To the last moment I guessed - what the hell is this?
Funny thing/guy

Slinky History
In the 1940s, Richard James, a US $50-a-week marine engineer stationed at the Cramp shipyards in Philadelphia, observed a torsion spring fall off a table and roll around on the deck (a torsion spring has no compression or tension). He told his wife: “I think there could be a toy in this.” With a US$500 loan, the couple ran tests, experimented with materials, and produced four hundred units of the toy. Betty James did some dictionary searching and came up with the name “Slinky”.
In November 1945, Richard and Betty James, through an arrangement with Gimbels in Philadelphia, were granted permission to set up an inclined plane in the toy department and demonstrate the spring’s battery-less “walking” abilities. The James’ business grew rapidly. In 1948 they built a factory for twenty employees in suburban Philadelphia, and a decade later, headquarters were set up in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, where the factory remained for thirty years. As the company expanded, so did the product line. New Slinky toys, including Slinky Jr. and the Slinky Dog, were developed while non-coiled toys such as building kits were added to the inventory. However, Slinky has remained the core product of James Industries.
Commercials for the Slinky featured the memorable jingle: “It’s Slinky, it’s Slinky, for fun it’s a wonderful toy. It’s Slinky, it’s Slinky, it’s fun for a girl and a boy.”
During the Vietnam War, Slinkys were also used as mobile radio transmitters.
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