Written By Will Grant
 

Some of the best things in life were never meant to be. Just think of your favourite food, breed of dog or childhood toy - some of these were the result of accidents and batshit crazy experiments. 

The good old-fashioned slinky was accidental, superficially bland and, yes, a little bit dangerous.

Let’s go back to one particularly scintillating afternoon in the office of Richard James, a mechanical engineer working on his device to monitor horsepower. Boring, right? Until he knocked over a spring! Fascinated by what happened next - a perfect walking motion down a stack of books - Richard James knew he was onto something. 


Eureka! The OG slinky.  

Now, a lot of work goes into turning an engineer’s spring into a beloved toy. The metal gauge, the length - every aspect of this toy was carefully considered in the precise manner that only an engineer’s mind could perform. And as for the name, well that took particular dedication from Richard’s wife, Betty. She nailed it.

But would anyone be interested in this toy? Of course, kids are the harshest toy critics, so clever Richard enlisted help from the local neighbourhood kids for one vital step in Slinky's success - product testing.


Richard’s next task was to get the toy stores to stock his new, strangely simple toy. After much haranguing, Richard got the Slinky into just one store in Philadelphia and came up with a neat in-store marketing schtick.


And then he sold a tonne of Slinkies and became a millionaire?

Well, not quite. 


Richard and Betty didn’t quite walk away with the spring in their step you’d imagine. Evangelical Christian sects and slumping sales were just some of the challenges they faced.

As for the sales, well that didn’t quite go how we’d all expect, given that the Slinky is still around today. 


Like all toys, the simple Slinky has its fair share of dangers. Can toys be murderous?


And will ChatGPT reveal any un-wholesome truths about the Slinky?

 
 
 

  • Will 00:00

    What rolls downstairs, alone or in pairs and over your neighbor's dog? It's great for a snack. It fits on your back, it's...

    00:06

    Everyone knows it's Slinky.

    Rod 00:13

    Some of the greatest and most enduring tours ever made were made by accident. Or invented or discovered like popsie. Okay, so like silly string or whatever we call it in Australia. I can't remember. It was supposed to be an incident spray on cast. Medical purposes.

    Will 00:26

    Wow. And someone said, you know, this is fun to play with though.

    Rod 00:29

    Yeah. Wow. Okay, if someone accidentally went and empty the whole container across the room, and they said, This is hilarious. Yeah, okay. Playdough was originally created to clean wallpaper.

    Will 00:46

    Clean wallpaper. I'm rubbing my walls with the playdough.

    Rod 00:52

    Silly Putty. You know that magical googoo I come where we used to call it in Australia, but I had it as like a kind of like silly string and silly putty together. Doctors were trying to create synthetic rubber. But instead they just made this fun goo goo stuff.

    Will 01:07

    Okay. Okay, well, it sounds like they were starting in the gooey space, the gooey bouncy space came up with a bunch of other things.

    Rod 01:15

    All toys, all toys. Okay, that was the accident when some weren't accidental, but they were batshit crazy.

    Will 01:21

    I want to ask you, I wanted to see if like the Tonka truck was accidental you're trying to make a...

    Rod 01:26

    I was trying to make a big truck, but it shrank.

    Will 01:31

    Oh, I just need a truck for moving really tiny, tiny loads.

    Rod 01:36

    I thought the plans were one to one. I didn't realise there was a scale involved. I still got to all the metal Tonka Trucks from the 70s When I was a kid, and that should you cannot buy any more because I make them out of plastic.

    Will 01:47

    It's all well no one's from the 70s are metal and asbestos. To make authentic building site Tonka Trucks, and probably a bit of DDT.

    Rod 01:57

    And I've never gotten malaria from it. And it's never burned down. I'm okay. The batshit crazy ones. For example, the Gilbert you 238 Atomic Energy Lab, which included uranium all three kinds toy? Yep. It's my little uranium lab. But it also had a Geiger counter. So don't worry, you can tell

    Will 02:19

    Tell me where the uranium is. This is how I get you give a kid a Geiger counter that they need. They need to see something that's going to make it go to the clicks. Oh, two three types of uranium?

