Many of us played with a slinky when we were little. Did you watch it somehow magically go down the stairs all on its own, too?
The creator of the slinky was a man by the name of Richard James. He was a mechanical engineer and was working to find a way to create springs that could keep certain types of ship equipment steady while out at sea. He experienced a clumsy moment and accidentally knocked some of his samples off of a shelf. He looked on as the springs walked away from their fall and knew he had something special.
“Along with his wife Betty, James developed a plan to turn his invention into the next big novelty toy. Betty combed the dictionary for an appropriate name and came up with “Slinky.” James designed a machine to coil 80-feet of wire into a two-inch spiral. The couple borrowed $500 to manufacture the first Slinkys.
Sometimes all it takes is a little mistake in order to succeed!