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Inventors Silly Putty ®
By Mary Bellis

A plastic that has attracted many youngsters over the years is plastic putty, better known by the trademark name of Silly Putty ®.

James Wright, a GE engineer, came upon the material by mixing silicone oil with boric acid. The compound, acted very much like rubber in its ability to rebound almost 25 percent higher than a normal rubber ball. This "Nutty Putty" as it was first called, was impervious to rot, soft and maleable, and able to stretch many times its length without tearing. One other unusual quality was that Silly Putty ® could copy the image of any printed material that it was pressed upon. In 1949, the material was sold under the trade name of Silly Putty ®, selling faster than any other toy in history with over $6 million in sales for the year. Silly Putty is now the registered trademark of Binney & Smith Inc.

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Silly Putty Products

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Silly Putty Official Website
Fun (and Silliness) with the Science of Silly Putty
Silly Putty History 101
Silly Putty
Silly Putty has been around for 50 years now, and in the past half-century, it's become an American toy classic.
Silly Putty Inventor James Wright and Peter Hodgson
A combination of history, engineering, accident and entrepreneurship produced one of the most successful toys of the twentieth century - Silly Putty.  
Silly Putty Weird Facts
Old Silly Putty Ads

Composition of Silly Putty
65% - Dimethyl Siloxane
17% - Silica
  9% - Thixotrol ST
  4% - Polydimethylsiloxane
  1% - Decamethyl cyclopentasiloxane
  1% - Glycerine
  1% - Titanium Dioxide

Related Information
Toy Inventions
 
 
 

 

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