Plah-Doh
Fun Fact
What is the Swishy colorful array of pliable substance so satisfying to play…. Play Doh of course! But how was it invented?
A man named Joseph McVicker served as the head of Kutol Products Company, which created cleaning supplies like soap and clay to remove soot off wallpaper in coal-burning homes. The company was going bankrupt as people switched from coal to gas, but he accidentally found a new use for the clay: a toy!
His sister-in-law, a primary school teacher, used it in her classroom
as modeling clay for her students to learn and play with. Play-Doh was an instant success, making its way into the shelves of major stores like Macy’s and on thousands of television screens! McVicker and the team at Kutol became millionaires.
Today, Fortune Magazine estimates Play-Doh has sold more than 3 billion cans (more than 700 million pounds of dough) since it became a toy in 1956.
Check us out on Instagram and TikTok for more content, and check out our other blog posts posted on stemchef.com for more fun food based facts and experiments!
- Natasha Matta