    Rod 02:29

    Yeah, three different kinds of fuel but again, had a glassblowing set. I think a glass is exactly Cypher anticodon anyway, now Milter. Still 500 degrees Celsius plus in order to make them malleable.

    Will 02:43

    Does it say get your mother or father to do this bit?

    Rod 02:45

    Not here.

    Will 02:48

    I would have been all over that as a kid. I the idea. The idea of having your own glassblowing kit as a kid.

    Rod 02:55

    Oh, those are some batshit crazy ones. The other ones that I really liked. Remember those. We never had them when I was alive. But shoes that basically just had springs on the bottom and they call them like Moon shoes. And the springs were shit you couldn't really jump but they could make you fall over or break your ankle strap. Basically there's two bits of wood to your feet in the head spring. So in theory, you could bounce around like you're on the moon.

    Will 03:13

    It smells like an idea I get that someone in the in the toy lab or the shoe lab is like okay, well, let's try spring see what happens. Yeah. So it asked me something that shouldn't have actually been released as a product.

    Rod 03:23

    Not ever. Not ever. No, we didn't have them. No, I never had them either. I think they've been before me. But some of the biggest losses we've had. We've had accidental we've had batshit crazy yeah, also some kind of extremely bland roots like the Frisbee and the hula hoop frisbee was a pie dish, the Frisbee.

    Will 03:38

    That makes sense, I get that. You see that, and you go I'm just going to chuck that and go wow, that worked. And she flew and hula hoops. I can't remember there was they were also pie dish. A pie dish. Were you making this sort of round pie with no no bottom or top or like eggs? You know you have you have like a poacher. Yeah, like oh no, like, like you're trying to maximise egg rings. If you're doing if you're doing 100 eggs all at once, then you need a giant egg ring.

    Rod 03:59

    And there's really a weekend that goes by where I'm not doing 100 eggs all at once. No, it'd be delicious. Today anyway, I'm gonna dive into a toy that was accidental and superficially bland, and maybe a little bit dangerous too.

    Will 04:20

    Welcome to The Wholesome Show, the podcast that spends hours playing with the whole of science. I'm Will Grant.

    Rod 04:28

    I'm Rob Lamberts and you look very attractive.

    Will 04:31

    I love to play. I love toys. Toys are awesome. Yeah,

    Rod 04:33

    Ditto. I'm a huge toy fan. I don't have enough time anymore. I have a large I have a large enough time to build something appropriate of Lego takes days. I don't do instructions. I have all the Lego and I just make sure that I like to. I like to architecture. I love to architecture. No you don't understand that because you never had a childhood he was trying to make today this is important. What tonic water spiders

    Will 04:57

    it was it was a thought that it might be fun.

    Rod 04:59

    For child. Tonic water spiders. You're a monster.

    Will 05:03

    Has anyone tried it before? Child Protective you know, you know my my family has a little bit of a claim to food invention. So my grandfather as I think I've talked to before he he was the first one to heat up a meat pie in a microwave. Yes. He also claims I don't believe this one, but he claims he invented Hedgehog in your mango. Fuck if he did. Yeah, I know. It's worth knowing I owe him a lot worth nothing. It's delicious. But also I invented the bacon Chronos you didn't know I was there? We exactly I was there so you know, the grown up being the Croissant? Croissant. Donut. Yeah. And then you chop it in the middle. You put some bacon in.

    Rod 05:39

    Because bacon so good with French toast.

    Will 05:41

    Shockingly healthy.

    Rod 05:43

    So in 1943 We're starting back there. So there was a marine engineer called Richard James and I'm gonna call him Dick. By no one else did but why wouldn't you know us his name Dick. We can't just invent someone's name, and we're inventing it. So Dick was working at his desk at the William Cramp and Sons shipyards in Philadelphia. He was trying to develop a special metre to monitor the horsepower output on naval battleships.

    Will 06:06

    How many horsepower do we have? Yeah, I imagine they're pretty large naval battleship and

    Rod 06:09

    it's like, eight or 10. Easy.

    Will 06:10

    Like if you're dragging them with horses, you're gonna need a lot of horses to drag their naval battleship through the water.

    Rod 06:15

    And a very long rope. Seahorses I guess. But the metre wasn't the challenge. The metre itself not the challenge. The challenge was the seas going bouncy, bouncy, bouncy. And that throws it off.

