Slinky Trivia
The Slinky is a classic toy. Here is a little trivia behind it:
- Naval Engineer Richard James came up with the idea of the slinky after a tension spring he was working with fell and began to "walk" across the floor.
- Richard's wife Betty came up with the name.
- Slinkys were first sold at Gimbel's Department Store for the 1945 Christmas season.
- In 1948, they opened a factory to build the Slinky toy.
- More than 250 million Slinkys have been sold.
- The Slinky jingle: "It's Slinky, it's Slinky, for fun it's a wonderful toy. It's Slinky, it's Slinky, it's fun for a girl and a boy."
- If you stretch a standard Slinky out flat, it would measure 87 feet long.
- During the Vietnam War, Slinkys were used as mobile antennas.
- The Slinky is the Official State Toy of Pennsylvania.