History+of+the+yo-yo

Did you know that the yo-yo is considered the 2nd oldest toy in the world. The oldest record of a yo-yo comes from Greece, it is a picture of a boy playing with a yo-yo made out of terracotta discs. Records from Greece say that these discs/toys were offered to the gods when a child becomes an adult. Philippine history shows that hunters would hide in a tree and drop heavy stones tied to a cord up to 20 feet in length on their prey, but some say this is an urban legend. The design from the Philippines had one string wrapped around the yo-yo instead of a slip knot tied at the end. This allowed the yo-yo to sleep instead of just going back and forth. In 1866 James L. Haven and Charles Hettrick of Cincinnati, Ohio earned a patent on the bandelore, a toy related to the yo-yo. The bandelore came from England. It was a toy mainly for the upper class, and was a variation from the Philippino yo-yo. The real yo-yo did not come to the states until 1928 with Pedro Flores a Filipino American. He founded The Yo-Yo Manufacturing Company in Santa Barbra, CA producing about a dozen handmade yo-yos a day. In 1929 he opened up two more factories in Los Angeles and Hollywood now able to produce 300,000 yo-yos a day with 600 workers. Donald Duncan, an entrepenuer, decided to purchase The Yo-Yo Manufacturing Company changing the name to Duncan Yo-Yos. The first yo-yo made by Duncan was the Duncan O-Boy (see right). In 1946 Duncan opened a factory in Luck, Wisconsin instigating the town to nominate themselves as the yo-yo capital of the world. In the 1970s and 1980s the yo-yo technology improved greatly with the ball bearing, material and response system. The ball bearing increases spin time up to a minute. The main material became aluminum which allowed the yo-yo to be heavier thus creating more spin time. The response system in a yo-yo is what allows a yo-yo to exit a sleeper, or spinning on the end of string. The response system went from friction bumps to things such as recessed silicone where flowable silicone is poured into a groove. As you can see the yo-yo has change a lot over the years from stones to aluminum. The yo-yo is a toy known all around the world and is a perfect example of the evolution of technology.