He was an ordinary marine engineer, but one day he almost by accident invented a children's toy - the Slinki spring. Having earned fame and decent money, he became happier, but not for long - problems within the family and within himself prompted him to join a religious sect, under the influence of which he went to live in Bolivia. And his funny invention continues to "pace" so far.
Youth and persistent curiosity
The biography of Richard James is remarkable already from the first day of his life - his birthday fell on January 1. The year then was 1914. The country where the birth took place is the USA (Delaware state).
From childhood, the indefatigable curiosity of a small child began to manifest itself. Later, in an interview with one newspaper, his brother Samuel said that James once wanted to earn some more money and solve the problem of lack of funds. A convenient opportunity turned up for this: one Sunday morning he found an old abandoned car, repaired it, set it in motion and sold for $ 25.
Curious Richard, like many young people, began to understand how various things are created. And he graduated from a university in Pennsylvania with a degree in engineering at the end of the 1930s. Having received his education, he began to work as a naval engineer. The Second World War began, in which the United States later had to get involved. James, too, is changing his life: joins the Philadelphia shipyard office employee. There he became responsible for the construction of equipment for armadillos and submarines.
The invention of the Slinki spring
In 1943, engineer James was developing a new type of tension spring, which could improve the stabilization of the ship during rolling at sea. One day he accidentally swiped a jar of parts from a shelf. The spring that fell out of it did not stop, but began to "walk" across the table and stacks of books and then on the floor. Richard such a spectacular movement of the spring surprised and prompted the thought: what if we make a toy out of it?
Returning home, he told his wife about his idea. It is she who will then give the name to the spring - slinky (smooth, elegant).
An enthusiastic engineer in his spare time fiddled with the wire, choosing the right type of steel and coefficient of elasticity. Having found a suitable wire, he decided to show the toy to the neighboring children. They liked it tremendously, and it was then that the inventor was visited by another new idea: whether to try to sell a bendable and jumping structure.
At first, the toy sold poorly. But then things got better. The whole city found out about the funny "walking" spring, and Richard's financial condition increased significantly. Thanks to the occasion and his ingenuity, marine engineer Richard James gained fame and millions of dollars.
Slinks began to be used for other purposes: in the manufacture of lamps, gutters, therapeutic apparatus, antennas.
Family and Religious Addiction
James's personal life did not go smoothly. The couple began to have children in the mid-1950s. The family has grown: a total of 6 children were born. But then problems began to appear in the family. Richard, as it turned out, was a lover of women. For the sake of the children, the wife did not leave her husband. But the bitterness of resentment squeezed the heart. James subsequently began to appear more often in the church, in its confessional part. In addition to cheating on his wife, a talented engineer entered into a religious sect and slowly began to "voluntarily" help the organization. He gave a lot of money. This is not surprising: sects with a religious bias are always happy to supplement their budget with lost, suffering or psychologically vulnerable people.
