In 1943, engineer Richard James of greater Philadelphia was working in his home laboratory to invent a set of springs that could be used to support sensitive instruments on board ships and stabilize them even in rough seas. When he once accidentally knocked one of his springs off a shelf, James saw that, rather than flopping in a heap onto the floor, the spring "stepped" in a series of arcs from the shelf, to a stack of books, to a tabletop, to the floor, where it re-coiled itself and stood upright.
The Jameses founded James Industries, in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, to market their product. Richard invented machines that could coil 80 feet of steel wire into a Slinky® in about 10 seconds. By the time of its 50th anniversary (1995), that same company, using those same machines, had sold over a quarter of a billion Slinkys®, all over the world.
Matt: WRONG
Record: 156-131
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