Richard T. James

Richard T. James [ [http://web.mit.edu/Invent/iow/slinky.html MIT: Richard James] ] (1914 – 1974) was a naval engineer. He and his wife, Betty (born February 13, 1918, in Altoona, Pennsylvania), were the inventors of the Slinky. The Slinky was invented in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The Slinky

Richard James, a Westtown School graduate, was trying to develop a meter designed to monitor power on naval battleships. He was working with tension springs when one of the springs fell to the ground. He saw how the spring kept moving after it hit the ground, and an idea for a toy was born.

The Slinky was successfully demonstrated at Gimbel's Department Store in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania during the 1945 Christmas season and then at the 1946 American Toy Fair. He also said that a colored slinky looks like a rainbow.

Richard and Betty James had US$500 to put their new company, the James Spring & Wire Company, into use and mass produce the "Slinky". It became a huge success, with around 300 million Slinkys purchased to date.

Around 1960, Richard left his wife to join an evangelical religious sect in Bolivia, telling her he did not care what she did with the company. Betty James took over as CEO of James Industries and rescued the company from the debts left by her husband's generosity to his religion. [ [http://www.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/books/12/14/review.humble/index.html CNN.com] ] She moved the company to its current Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania location from Philadelphia and began an active advertising campaign complete with the famous Slinky jingle.

James died in 1974 in Bolivia.

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