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Some inventions that are mistakes are ones that you can play with. Once in a while, you might play with your dog, with a friend, or by yourself and be using an invention that was actually a mistake. What do you think of that?

Frisbee

Can you believe the Frisbee was invented 2,700 years ago? Well, actually, it wasn’t, really. Frisbee (discus) throwing was part of the early Olympic games in Greece. The design of the Frisbee is similar to the discus thrown in the games. Yet, the Frisbee is a Frisbee, not a discus.

The original Frisbee was spelled Frisbie and it was made of metal. The metal one was not invented to be thrown like it is today. It was made to throw into the oven. It was a pie tin and on it were words that read "Frisbie Pies." The tins were named Frisbie Pies because they came from the Frisbie Bakery in Bridgeport, Connecticut. The pie tins probably would have done nothing more but hold pies, except for some Yale University students who started playing with the tins. After the students ate the pies, they started throwing the tins to each other. They would yell, "Frisbie!" to the person they were throwing the tin to, or to warn others who were walking nearby.

Walter F. Morrison made the first plastic model of a Frisbee. The Wham-O Manufacturing Company of San Gabriel, California, began making Frisbee discs in the mid 1950’s and since 1957 has made 16 models.

Now about 30 companies make flying discs of many shapes, designs, and colors. There are now Frisbee tournaments, Frisbee golf, and clubs and championships for flying discs. Every once in a while you see dogs that have been trained to catch Frisbees, playing in the park with their owners and even performing on television.

Slinky

During World War II, in 1943, an engineer in the United States Navy (Richard James) was on a ship’s trial run. As he worked, a spring fell on the floor. It flipped-flopped and bounced around on the floor as he watched. When he got home, Richard remembered how the coiled spring flipped-flopped in an interesting way. Richard and his wife Betty took a long steel ribbon and tightly coiled it into a spiral. They started production in 1945. From that spring’s accidental fall came a toy that kids have enjoyed for over 50 years, called the Slinky.

The Slinky isn’t electrical, no batteries are required, yet it has amazed generations of children and adults. More than 2 million Slinkies have been sold since it was invented. The only change to the Slinky since it was invented has been to crimp the ends for safety. Richard’s wife, Betty James is now the company President and the Slinky is still hopping, skipping, and bouncing across floors all over America.

Silly Putty

There is a lot of sand on the Earth, in fact there are millions of tons of it. In the sand chemists can pull out a chemical element called silicon. During World War II, The United States government needed rubber for airplane and truck tires, boots for soldiers, and many other uses. Rubber was difficult to get during the war because rubber came from trees that grew in Africa. Since silicon was so available, the government asked many different large companies to have their engineers try to make a rubber substitute out of silicon.

At General Electric, in 1944, one of the engineers working with the silicon experiments was James Wright. One day he was running a test on silicon oil where he added boric acid to the oil. At the end of the test the result was a gooey blob that bounced. Unfortunately, this blob had no real use. Samples of it were sent to engineers all over the world, but no on could find any use for it, so it was forgotten about.

Four years after the war ended, in 1949, a man by the name of Peter Hodgson thought of a use. The goo could stretch and bounce and if you pressed it against the newspaper comics, it picked up the pictures and letters. Peter decided the goo made a great toy, so he borrowed $147 to start his business, placed the goo into plastic eggs and called it "Silly Putty." At first he started selling it to adults, then after several years to children. It was one of the first "fad" toys, like the hula-hoop, Beanie Babies, and Pokemon, but after 40 years it is still amazing. It’s a toy with only one moving part and it still costs so little that almost anyone can afford it.

Silly Putty even has some uses other than as a toy. The astronauts on Apollo 8 played with it when they got bored and used it to keep tools from floating around the capsule when in space. The Columbus Zoo used it to take hand and footprints of its gorillas in 1981. Silly Putty is even used by people doing exercises to strengthen their hand, wrist, and forearm muscles. It can even remove the lint from your clothes and the dog hair off the furniture.

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