Where did the Yo-Yo Originate?
Yo! Man! Know where the yo-yo comes from? No, I am not asking you to name the local toy store. Sorry, let me rephrase it. Gimme its history, guys. You thought the yo-yo was created by Donald Duncan, huh? Forget it! The yo-yo is nearly a millennium old!
So, it wasn't called the yo-yo then. But for want of a better name let's stick to calling it the yo-yo, okay? Kids all over the world have played with a similar toy. It is believed that the yo-yo originated in China. Ancient Greek kids (500 BC) played with a little spool-like toy and archaeologists have found samples in many other countries including Egypt.
What was it like? Early yo-yos were made of wood, metal or even terracotta and decorated with paints. It consists of two discs connected by a small rod between the discs. A piece of string was tied to this rod and the other end was tied to a finger. The disks were rolled up on this string and when released the disk ran up and down this piece of string!
As simple as that. From China the yo-yo moved to Europe. A 1789 painting of French king Louis XVII shows the four-year-old playing with the toy. Guess what they called it?- 'incroyable' and 'l'emigrette'. By 1791, it spread through to Britain. Here it was called by a French word 'bandalore' don't ask me why! It was called plain and simple 'disc' in Greece.
It was in the Philippines that the yo-yo came to be called yo-yo! A yo-yo means 'comeback' which is what the toy does. In 1920, a smart Filipino, Pedro Flores, found that if he spent a few millions manufacturing this toy, millions would come back through sales. So he moved to the United States and in 1928 began a yo-yo company in California.
His yo-yos were unique as they were the first yo-yos that did not have the string tied to the axle. Instead, the string was looped around the axle, allowing the yo-yo to spin or 'sleep' at the end of the string permitting the yo-yo to do an infinite number of tricks.
In 1929, Flores sold the rights of the yoyo to another smart man, Donald F. Duncan Sr., American businessman and the inventor of the parking meter and the Eskimo Pie ice-cream.
Duncan tentatively called it the 'O-Boy Yo-yo Top'. The...