    Will 06:24

    Oh, so you're not getting 100% in accuracy.

    Rod 06:26

    You can't tell. You don't know how many horses some of the horses get left out and they don't like that.

    Will 06:31

    Sure. Okay. Doesn't sound like a huge problem doesn't sound like it's gonna lead to a toy either.

    Rod 06:35

    Oh, very quickly, you're gonna realise what it is. So he thought How do I make it more stable? I gotta make it more stable. That's my job. That's my Dick job. Because it's no different. You're welcome. So he's tinkering with all kinds of springs. Find the right gauge of metal to stop it from bouncy, bouncy, bouncy. If it was too stiff, it would bounce too much because not enough absorption of the balloon spoons. too sloppy, too floppy. So he's sitting there at his desk and he turns away from all the things he's checking out, check his email or whatever they did in 1943. Probably the most. And yeah, he bumps a spring on his desk. It falls off his desk. He was flabbergasted, fell off his desk and walked down a stack of books. And it got to the bottom it got to the bottom and we just ended up in a nice, clean pipe.

    Will 07:23

    You have to be so happy with that moment. So happy you're like the universe just revealed itself to me.

    Rod 07:32

    So he went wow, this is awesome. And his first reaction of course was this would be a fully sick toy. They of course it would say rush home to to Mr. Dick. Okay, his wife Betty. She's excited too. So it's time to prototype. So for two years, he experimented with different links and metallurgical formulas. Sorry, Formula e.

    Will 07:50

    Is he still doing any work? Or is he tested out completely on work to go? Navin springs now it's spring. This is this is this spring? Sorry, love. I've quit work. I'm just done springs.

    Rod 08:00

    This is gonna make us fucking rich. Sweetheart, get on board. So the problem with the original spring was a bit too thick and heavy. Like it wasn't convenient. And so he knocked out a few prototypes, I assume in his shed. And so he'd done a few prototypes, and he went around to the neighbourhood kids not in a creepy way and said do you want to try it? What do you reckon? And after a while in a creepy way still creepy. Want to try my spring?

    Will 08:22

    I know. I know that. It seems okay. Because 40's. Innocent times. Certainly Hitler. Want to talk try my spring. Now they love it. See? They loved it. That seems creepy.

    Rod 08:32

    But they loved the spring they're really excited. So he came up with the perfect formula finally 80 feet of wire 600 metres.

    Will 08:40

    What 80 feet is not 600 metres, give give or take give the listener a real conversion? 28 Yeah, good.

    Rod 08:47

    Would you reckon 28? Yes about that. Now the wire then got wound around 98 times which is 500 times in metric 98 times Imperial times

    Will 08:56

    is the same that even Americans couldn't come up with an idea that that yet one time was one and a half times in metric is that's that's ridiculous.

    Rod 09:05

    Metric times. And it was stacked into a coil two and a half inches high, which is about five centimetres, right? I'm used to talking converting inches to centimetres. That's just important to me. So the magic specs meant that the energy from the first push along the length of the coil, in what is known as a longitudinal wave signs time, that made it do what it did because there's no compression or some such shit. But what he said was it's the closest or someone else said it's the closest we can come to perpetual motion. Hypothetically, once you kick it off, it will go forever.

    Will 09:34

    The closest a toy can come to perpetual motion. I see leaving the door open like I get I get adult inventors. You might have it but you know if you're inventing a toy, perpetual motion machine, this is the one for you. Like candy, the real one but I gotta I gotta get a tiny one. It's like the Tonka. I feel like if you invent a toy that is a perpetual motion machine.

    Rod 09:53

    Yeah, you've invented a perpetual motion machine.

    Will 09:55

    Do you have you have you could probably go hey, I can sell this idea to adults as well. Every one in the universe

    Rod 10:01

    I just toys just so anyway, it worked really well. He was happy with that but it needed a name and this is where Betty Mrs. Dick came on. So she searched for the dictionary for hours and she finally settled on slinky through the dictionary. Apparently, even then, because it meant either depending on the source, sinuous and slender Yes, well when referring particularly to ladies clothing, sleek and graceful

    Will 10:22

    like a slinky dress, I guess I get that the the arc of it curving over it has some sort of definitely slinky type coupe

    Rod 10:29

    talking it's a spring I'm hearing the arc What are you talking about spring ladies dresses were brought to you by ladies dresses, just

    Will 10:38

    Just generally

    Rod 10:39

    all of them.

