Who Invented Frisbee? - Walter Fredrick Morrison

Well I never played frisbee, never tried it. May be one day. However, I am completely aware what it is and what it does. In case, if you don't know, it is a flying disc, or gliding disc that is tossed among players. Usually it is used for beach or outside activities and it can be a real fun to play.

The reason I decided to write about the frisbee, is that every toy or every thing in this world holds an inventor. May be not every thing, but almost. The inventor of the frisbee was Walter Fredrick Morrison. He recently passed away at the age of 90 on February 9th, 2010 at his home in Monroe, Utah. Unfortunately age and cancer were the factors of his death, however, he had good long life. Never know may be the active frisbee life kept him going. We all know that any sort of exercise is good for us.

Believe or not Morrison never liked the Frisbee name and thought that it didn't mean anything, but that's what usually happens when you sell the rights of your invention.

It all started when Morrison and his wife to be Lu were tossing a tin cake pan on the beach in California. Others like the idea, so Morrison apparently ended up selling tin cake pans for 25 cents, and it cost him only 5 cents to buy. The idea grew bigger since Morrison recognized the market for his new toy. He invented his flying plastic disc which was flying and gliding better than the tin cake pans, and then he started to manufacture his new Pluto Platters in 1948.

As I mentioned he then sold the rights to Wham-O Manufacturing company who called Morrison's flying disk a frisbee. The frisbee name originated from the college students in New England. The students were calling Pluto Platters a frisbee. Going one step back, the frisbee name for Pluto Platters by students came from the Frisbie Pie Co., a bakery whose empty tins were tossed like the new Pluto Platter Frisbee.

1 comment:

  1. I was on the Ultimate Frisbee team in college in New England. I had no idea of its origins, though.

    ReplyDelete

Your comments are appreciated.