#20: Silly Putty and the search for wartime materials
Silly Putty came from a serious shortage, which is easy to forget when the final product is so unserious. During World War II, natural rubber supplies were limited, and researchers searched for synthetic substitutes. James Wright, working at General Electric, mixed boric acid and silicone oil and ended up with a stretchy, bouncy material that did not solve the industrial problem. For a while, it was just odd. Not strong enough to replace rubber, not clearly useful, but too strange to ignore. Later, it found a completely different audience as a toy.
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