    Will 10:39

    I always love when when generic things advertise like bananas.

    Rod 10:46

    Brought to you by food. This product or service. Brought to you by eating. So anyway, that's what Betty came up with. So boom, we have a product name. Time to go into production and market these bad boys. So Dick, Richard James, got a loan for 500 bucks, which is probably about 10k today each so it's not huge, but it's you know, it's got to pay back. And he founded James industries in Philadelphia, I would have gone with Dickie industries, but you know, that's just me. Seriously, we're not going to work with I really don't think your life is easy. And I don't think it's fair. So he designed and engineered all the equipment they used to create the spring this slinky. And the first run was 400. And he got to meet a local machine shop after time.

    Will 11:36

    I hope there are some first run Slinkys still out there. blinkies I hope they're often first run Slinkys

    Rod 11:43

    uh, you know, I don't know that's a good question. That's cool. Their hand wrapped in yellow paper and they were made of high grade blue, black Swedish steel. You know, the one

    Will 11:52

    damn, no, it sounds like very good steel

    Rod 11:55

    It was Swedish. Everything in Sweden is better, except for the racism and the alcohol laws very, very strict and weird. So I was trying to get them in front of the masses we've done the marketing or the creation, the production. Let's get them in front of people. So toy stores. Let's talk to toy stores. And they go

    Will 12:12

    What? It's just the spring. Yeah, it's a spring but it's a great spring. Look at this spring.

    Rod 12:17

    Where do I wind it up? Why isn't my...

    Will 12:19

    I can understand that I can understand it doesn't look like any other toy. None of that is there at the moment. There's it's not a board game. It's not a car. It's not...

    Rod 12:27

    what does it do, look? So finally though he found eagles and convinces apparently this famous department store in Philadelphia Gimbels. So he goes into gimbals and he sets up an inclined plane. A ramp. Yeah. Good a timber that's higher at one end than the other for those listening at home who don't understand the technical jargon.

    Will 12:45

    I hope you drag this out over a long time. Like he did like a really elaborate stage show told some jokes. He's like you wait, you wait, this thing is gonna be this this this? Drag it over? What is it nine hours. Now everything happens in the last four seconds...

    Rod 12:47

    Like this episode nine our episode our first. So he's got the ramp set up in the toy section. And he goes, and it goes. That's cool. People went fucking apeshit bananas, but it's a generic pronounced Elvis and the Beatles wrapped into his squats. Yeah. So all 400 sold in less than an hour and a half gone.

    Will 13:21

    Okay, that's good. That's good. Yeah,

    Rod 13:23

    Yeah. They went nuts. So what do they cost? This is where Betty came in. And she started to exert influence. So she said an interview later in the New York Times. So many children can't afford expensive toys. And she felt a real obligation to them. And she was appalled when she'd go shopping at Christmas and a toy would be 60 or 80 bucks back then. That was a but tonne.

    Will 13:40

    Oh, yeah. Okay, so yeah, yeah.

    Rod 13:43

    Hundreds. Yeah, heaps of money. So she said we've got to keep this thing affordable. So I was good for her.

    Will 13:49

    I would be surprised if a slinky was going to be in the 100 bucks. No, I want to like no matter what steel it's made out of. He made it out of samurai steel. A folded 400 times I don't want a slinky that's in the multi hundreds but

    Rod 14:03

    so they saw them for a buck. So it's probably about 15 bucks a day give or take us. Okay, so addicts machines, or the dick machines, I should say should return out Slinkys like a single slinky in a few seconds. Done. Which is good because they went on to sell 20,000 Before Christmas that year. This was November they first put them out there. They now put them in a black lettered box, so is probably a little boxy boo. The following year, more than 250,000 in the following two to 10 years, depending on the source doesn't really matter because they sold 100 million. Wow. 100 Fucking million Slinkys Wow. times $1

    Will 14:42

    Yeah, who could work out how much money that's like $40 billion. It's something. It's Wow, that

    Rod 14:47

    It's insane, right? But in today's money that was the 100 million was billions and probably still is Yeah. Wow. And so Dick would go on television shows promoting the slinky they saturated America with AD attire is like going off going off. So it's all beer and Skittles, rainbows. moonbeams everything fabulous. And we're done. Hope you enjoyed it. Tune in next week for other stories. So this is the 19 late 1940s by the 1950s they were freaking killing it. The Joneses were going off making money. They had a family home on 12 acres in Bryn Mawr, which is apparently a fancy place in Philadelphia.

