The discovery of Silly Putty was a by-product of America’s efforts to deal with the rubber deficiency brought about the Japanese capture of producer-countries in World War 2.

In the year 1943, James Wright, a Scottish engineer, was working at General Electric’s research laboratory in New Haven, Connecticut to discover a practical way of making synthetic rubber.

One day he made a mixture after blending some silicon oil with boric acid in a tube. When he took out the gooey material that constituted inside, Wright threw a lump to the floor and detected that it bounced back up again.

After disseminating among druggists for some years, Silly Putty was set up as a kids’ novelty item in the year 1949.