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What peculiar pinkish substance stretches without breaking, yet can be snapped off cleanly, bounces higher than a rubber ball and floats if you shape it one way, yet sinks if shaped another way?

If you haven’t guessed yet, here are some more clues. If you slam it with a hammer, it keeps its shape, but if you press on it slowly and evenly it flattens with ease. It can pick up pencil marks from paper and comics from some newspapers. It has been to the moon and is on display at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC. When not in use it resides in a plastic egg.

If you guessed Silly Putty, you are absolutely right! Silly Putty was invented by James Wright, an engineer working for General Electric. The year was 1943 and America was in the throes of World War II. The United States War Board asked American factories to develop a substitute rubber-like material to be used for truck tires and for soldiers’ boots. When the substance Mr. Wright was working on bounced after being accidentally dropped, Silly Putty was born. But no one knew it yet.

No one at General Electric could find a practical use for the putty. Determined to find a use for it, General Electric sent samples to engineers all over the world. All the scientists had fun with it, but not a single one found a constructive use for it all the way up to 1949.

Then Ruth Fallgatter, owner of the Block Shop toy store, decided to include this putty she had heard of in her new catalog. Ruth worked with a marketing consultant named Peter Hodgson. He helped write up the description of what they called Bouncing Putty and together they decided to package it in a clear compact case. The price was $2.00.

Bouncing Putty was a huge success and outsold almost every item in the toy catalog! Ruth Fallgatter wasn’t interested in any further putty ideas, but Peter Hodgson decidedly felt there was more success ahead. He started packaging 1 ounce wads of Bouncing Putty in plastic eggs and charged $1.00 a piece. After studying 15 different names for the product, he finally came up with “Silly Putty” and sales went zooming through the roof at the International Toy Fair in New York. It was February 1950. Everyone heard about Silly Putty and adults were the biggest fans of the new toy. Kids weren’t far behind! But the days of Silly Putty fame don’t end there.

In 1968, the Astronauts of the Apollo 8 mission carried Silly Putty into space with them. They amused themselves when bored on the long mission and finally found a practical use for it. Silly Putty was used to fasten down tools during the weightless periods.

On its 50th birthday in 2000, Silly Putty was included in an exhibit of significant 1950s objects that shaped American culture at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington D.C.

Today Silly Putty isn’t just a peculiar pink color! There is metallic gold Silly Putty in honor of the millennium and Silly Putty that glows in the dark. There is even a temperature sensitive Silly Putty that changes color with the heat in your hand. Whatever the variety, Silly Putty will always be a classic. Totally cool, totally retro!

Silly Putty is a registered trademark of Binney & Smith. Used with permission.

Silly Putty, Useful After All:

• Many athletes use it to strengthen their grip, a practice made popular by NFL Hall of Famer, Raymond Barry.
• It was used at the zoo in Columbus, Ohio, to take hand and foot prints of the gorilla population for educational purposes.
• It has been used to clean computer keyboards, plug leaks, remove lint from clothes, and to level the leg of a wobbly table.
• Its most popular uses are for fun, like lifting color comics from some kinds of newspapers and stretching the pictures into funny images or bouncing and ricochetting it like a ball.

For more Silly Putty fun, click here Sillyputty.com