|
I liked yo-yos as a kid but I was never was very good at it. I
saved my allowance and bought a black Duncan Imperial
that I had been coveting for sometime. The shiny black body with
the golden Imperial fleur-de-lis emblem made it seem powerful, like
a tool of some mysterious shaman. The kid in me fantasized that
after the yo-yo came into my possession the powers over it would
magically transfer to my fingers and make me a yo-yo wizard.
The string would keep winding up because I couldn’t get the
rhythm of throwing it straight down quite right and that would cause
the yo-yo to twirl. The string being twirled made it easy to knot
up and cause frustrating delays in my progress. The second problem
for me was that the loop of the string that was attached to my finger
became too tight and painful, cutting off the circulation to my
finger tip and turning it purple. That more than anything curtailed
my yo-yoing time and enthusiasm. Eventually I did learn to “walk
the dog” but that was the extent of my yo-yo wizardry.
Yo-yos have a very interesting history. I had not known of its
ancient and diverse origins. Middle Kingdom Egyptian
murals depict figures manipulating what is thought to be yo-yos.
There are drawings on ancient Greek ceramics of
youths playing with yo-yos. A terra cotta representation of a yo-yo
from 500 BC is in the National Museum of Athens
Greece. Like all things Greek it must have spread to the Romans
and onward to the reaches of the Roman Empire.
Yo-yos became the rage in 18th century Europe as toys of the royals
and elites. There are accounts of it being used as stress
relievers by soldiers before battle, much in the way of
squeezing plastic balls today. A picture of Napoleon obsessively
yo-yoing before the battle of Waterloo is difficult to envision
in the light of the heroic paintings of the era we are so accustomed
to.
If the Europeans had it then it would be a certainty that the
yo-yos came to the New World as well. I have not read about any
evidence but there is no reason why ancient Mesoamerica would not
have something similar. In fact I would be willing to bet that the
Mayans had yo-yos.
Ancient China is thought to be one of the origins
from where yo-yos spread through out South East Asia and to Japan.
Philippine has a long history of the toy and the
popularization of it in America is due to a man from there. Pedro
Flores in 1929 while working in Southern California began making
and selling the toy he named Flores Yo-Yo. The
word yo-yo meant “come around” in the Tagalong dialect
of the Philippines. Yo-yos became popular and an astute entrepreneur
named Duncan bought the rights to the name and the business and
promoted the yo-yo to a national fad.
Flores had made an important innovation, the string
attached to the yo-yo axle was made loose, enabling the yo-yo to
“sleep” at its maximum string extension. That in turn
allowed tricks such as “walking the dog”. The yo-yo
would spin in a stationary position and when touching a flat surface
like the floor would “walk” forward with the spinning
motion.
There have been other innovations since to advance better control
and efficiency such as ball bearings on a free
wheeling axle in 1970 for a faster and smoother spinning
motion. Today the more sophisticated yo-yos have a clutch
built in to enable instant retrieval and string length control for
complex tricks. Others have braking systems and
shims to control the "sleeping". Some
models have LED lights on the sides for a showy display. Noise making
yo-yos are not new and have been around for quite some time. Strategically
placed holes in the sides would force air in and out during the
spinning motion and let out whistling, whooshing noises. The basic
yo-yo has remained unchanged for thousands of years and still is
a fun skill toy with popularity undiminished world wide.
It is interesting to note that a yo-yo is considered to be one
of the three most popular toys of all time along with the
doll and the teddy bear. The yo-yo is also counted as one
the oldest toys in the world, along with the ball, doll,
kite and top.
Yo-Yo Record Set ABC News - Tue Mar 27, 2007 10:03
PM ET
With 932 participants, a college fundraiser sets the group yo-yo
toss record.
|
