Slinky Treadmill

Temporarily closed.

You might be familiar with the way a Slinky toy turns somersaults down stairs. We put our Slinkys on a treadmill. How fast can the Slinky travel?

The Slinky has been a popular toy since the 1940s, when it was invented by mistake.

The Slinky can perform various tricks, but is best known for turning somersaults down a flight of steps by stretching and then re-forming itself with the aid of gravity and its own momentum.

Springs are used in various applications, e.g. in ballpoint pens, car shock absorbers, bicycles and other vehicles. There are also springs in wind-up cars and other toys. Springs are primarily used to absorb shock, boost power or store energy.

The engineer Richard T. James studied various types of springs while working to develop a device that could stabilise measuring instruments aboard ships. One day he accidentally dropped a metal spring, which proceeded to step end-over-end down from the desk. The toy was born.

Businesswoman Betty M. James gave the toy a name: Slinky. She felt the name described the spring’s movement as it travelled down a flight of steps. It was also Betty who ran the factory where Slinkys were manufactured.