Slinky or the "Lazy Spring" is a toy consisting of a helical spring that stretches and can bounce up and down. It can perform a number of tricks, including traveling down a flight of steps end-over-end as it stretches and re-forms itself with the aid of gravity and its own momentum.  The toy was invented and developed by naval engineer Richard James in the early 1940s and demonstrated at Gimbels department store in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in November 1945.



The toy was a hit, selling its entire inventory of 400 units in ninety minutes. James and his wife Betty formed James Industries in Philadelphia to manufacture Slinky and several related toys such as the Slinky Dog and Suzie, the Slinky Worm.  High school teachers and college professors have used Slinkys to simulate the properties of waves, United States troops in the Vietnam War used them as mobile radio antennas as have amateur radio operators, and NASA has used them in zero-gravity physics experiments in the Space Shuttle.

But what happened to Slinky?

You still find them in shops but they are not as popular as they used to be.  In 1999, the United States Postal Service issued a Slinky postage stamp.  The Slinky was inducted into the Toy Hall of Fame in 2000. A bill to nominate the slinky as the state toy of Pennsylvania was introduced by Richard Geist in 2001 but not enacted.  The same year, Betty James was inducted into the Toy Industry Association's Hall of Fame.  In 2003, Slinky was named to the Toy Industry Association's "Century of Toys List", a roll call of the 100 most memorable and most creative toys of the twentieth century.

Take a look at this old advert from the 1960's for Slinky :-)