Silly Putty 1943
Silly Putty was invented during World War II when the Allies were growing short on rubber. The United States government put out a call for someone to create a synthetic rubber that could be used for the war effort. This was what James Wright was trying to do while working for General Electric in 1943. He decided to try and create the rubber by mixing boric acid and silicone oil. The resulting goo was nothing like the rubber he was trying to create but he did find that it had a number of very interesting properties. However, he could not think of anything that it could be used for.
In an attempt to find a use for his new “nutty putty” he sent it to scientists all over the world to see if they could find a use for it that he had missed. No one else could find a use for the putty either and so John Wright shelved the putty until he could think of what it was good for. For 6 years, the putty remained in obscurity. It eventually came to the attention of Ruth Fallgatter. Ruth owned a toy shop called the “Block Shop” and she paired with marketing consultant Peter Hodgson in order to put the putty in her catalog. She called it “bouncing putty” and it became the second best-selling item in her catalog (after Crayola crayons).
John Wright finally had a use for his product. He was deep in debt but he borrowed money in order to make more putty and get the production rights. He named it “Silly Putty” and put it in to bright red egg containers in one ounce portions. It was close to Easter so he thought the egg shapes would be popular. He was right and sold 250,000 units in 3 days and 6 million eggs in the first year. Silly Putty remains as one of the fastest selling toys in history at just $1 an egg.