The history of silly putty is quite amusing. In 1943 James Wright, an engineer, was attempting to create a synthetic rubber. He was unable to achieve the properties he was looking for and put his creation (later to be called silly putty) on the shelf as a failure. A few years later, a salesman for the Dow Corning Corporation was using the putty to entertain some customers. One of his customers became intrigued with the putty and saw that it had potential as a new toy. In 1957, after being endorsed on the “Howdy Doody Show”, silly putty became a toy fad. Recently new uses such as a grip strengthener and as an art medium have been developed. Silly putt even went into space on the Apollo 8 mission.
University of Minnesota Chemistry Outreach Program (TBD), <i>Silly putty</i>. Retrieved Monday, September 15, 2003, from <a href="http://www.chem.umn.edu/outreach/Sillyputty.html" title="Silly putty">www.chem.umn.edu/outreach/Sillyputty.html</a>.