Silly Putty was a failed World War II rubber substitute.
In 1943, with Japan choking off America’s rubber, the GE chemist James Wright mixed silicone oil and boric acid hoping for a substitute. He got useless bouncing goo. Around 1949 a broke marketer, Peter Hodgson, began selling it in plastic eggs as a toy, and he died worth $140 million.
Silly Putty on Brandseum