Inventor: Richard T. James
Patent number: 2415012
Filing date: Aug 21, 1946
Issue date: Jan 1947
Years before moving to Bolivia to join The Wycliffe Bible Translators, a group his wife described as ‘a religious cult’, Richard T. James worked as a naval engineer in Philadelphia, PA. While developing springs that could support and stabilize sensitive instruments aboard ships in rough seas during World War II he accidentally dropped a torsion spring to the ground and noticed how the spring kept moving end over end after it hit the ground. It “stepped” in a series of arcs then re-coiled itself and stood upright. It was James’ wife, Betty, who realized the potential for a toy and named it Slinky.
The couple made 400 of the toys and managed to convince Gimbels department store in Philadelphia to carry the toy for Christmas 1945. Figuring the best way to sell the Slinky was to show it in motion, they set up a ramp and showed the Slinky walking down. These first models were all sold within 90 minutes at a price of $1 each, Slinky-mania had begun! In 1946, Slinky was introduced at the American Toy Fair and to keep up with demand Richard and Betty founded James Industries to manufacture and market their product. Richard invented machines that could coil 80 feet of steel wire into a Slinky in 10 seconds.
Life seemed pretty sweet for the family, inventors of a truly modern toy and living in suburban 1950’s America. But sometime around 1960 Richard got to thinking about the Lord, he became involved with The Wycliffe Bible Translators and began to donate large sums of Slinky profits to the religion. As a result the family got into financial trouble and Richard took off to Bolivia. When Betty refused to move he told her he did not care what she did with the company. To support the family Betty James took over as CEO of James Industries and rescued the company from the debts left by her husband. She moved the company to Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania and began an active advertising campaign, complete with the famous Slinky jingle and new products like the Slinky Dog and Slinky Train. Richard never returned from Bolivia and died in 1974. Betty James died in 2008, age 90. However the Slinky lives on and has had it’s own life outside of toy town, moonlighting as a teacher demonstrating the properties of waves, a mobile radio antenna used by US troops in Vietnam and working with NASA in zero-gravity physics experiments in the Space Shuttle.
