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Rubber duck
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A rubber duck, or rubber ducky, is a toy shaped like a duck that is made of rubber or rubber-like material such as vinyl plastic. Rubber ducks are generally yellow. Almost all modern rubber ducks are made out of vinyl plastic rather than rubber. Most commonly, rubber ducks are designed to be used as floating bathtub toys. Not all rubber ducks are bath toys. Some rubber ducks are dolls or play figures similar to other squeeze or squeak toys typically given to children and sometimes dogs. Rubber ducks can be found in various colours, sizes, shapes, and outfits. Rubber ducks have achieved status as a popular icon and, while still primarily considered a children's toy, are used by people of all ages.
Rubber ducks may be equipped with a squeaker that makes a whistling or squeaking sound. More rarely the toy may have a squeaker that makes a sound resembling the quack of a real duck. Bath toy ducks sometimes have a hole in the bill which allows the toy to take in and then squirt water, emulating the actions of real ducks.
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The origin of the rubber duck is not known, but its history is inevitably linked to the emergence of rubber manufacturing in the late 1800s. The earliest rubber ducks were made from harder rubber and lacked squeakers. The yellow rubber duck has achieved an iconic status in American pop culture. In the United States the rubber duck is often symbolically linked to bathing or bath tubs and bubbles and to babies and toddlers.
Jim Henson popularized rubber ducks in 1970, performing "Rubber Duckie" as Ernie, a popular Muppet from Sesame Street. The song had two follow ups, "Do de Rubber Duck", and "DUCKIE", and Ernie frequently spoke to the duck and carried it with him in other segments of the show.
As the rubber duck has grown in popularity over the years, many variants are sold including "devil ducks" "dead ducks" and "bride and groom" ducks.
In 2001, The Sun, a British tabloid newspaper reported that Queen Elizabeth II has a rubber duck that wears an inflatable crown in her bathroom. The duck was spotted by a workman who was repainting her bathroom.[1] The story prompted sales of rubber ducks in the United Kingdom to increase by 80% for a short period.
Rubber ducks are collected by a small number of enthusiasts in countries including: the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Japan, Singapore, New Zealand, United States, and the Netherlands. The Guinness World Record for World's Largest Rubber Duck Collection numbered 2,583 unique rubber ducks in 2006.
The rubber duck can be referred to informally as a rubber duckie or a rubber ducky. Amongst collectors of rubber ducks, the spelling rubber duckie has achieved prominence, but both spellings are considered acceptable.
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The MIT dorm Simmons Hall boasts a large collection of rubber duckies displayed prominently in the building's yin-yang sculpture. Initially there was much controversy over the degradation of the art piece, but the ducks continue to float on for most of the year, weather allowing. Included in the ducky collection is a very large, 3' long duck fitted with a stylish construction helmet symbolizing the engineers at MIT. This duck resides in the pebble portion of the sculpture (balancing the many small ducks in the other half, e.g. yin-yang).
Some charities have run rubber duck races in which hundreds or thousands of rubber ducks are dumped into a river, pool, or other body of water and then are floated down a race course marked off with buoys. The first one to float past the finish line is a winner (similar to the game Poohsticks). The rubber ducks are then retrieved and used again later. Due to environmental concerns, sites for duck races must be chosen with care. There are hundreds of races held in the USA and internationally. The largest race in the United States benefits the Freestore Foodbank in Cincinnati, OH where over 100,000 ducks are raced to raise money for the organization.
One of the more famous rubber duck races is the Great Knoxville Rubber Duck Race[1]. This race received attention when the Tennessee Supreme Court ruled that it was a lottery, which stopped the race for a few years. After the state amended their constitution to allow lotteries with special exceptions, the race was reinstituted. In 2006 the river Liffey in Dublin hosted the worlds largest duck race with 150,000 ducks.
One other race was conducted in Australia in 1988. It was run from the "High level bridge" to the "Low level bridge" near Katherine, NT on the Australia Day long weekend in January 1988. Acting on behalf of the town's Bicentennial Committee, Royal Australian Air Force officers Andrew Cairns and Jock MacGowan constructed the release cage from PVC pipe, purchased and numbered the ducks, printed tickets and even managed to arrange a helicopter flypast for the auspicious occasion.
Rubber ducks are used in small quanties as herding targets for radio controlled model yachts, the objective being to move all of the loose ducks into a floating pen.
Main article: Friendly Floatees
During a Pacific storm on January 10th 1992, three 40ft containers were washed off a ship containing 30,000 Friendly Floatees plastic bath toys from a Chinese factory. Two thirds of the ducks floated south and landed 3 months later on the shores of Indonesia, Australia and South America. The remaining 10,000 ducks headed north to Alaska and then completed a full circle back near Japan, caught up in the North Pacific Gyre current. Many of the ducks then entered the Bering Straight between Alaska and Russia and were trapped in the Arctic ice. They moved through the ice at a rate of 1 mile per day and in 2000 they were sighted in the North Atlantic. The movement of the ducks had been monitored by Curtis Ebbesmeyer, an American oceanographer. Anyone who finds a duck can claim a $100 reward from First Years Inc.
- Thousands of Rubber Ducks travel the oceans for years
- Photos of a rubber duck derby
- Duckplanet.com: A popular website about rubber ducks and rubber duck collecting
- Duck Travels: A rubber duck that has been travelling around the world for several years
- Muppet Wiki: Rubber Duckie - article about Ernie's song "Rubber Duckie"
- Rubberducking