The Hidden History of Rubber Ducks

Rubber ducks have had a long life filled with many different journeys. It all began with the invention of vulcanized rubber by Charles Goodyear in 1867. The new invention opened up the possibility of rubbery toys, and inevitably led to the invention of rubber ducks. They then became every child's favourite bathtime toy, going as far as being featured on Sesame Street. The beloved toys took an unexpected turn by being used to assist in climatology and tidal research. Their journey hasn't concluded yet, with the ducks being prized by collectors.

The hidden value of rubber ducks emerges with these stories of past and present innovation, and they float confidently into the future to create many more.

Lovable floating duck toys known today can credit their beginnings to a chemistry accident:

Invented in 1867 by Charles Goodyear, the invention of rubber ducks actually came as somewhat of an accident.

In the mid 1830's, Goodyear was looking to further develop and improve the already popular Latex Rubber. Goodyear discovered that heating this rubber and adding certain chemicals causes the rubber to harden and therefore become stronger. After initially struggling to find the right combination of heat and chemicals to make the rubber sturdy enough to use, Goodyear accidentally dropped his current sulphur/rubber mixture into boiling water. Instead of being destroyed, the mixture hardened and became incredibly sturdy. Perfecting the equation that came from this accident, in 1844, Charles Goodyear officially invented Vulcanized Rubber.

With the invention of this stronger, moldable rubber, it instantly became extremely popular and is still commonly used in things like rubber hoses, soles of shoes, tires, and most importantly: rubber ducks!

While Charles Goodyear is credited with the initial invention of rubber ducks through his creation of Vulcanized Rubber, these rubber ducks were very different from the yellow, waterproof ducks we know of today.

The earliest manufactured rubber ducks were much larger and heavier in size. They also did not do well in water, and in fact, were in no way waterproof. 

While they are now known for being fun, children's toys, because of their originally tough and heavy nature, they were initially only intended for use as chew toys for dogs and other animals. 

The rise of rubber toys begins:

By this time, vulcanized rubber toys began to gain popularity. Companies had started producing bath toys for children made out of rubber. On June 19, 1926, a  North Dakota newspaper, titled The Bismarck Tribune, featured a fictional story on page four. The story, called Adventures of the Twins, quickly mentioned rubber-based bath toys:

"Inco never, never would make up with rubber bathtub toys."

The quote, referencing a character from the story, quickly mentions rubber-based bath toys, showing that other rubber toys were popular for bathtub use before rubber ducks. These early bath toys would quickly pave the road for the lovable rubber duck toys known today.

Rubber ducks make their way off of the inventor's table and into the common American household:

On March 4, 1931, a patent was filed by Eleanor Shannahan, an American inventor. In the patent, Shannahan wrote:

"The object of my invention is to provide a toy especially for aquatic or water use that will make an appeal to both little children and older persons.”

Shannahan’s invention was a simple toy that, when connected to a water source, would shoot out water from holes in the toy’s body. She intended for it to be used to make baths more appealing to all audiences, especially to children. This is the earliest recorded patent filed regarding rubber duck bath toys.

By the late 193s, public records of inventions regarding rubber duck bath toys seemed scarce. However, stories about the toys were not. A medical journal article titled Foreign Bodies was published on May 13, 1939, and written by Ian Frasier. In his article, Frasier discusses people who have swallowed foreign objects. One of the objects Frasier wrote about was a rubber duck bath toy, showing that rubber ducks had eventually found their way into many American households only 8 years after Shannahan’s patent.

The journey continues, transforming a work of art into lovable yellow duck toys:

The next major breakthrough in rubber duck bath toys was a recreation of a sculpture. Artist Peter Ganine had sculpted a duck, and when his sculpture gained popularity he filed a patent in 1949 to turn it into a rubberized toy. Ganine’s patent, titled “toy duck”, was a vinyl plastic toy that could float on water, and resembled modern rubber ducks. This invention would quickly become an incredibly popular duck toy.

In the early 1950s - a company started to gain attention outside of its community in Salt Lake City. Deeks, a company specializing in duck decoys for hunting, brought a new meaning to the rubber duck craze. Deeks was the world's first company to mass-produce a very specific and different type of rubber duck. These high-quality rubber ducks were the first of their kind. Switching out the small bright yellow toy for a hyper-realistic larger model gave the rubber duck another purpose. Hunters were able to easily transport and set up these rubber ducks making their predecessors - heavy wooden ducks that only vaguely resembled their target in any way - obsolete. Drawing inspiration from the classic child's toy allowed the founder of Deeks, John L. Feusner Sr. to build a multi-million dollar company that still produces rubber ducks and related items more than three generations later.