    Will 15:25

    Okay. please tell me the mansion is all decorated with like, just spring is made out and you got to celebrate the stuff that made you made your billions and they wore those shoes around. I feel like I feel like it should be a celebration of triumph for slinky sleeping.

    Rod 15:38

    I don't think it was. So by the mid 50s sales were slumping. However, that's a bummer. And it became deeply involved with a Christian group full of people that he considered to be dubious characters. Dubious Christians to be I know, she said Betty said she didn't know a lot about them only that it was an evangelical Christian sect and she thought there's probably a cult and a few sources. There's a number of sources on this a few sources said it was probably might have been the whitecliff Bible translators of America. Okay, okay, which sounds like a very strange Social Club. And their job. They're an alliance of organisations and their objective was to translate the Bible into every language Dothraki and Klingon Of course,

    Will 16:22

    God Yeah, what a way to spend your time

    Rod 16:25

    because they're the fucking no way to spend rocky people cool as hell no, that's fine. Klingons but they have

    Will 16:31

    public like they're like they have a wedding and everyone. No, they don't Klingons do not know they are behind closed doors, people and other

    Rod 16:39

    people just said this. This group of Christians were just exceptionally enthusiastic bunches of Episcopalians.

    Will 16:46

    Not all Christians are exceptionally atheistic, but I think many might be.

    Rod 16:50

    apparently, it's not clear what they're enthusiastic about. So whatever they were just regardless, dig starts testifying at revival meetings and making substantial financial contributions to them. Cool. And in an interview that I was reading about in a 2001 article from the street, nope. Betty said she was asked, why did he get into this shit? And she said, look, he was a charismatic man. He'd gotten used to being a big shot. He liked the attention, particularly when he was confessing his sins.

    Will 17:19

    He liked the attention when he's committing is confessing his sins. But that's, is he confessing publicly?

    Rod 17:26

    I'm sure the whatever they are, but for whitecliff Bible translators or whatever they were, so the interview goes on says Did he have personal issues that might have led to his conversion? She said, look, he was a philanderer. Oh, okay. He was doing the external to marriage boning business, right. And she found out. They had a chat, but he stayed with them for the sake of their six children.

    Will 17:49

    So he's definitely philandering in the marriage as well.

    Rod 17:53

    Yeah. Six times anyway. So she went along to one of their meetings just to see what it was like, and the only quote I found on that was she was mortified. So what Sheldon into it. But whatever they were into this group in the early 1960s, Dick left the company so he left the James industries spring, he's not in Slinkys anymore, but worked out. Jesus. That was in early 1960. I think February. By July, he abandoned his wife, he abandoned the six kids and he moved to Bolivia, how Gam which is a group so apparently left the company in his family and financial turmoil. Oh, but he did say, Look, you guys can sell a business. You can run it yourself. Do what you like to you. I'm outta here. What Betty do. Betty decided to keep the slinky business going. But it was on the verge of bankruptcy. They could put heaps of money into the religious interest as it was put millions of dollars in unpaid bills. Oh, okay. Thanks, champ. Yeah, so Betty apparently begged the creditors to be patient and they agreed. Sure. It's unusual.

    Will 18:54

    Well, no, it's not because they know if the money's not there, then why they kind of all they have is patients they have breaking legs and patients and breaking legs doesn't help you get money. It doesn't and you don't want to go straight to breaking legs. No, I think you say alright, she said can you be patient you accept the offer.

    Rod 19:09

    I won't break your leg straight away. So in 63, she brought the slinky to the New York Toy Show with a new catchy jingle which is playing on TV.

    Will 19:16

    Finally, that's what was gonna say they need to they need to up the market and get a catchy jingle.

