Silly Putty essays

Silly Putty essays Do you know when Silly Putty was invented? NO? Okay, do you know why Silly Putty was invented? Well I do, and I also know who invented it. Silly putty has been around for over half a century and probably will be around for another half. Silly Putty was, and still is popular in many ways. " A combination of history, engineering, accident, and entrepreneurship produced one of the most successful toys of the twentieth century" (Silly PuttyÃ’). Silly Putty is soft rubbery goo that is made of boric acid and silicone oil. Sometime in the early days of WWII, James Wright was working in the lab at General Electric's H.Q. in Connecticut, when he happened to drop some boric acid into a vat of silicone oil (Silly Putty). The outcome of this minor accident was the birth of Silly Putty. "In 1945, G.E. shared the so-called 'nutty putty' with scientists around the world. However, none of them could find a use for it"(Silly PuttyÃ’). It seemed as though the putty had reached the end of its life until the year 1949, when an unemployed advertiser named Peter Hodgson attended a party at which "nutty putty" was the main attraction (Silly Putty). Almost instantaneously, Hodgson saw the potential for the putty to become a big selling children's toy. Sometime after the party Mr. Hodgson bought $147 worth of the substance and the production rights off of G.E. He then hired several Yale University students to package the putty in little plastic eggs (d'Estaing). Several months passed and "Silly Putty" as it had been renamed wasn't doing so well, until a columnist form the New York Times bought an egg of Silly Putty. He was so amazed with it that he wrote a column about in the newspaper. "Within days after the article, Silly Putty orders went over the Ten thousand mark. And then hundreds of thousands, surpassing a quarter of a million dollars in half a week"(Rich). Now that we have cleared up the how, what, when, and...