ANSWERS: 3
  • Have you not ever noticed how the slinky appears to be an over sized... spring? therefore i can easily see how it could be an industrial application. :)
  • I've always failed to see how you make it move down the stairs personally.
  • It wasn't intended to be used in a machine, but was a by-product of a search for an anti-vibration device : The Slinky™ was invented by Philadelphia engineer Richard T. James in the mid-1940s. The Slinky™ is a toy made of a steel or plastic coil that tumbles smoothly down a flight of stairs. It wasn't James's intention to create a toy. The Slinky™ was actually the result of a failed attempt to produce an antivibration device for ship instruments—something that would absorb the shock of waves. When James accidentally knocked one of his steel spirals off a shelf, he saw it literally crawl, coil by coil, to a lower shelf, onto a stack of books, down to the tabletop, and finally come to rest, upright, on the floor. James' wife, Betty, saw its potential as a toy and named it "slinky." Betty James, now age 78, still runs James Industries, the company she founded with her husband in 1946 to market the toy Slinky™. from http://science.enotes.com/science-fact-finder/general-science-technology/who-invented-slinky Kind of like Post-It ™ notes was a by-product of an attempt to invent a new glue.

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