    Rod 19:21

    You probably have heard it or rip off silver grin and Stimpy did a great one when they were always selling placing placing walks down the aisle saying get more. I actually don't know the two

    Will 19:30

    What rolls downstairs, alone or in pairs or over your neighbor's dog.

    Rod 19:35

    That's Ren and Stimpy

    Will 19:35

    Oh, now that's the same one is

    Rod 19:37

    That's log log log. log log.

    Will 19:40

    It's great for a snack. It fits on your back. It's big.

    Rod 19:42

    It's heavier than wood. It's better than bad. It's good. Yes, that's what they're ripping off.

    Will 19:47

    I didn't know that was based on something slinky that's perfectly happy with log log cross

    Rod 19:53

    it was funny. We need visible log and invisible log becomes in pants and pulls on..

    Will 20:00

    slinky. Yeah, at this point you could you could use technology and play it for me and I would I would be excited

    Rod 20:06

    Alex can use technology and play it for you. He's very good. But then you won't be listening because you can't multitask.

    Will 20:13

    I can multitask watch like,

    20:15

    walk there without a care when so high in the sky bounce up and down to like a clown. Everyone knows it's Slinky the best president to give again, but costs a little too by the end of the day when you're ready to play. Everyone knows it clean keep it clean, keep it clean, keep the final semester the time It's Slinky, it's Slinky. keep the favour of girls and boys. It's Slinky, it's Slinky, It's Slinky, it's Slinky at the same time everyone wants a Slinky,you want to get a Slinky.

    Rod 21:00

    So Betty had been instrumental also in coming up with spin off slinky products like slinky train called loco. The Slinky worm Susie sure and the slinky crazy eyes. Yeah, the glasses that they then they got to do their own bubble out dad. Genius. That's good. That's not perpetual motion, though. But the one that really seemed to boosted the standing and actually made them survive was the Slinky Dog. And that became famous in the 1990s. Because it's Toy Story. Yeah, yeah. 1995. So I got a bite. And it's got a front and then it's doing is it's like slinky. Yeah. So really nail something to one end of each of the slinky and you've got a slinky something

    Will 21:37

    Oh, my mind has gone straight to all of the things. Frankie cabbage.

    Rod 21:40

    Slinky cabbage. Yeah, if grits at the bottom leaves at the top.

    Will 21:44

    Cabbage, half cabbage on each side.

    Rod 21:46

    So the Slinky dog before the movie, the annual sales of the Slinky Dog are in the hundreds after the movie 12,000 a year the following year, the year after that 33,000 up to 40,000 are all in the same year. So the year after the movie February 12,000. April 33,000. July 40,000. Wow. So when the fuck off? It's getting it's going well, let's get into the you know, the slinky companies to

    Will 22:08

    free advertising did it do they paid? Were their toy companies that did like product placement in Toy Story. They said like sure, like Pixar went around and said, Hey, this is going to be cool. It's going to be going to be pretty good. Your mind is going to be blown. There's talking toys. There's no humans, but you know, they all look cool. So the main characters are set. We own them. That's Disney. But if you want to get your character in here,

    Rod 22:28

    Do you want to sneak the uranium kid in there? Fuck yeah. So it ended up I think he got back in business. And obviously they still exist. What happened to decloak. So Bolivia, he went to Bolivia. And Betty wasn't sure she didn't think it was a really sort of crazy suicide sex call. There was more just like a mission. Okay, I said at one point she heard he was printing religious tracts for Bolivians. And every now and then she'd get accusatory letters from him urging her to repent and asking her to leave the children and join him in Bolivia.

    Will 22:58

    Why not bring the children and then they can repent as well leave them like I get I get the whole repent. Yeah, it's still telling people a little bit but bring the kids

    Rod 23:08

    leave the kids do what's better when he was saying this. The kids were aged two or 468 16 and 18 while the 18 year old. Yeah, so one of them.

    Will 23:19

    I just come on man. Leave the kids for Jesus. Repent. Jesus ever said ever save your children abandoned your children and I'm pretty confident he didn't say children are moderately portable. It's like they they're set in cement.

    Rod 23:33

    They do move around and some of them are quite light. Anyway, he died of a heart attack in Bolivia in 1974.

