The history of spinners

[CPP]

I bought my fidgety son a spinner after I noticed them on various knife-related blogs, forums and YouTube channels. They still seemed obscure at that point so I was surprised when my daughter had to have one a few months later and we picked one up at the local toy store. I assumed spinners originated among knife enthusiasts as a safer alternative to constantly flipping their knives open and closed.

I was wrong. According to "How Fidget Spinners Became a Hula-Hoop for Generation Z" posted yesterday on The New York Times, they were developed by an ill mother for her daughter in 1993 and patented it in 1997.