So why did these rubber ducks make such a splash? This was mainly because they offered something that had never been seen before. As we saw the rise of the technological revolution, we saw the rise of patents and commercial exploration. For the next few decades, we consistently saw the world outgrow itself as technology improved and replaced itself. These rubber duck decoys presented such an idea, they brought something new to the market that fixed every main issue people had with its predecessor. While these models were not perfect, Deeks consistently put out newer models and game-changing designs that were snatched up by avid hunters across the country. Suddenly rubber ducks were not just for kids anymore!

Proving that rubber ducks have much diversity in design, intent, and use - here is another great iteration:

On February 25 of 1970, Sesame Street broadcasted its 78th episode. An episode that carried one of the most successful songs the show created in its 56 years of being on national television. Originally sung by the character "Ernie", 'Rubber Duckie' was a tribute to his rubber duck. The song was so popular it placed sixteenth on "Billboards hot 100 singles" of 1970 and was later one of the nominees at the Grammys for "Best Recording for Children". Since its debut in 1970, there have been 36 separate reiterations of the original tune that have aired on Sesame Street. The most popular versions included guest singers like Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Tori Kelly, James Gordon, Jason Derulo, Sia, Anthony Mackie, Daveed Diggs, and Robert McGrath, who played Bob Johnson when Sesame Street originally aired from 1969 until 2016. The Alan-Jay Rubber Duckie, used in the original broadcasts - became a top-selling toy in the 1970s. Since then it has become a highly coveted collector's item with Sesame Street collectors and those collecting vintage rubber ducks. Ernie's rubber duck is still sold today by companies like Hasbro and Igel. Even though it has gone through many design changes it still holds a special place in many people's hearts through generations of Sesame Street watchers!

The growing popularity of rubber ducks, that many did not see coming:

Rubber ducks are that novelty item that surly many people did not think would stick around as long as they did, especially for the strange reasons that they did. In 1992, tragedy struck when a cargo ship container that contained about 28,000 rubber ducks took a tumble and released the rubber ducks along with some other bath toys into the North Pacific Ocean. These rubber ducks were originally on a journey from China to the United States, however, these ducks had a different journey in mind. Thirteen years later in 2005, a journalist by the name of Donovan Hohn decided it was time to track the movements of the ducks, he stated: “I figured I'd interview a few oceanographers, talk to a few beachcombers, read up on ocean currents and Arctic geography and then write an account of the incredible journey of the bath toys lost at sea,” (NPR, 2011) This research led to uncovering a dark truth about our oceans, they are filled with waste, so Hohn’s investigation opened a new one in regards to cleaning the oceans. Others utilized the information that came from tracking these tens of thousands of rubber ducks and used it to further research in climatology and tidal research. They determined that some “rode ocean currents southward…Indonesia, Australia, and even South America, but the other third went north… the Pacific side of South and North America… some were found in Alaska, and others went even farther west, arriving in Japan three years later after nearly doing a full lap around the Pacific Ocean” (Vice, 2014).

Considering the popularity traction from Sesame Street, rubber ducks have been used as a tool to “teach a variety of developmental and cognitive skills to infants ages 1–2 years. As a tool, a toy provides a child with ‘‘a means to self-assertion and autonomy or mastery’’ (SuttonSmith 144–45)” (Larsen Meyer, page 16). Since this iconic bathtime toy can be used for educational development, it has the ability to gain more popularity in the years to come. In addition to children using rubber ducks, adults have also found great pleasure, and have surrounded themselves with the toy, “[j]ust as other toys have become collectibles, rubber ducks are attracting a growing number of both male and female collectors” (Larsen Meyer, page 21). Overall, rubber ducks are an item people have been familiar with for a very long time, and in some recent years, they have been used for climate research, early childhood development, and for fans as a collectable

Rubber ducks are so much more than just bathtime toys. They have gone through a long and tremendous journey from their creation, to being featured on Sesame Street, to assisting climateologists, to a modern day collector's item. They will forever hold a piece of American culture with them as their journey continues into the future. Our little rubber friends have so much more to contribute, don't you think?