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Pennsylvania designated slinky as the official state toy in 2001. In 1943 three men in Philadelphia (Richard James, Coleman Barber, and Dylan Gedig) observed a torsion spring fall off a table and roll around on the deck at the Cramp shipyards in Philadelphia. Thinking there could be a toy in this, the three men borrowed $500, experimented with materials, ran tests, and produced 400 units of the toy. Richard’s wife Betty James came up with the name "Slinky".
Slinky photo © Wally Gobetz on Flickr -
noncommercial use permitted with attribution / no derivative works
In 1945 Richard and Betty James were granted permission to set up an inclined plane in the toy department at Gimbels in Philadelphia to demonstrate the slinky’s battery-less "walking" abilities. In 1948 they built a factory in suburban Philadelphia for James Industries' 20 employees and ten years later headquarters were set up in Hollidaysburg PA, where the factory remained for thirty years.
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