It's that time.

time. Lock and load.

Lock and load.

The Michael Berry Show is on the air.

Today, Michael Berry Show is sponsored by Slinky.

In 1943, a naval mechanical engineer by the name of Richard James observed a spring stepping downward after being knocked off a shelf, then coming

to rest in a vertical position. James's wife Betty later recalled, he came home and said,

I think if I got the right property of steel and the right tension, I could make it walk.

James experimented with different types of steel wire over the next year and finally found a spring that would walk.

Betty was skeptical as most women are,

but changed her mind when the neighborhood kids expressed an interest in the slinky.

Now isn't that like a woman?

Her husband invents one of the most popular toys of all time and she doesn't buy into

it until some dopey kids down the street say it's cool.

Well the couple initially had difficulty selling Slinky to toy stores

but in 1945 they were granted permission to set up an inclined plane in the toy

section of Gimble's department store in Philadelphia.

It was there that they demonstrated the slinky.

It was an instant hit.

The first 400 units were sold in 90 minutes.

Betty filed for divorce in 1960.

Richard moved to Bolivia where he became a missionary.

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