Silly Putty (1943)

According to Crayola, which now owns the Silly Putty brand, General Electric engineer James Wright was doing his bit for the war rubber effort in 1943 and so decided to combine boric acid and silicone oil in a test tube. General Electric tried to encourage engineers worldwide to find a practical application for this bouncy, gooey substance, although for a few years it seemed that Wright’s creation was destined for a life on a dusty lab shelf.

However, in 1949, the bouncing putty caught the eye of toy shop owner Ruth Fallgatter, who hired Peter Hodgson to market the product as an adult toy. Hodgson decided to sell one-ounce wads of the putty in small plastic eggs and Silly Putty as we know it today was born.

The original toy was pink in colour and composed of 65% dimethyl siloxane, 17% silica, 9% Thixatrol ST, 4% polydimethylsiloxane, 1% decamethyl cyclopentasiloxane, 1% glycerine and 1% titanium dioxide. The material’s very particular flow characteristics are due to the presence of polydimethylsiloxane, a viscoelastic liquid.

Silly Putty has grown in popularity since its launch in the US in 1950, entering the European market in the sixties. The toy was even a hit in Soviet Russia – where hundreds of people flocked to see a Silly Putty display at the 1961 US Plastics Expo in Moscow.

Binney & Smith, the maker of Crayola products, acquired the rights to Silly Putty in 1977.

Today, Silly Putty continues to delight children all over the world and now comes in a range of different designs, including glow-in-the-dark and even metallic gold, which was launched in 2000 to celebrate Silly Putty’s 50th birthday. Silly Putty was inducted into the US National Toy Hall of Fame in 2001.