21:09.720 --> 0:21:12.240 down to Gimbals and I'm going to deal with this 0:21:12.320 --> 0:21:16.480 head on and um. He said, meet me there in 0:21:16.600 --> 0:21:19.200 like ninety minutes or something like that. So he went 0:21:19.240 --> 0:21:20.920 down there. He took a couple of slinkies out of 0:21:20.920 --> 0:21:24.960 their parchment paper and started looking dummies. Yeah, you stupid kids, 0:21:25.240 --> 0:21:28.680 keep your hair away, but check this out. And um 0:21:28.720 --> 0:21:31.280 he started playing with them, and apparently by the time 0:21:31.320 --> 0:21:34.399 Betty got down there, ninety minutes later, he had sold 0:21:34.440 --> 0:21:37.240 all four hundred slinkies and there was apparently a line 0:21:37.240 --> 0:21:40.639 around the block asking for more. Yeah, that sounds like 0:21:40.720 --> 0:21:44.080 such a trumped up story, but you know, I love 0:21:44.119 --> 0:21:46.399 it though. It was like, within ninety minutes, It's great. 0:21:46.680 --> 0:21:49.080