The venerable goo is a company dream come true. With little advertising, manufacturer Binney & Smith has churned out more than 300 million units - roughly the equivalent of 4,500 tons of the streachy stuff which would be enough to build a life-size replica of the Goodyear Blimp.
The history of Silly Putty traces a route taken by many other cultural fads that have achieved endearing popularity...completly unexpected and unplanned.
Following the Japanese invasion of rubber-producing countries throughout Asia at the offset of World War II, the U.S. War Production Board sought an inexpensive substitute to cover the dwindling supply needed for use in the mass production of jeep and airplane tires, gas masks, and other military needs.
Approaching General Electric with the assignment, company engineer James Wright set to work on development of a chemically synthetic, all-purpose rubber alternative.
Combining a formula of boric acid and silicone oil, Wright soon noticed the strange properties of his latest efforts that sprang from the test tube. The new substance stretched farther than rubber, had a 25 percent more rebound ability when bounced against a hard surface, and was able to withstand molds and decay as well as a wide range of temperature extremes without decomposing.
Regardless of its physical attributes, the concoction offered little in the way of industrial applications and the gunk soon found itself languishing as an in-house oddity at the labs of General Electric. Even the attempt at mailing out samples of the curiosity to the world's leading engineers with the challenge to devise a practicle use for the material met with defeat.
Where science failed, however, good old-fashioned merchandising succeded. A former advertising copywriter, Paul Hodgson, was attending a party hosted by a Harvard physicist when a clump of the bizzare compound was passed around among guests. Marveling at how such a simple object seemed to keep the group of adults amused for hours, Hodgson, who by chance happened to own a New Haven toy store, soon saw a future for the gooey creation.
Hodgson took a gamble and borrowed $147 to purchase a large supply of the stuff from General Electric and, after debating on fifteen possible names for his new product, seized upon the name Silly Putty.
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