Slinky

A Slinky is a coil-shaped toy, invented by Naval engineer Richard James and his wife, Betty James. Slinkys come in various sizes, but are usually no larger than a grown adult's fist. The shape is a simple spiral, or coil design, of a ribbon of material, originally metal. The Slinky is famous for its ability to "walk" down stairs as the coils stretch and reform as gravity moves them down each step.

Richard James was on Naval duty in a ship one day when he saw a torsion spring come loose and fall to the floor in front of him. He was intrigued by the way it flopped around on the floor, and remembered it well enough that when he returned home, he was able, with his wife, Betty, to construct a tight coil of a ribbon of steel. He fine-tuned it to be able to walk down stairs. This would be known as the Slinky, because of how it slinked along.

Although first Slinkys were made of metal, they now are available in many different colors of plastic as well. They have been in continuous production since 1945.

A metal slinky will make a sound like a sci-fi ray gun if one holds one end up against his/her ear and lets the other end flop around.