Yo-yo - one of the oldest toys in the world

• Yo-yo - one of the world's oldest toy

Perhaps everyone at least once picked up this bit of a strange object on a string and tried to spin it, throwing out his hands, and then returning back. What kind of "pretzel" curry with this toy professionals! And yet few people know that this toy is one of the oldest in the world. There was this toy in ancient times and has been modernized in our time.

Yo-yo - one of the oldest toys in the world

The origin of the yo-yo is still a source of debate, but the first historical mention of it is found in Greece in 500 BC. Some historians believe that the yo-yo, probably originated in China, where there was a toy is almost the same structure that was called Diabolo.

A boy plays with a terra-cotta yo-yos. Image on ancient kilikse, about 440 BC. e.

Throughout history many countries have argued that they are the inventor of the yo-yo, but did not provide conclusive documentary evidence. In addition, some scholars suggest that the toy has been adapted from an early type of weapons that may have originally been used for hunting animals.

Toy Diabolo.

There is a popular story that the yo-yo is a centuries-old weapons originally from the Philippines. Historical evidence suggests that the hunters of the XVI century in the Philippines were hiding in the trees with a yo-yo, waiting for the victim to be held under a tree. These yo-yos were very heavy and were made of stones bound together by a long rope. Today, the yo-yo is a popular toy in the Philippines, but there is no documentary evidence that she had ever been used as a weapon.

Yo-yo in the form of what he is known today was invented in 1928 by Pedro Flores, who opened the Yo-Yo Manufacturing Company in Santa Barbara, California. A year later, the potential of this toy is interested in Donald F. Duncan, who bought out the Flores Yo-Yo Corporation.

As a trademark, the name "yo-yo" was first recorded in 1932. In 1946, Duncan Toys Company opened a plant for the production of the yo-yo in Wisconsin.

A woman with a yo-yo, Northern India (1770)

Since the toy has become very popular in its design a number of innovations were introduced in the 1970s and 1980s. In 1978, Tom Kuhn patented yo-yo "No Jive 3-in-1", the first in the world yo-yo with a variable distance between the halves. Kuhn also released the world's largest yo-yo, thanks to which in 1981 was in the Guinness Book of Records.

The lady plays with a yo-yo in Berlin in the 1960s,

There are many different forms of the yo-yo. The two most famous are the modern "traditional" form and shape of a butterfly.

Yo-yos today.

Figure 1791, which shows a woman playing with "English Bandalorom" (yo-yo).

April 12, 1985 Yo-Yo first appeared in the cosmos. As an experiment, "Toys in Space" astronaut David Griggs took the toy into orbit and played with it in conditions of weightlessness.