    Will 23:42

    Did he ever get back into Slinkys? No, there wasn't a fight either.

    Rod 23:45

    There was it? I love you slinky not religious religious religious believe you believe you believe you better you however, ran the company for nearly 40 years until she sold the company to pork products. Poof I assume because American p w f I told you we'd come back roof products in 1998. By the end of the 90s the history and Discovery Channel's name slinky one of the 20th century's top 10 toys. It's definitely it's up there 9099 And got its own stamp. Stamp the American Delta slinky now yeah, it's these guys Slinkys now it's like here's a picture of a slinky send a stamp. It was 2010 to the she was a inductee into the Toy Hall of Fame. Then she was in 2001 a Toy Industry Association Hall of Fame Inductee died in 2008. Age 90. So she did well. Okay. But before we close at the beginning, I said I put slinky in the company of toys that were accidental. Yeah, superficially bland, and maybe just a little dangerous.

    Will 24:57

    What do you mean dangerous? No one died of a slinky.

    Rod 25:00

    You know what, you know what the face has given me right now people listening is like, oh boy murdered his childhood.

    Will 25:09

    Well, obviously, straightaway, I'm thinking of the ways that you could die of slinky. And I'm going to help you they they are not.

    Rod 25:19

    They're not slinky. They don't seem like light ladies gossamer like clothing.

    Will 25:25

    Oh Jesus Christ.

    Rod 25:27

    Your God, I can't...

    Will 25:28

    It just just it just brings to mind. You know, a long time ago, I was doing a little bit of work. We're editing journal articles. Yeah, helping to proofread English and stuff like that. So this was not but anyway, it was. So we got random, like totally random maybe on any any topic is helping but I distinctly remember a long stream of quite a few in a row, that were all insertions,

    Rod 25:53

    oh, things you can put in place as you shouldn't.

    Will 25:55

    And it was really, you know, do we really need to be documenting this journal? It's like, it's like I got a photo of this. This one. This one got all the way to there. Jesus Christ.

    Rod 26:04

    So it was this thing he accidental? Yes. Superficially bland. Fuck, yes. It's a spring. What about a little bit dangerous, like couldn't actually compete with eight year olds playing with uranium or putting molten glass near their mouths? I really wanted to know,

    Will 26:19

    did you really?

    Rod 26:20

    Oh, god. Yeah. You know,

    Will 26:21

    how did you get to this place in your mind where you thought, You know what I am desperate to know. What was the search string that took you here?

    Rod 26:28

    I'm going to tell you. Okay. In the end, I went very modern, but we'll get to that. So I did a quick search. And I waited. I'm like, here it comes. Come on. Cover me an awful. So there was a time when a mini slinky was made. Tiny slinky. Uh huh. It had a bit too much chromium. Oh, whoa. And that can be a bit tricky. I didn't know. And apparently kids could choke on it. And I'm like, chromium because it was small. Because it was small. That's not very interesting because there's no specific cases it's like a possibility and I thought my possibility why possibility ain't no story. No, I know. I know. I was disappointed like my little face Phil. Sort of my big face and then I thought like I'm going to keep hunting undefined worse things. So I really started searching so this turned up a US Consumer Product Safety Commission, quote, toy related deaths and injuries calendar year 2005 for children under 15 and I thought Goldmine slinky fucking murder

    Will 27:23

    You didn't think gold mine, you thought murder tragedy city.

    Rod 27:26

    Yes of gold.

    Will 27:27

    All of my tears are erupting out of my body right now.

    Rod 27:30

    Every hole, tragedy City of Gold. So there were a total of 20 deaths. Children under 15 toy related now recorded that year. Number one balls. Choking six out of 20

    Will 27:42

    Yeah, I get that. That's Yeah, makes sense. Yeah. And balls come in literally every size they do so so there's a size to fit every John's gullet.

    Rod 27:50

    Like it's every trachea can be blocked by a bull. God number two tricycles. Jesus. I

    Will 27:58

    t's like, it's like farmers. It's farmers on quad bikes and the kid version kid equivalent.

    Rod 28:03

    Here's my favourite though with the tricycles. Two of the three out of 20 who died. Motor Vehicle involvement, one of them drowning. The obvious risk with a tricycle.

