Wow, I loved these balls. I remember that they surpassed any other ball I ever owned for how high it would bounce. Even a golf ball, off the concrete, could not match. I used to throw the super ball off the house and field it with my baseball glove. It was incredible but after a few hundred times off the bricks, it would disintegrate, unlike the rubber baseballs, tennis balls, or golf balls I also used. They were made of a synthetic rubber invented by chemist Norman Stingley in 1964.
An elastic ball made of Zectron, containing the synthetic polymer polybutadiene and hydrated silica, zinc oxide, stearic acid among other things was vulcanized with sulfur at 329 degrees F and formed at a pressure of 3500 psi.
Thrown to the pavement by an adult the Super Ball could bounce as high as a three-story building. He offered the invention to Bettis Rubber Company, who turned it down, and then to Wham-O who still makes them today. In the late ’60s, Wham-O made a bowling ball size promotional Super Ball and dropped it off a building. On the second bounce, it destroyed a parked convertible. Lamar Hunt, the founder of the AFL, said that his kids played with Super Balls and he pitched the name “Super Bowl” to NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle on July 25, 1966.
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Reference = Wikipedia