    Will 28:15

    I sort of say it's probably not the tricycle. No, it's the pool. It'd be the water. I think we

    Rod 28:23

    They were wearing pants. The pants drowning. I'm drowning in tricycles. Yeah, like it's, it's not right. It's bullshit. Number 3/3 place with 10 others. One out of 20 deaths slinky and or ribbon. strangulation. won in 19 in 2005 in the US, so I thought not not good enough. I want more. I want more. So then I don't want more.

    Will 28:45

    I want more. No, you don't want more

    Rod 28:47

    More stories, not tragedy. I don't like tragedy. I kept trying. I looked at slinky. Weird slinky crime slinky bad slinky evil slinky tragedies slinky freak Linky evil thinking evil

    Will 29:00

    What the hell is Slinky evil like it's not coming to life.

    Rod 29:04

    Are you a metallurgist and or engineer? Slinky freaks Thank you weird slinky pervert. What the hell nothing. And there's a piece in The Atlantic nothing. I found nothing. Even a piece in The Atlantic let me down and they've never let me down. They writing about split the slinky and I'm like, Come on, guys. So finally I went okay, this is how I ended I went modern. I turned to chat. GPT. Okay, so it's like, no. I said, first up, tell me five scary things about the slinky. So it's fake. No, it's all true. As you will see, it said Of course, I'm an AI model. I can't really tell you I don't perceive scary means however, here's some unsettling and or uncomfortable facts about the slinky entanglement. They can become tangled and that's annoying. Yeah, yeah, sure. So that's a danger. You'll get the shit annoying doesn't mean scary strangulation. We've gone through that choking hazard. We've mentioned that um, for damages to surfaces.

    Will 30:00

    It actually likes things to be pristine

    Rod 30:01

    What a nightmare. My benchtop has a scratch on the slinky. And then of course material hazards like if you eat it and stuff, and vintage ones apparently contain lead based paint not not not good enough. What are the worst ways I said to it to play with a slinky? What is in your brain? Thinking? It said, Look, I don't have personal personal preferences. I'm a language model bla bla, but I can provide you with some potential safety concerns when playing with the slinky. One, putting the slinky around your neck. shock shock. Two, throwing the slinky at someone talking about clutching at straws. Why number two? Don't throw shit at people.

    Will 30:38

    Yeah, exactly what I kind of imagined just goes bush in the air and it's long and annoying. hit you in the head. But if that's rustling Yeah, you wouldn't be

    Rod 30:45

    No you don't. Because it could lead to conjunctivitis. Three, use the slinky or using the slinky near fragile objects. If it gets out of control, it could break a vase or glasses. It's not really terrifying. Stretching it too far. You'll break it and shit. Number five, swallowing it. This is an obvious danger according to

    Will 31:08

    This is why ChatGPT remains an idiot though,

    Rod 31:12

    and it says at the end. Remember always use caution when playing with a slinky and be mindful of those around you. So thank you. So I was desperate. This is my final is all I had left. I was desperate. Give me something. So I said to ChatGPT write me a heavy metal song about the slinky because I thought this has got to at least get satanic at the best lines. I won't read the whole thing will sing it because it didn't give me a tune. Verse one ends with a metal snake it's never found. The chorus however, slinky slinky a metal delight a toy that's always ready to fight. Now like that makes no sense. It's a symbol of fun a symbol of play a toy that will never fade away find the bridge. It's a metal coil that never dies. A toy that never tells lies. I'm like what toy tells lies last Sunday. It's not doing well. So that's the best chat GPT could give me which is fucking lame. So my takeaway my takeaway from this thinking story is it's even too wholesome for us. It's there's nothing there's nothing dirty about it. There's nothing wrong about it. There's a bit of a cult it did murder some kids, not on its own and many other things have moved on what shoe laces have killed more people will be used to kill more people. It's too wholesome for us. But I got I've got no choice. I have to I have to go through with this. One a let down. There are many sources they're listed. I don't think one was more important than the other. I mean, The Straight Dope that had some good interview with Eddie. So have you liked the slinky? No more or less than you did before?

    Will 32:41

    Well, how do I like you? More or less than before? I'll frickin answer that.

Will Grant
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