Play Dough

What You Need

• Large glass bowl
• Food coloring
• 2 cups water
• 2 cups flour
• 1 cup salt
• 1 teaspoon alum
• 1 teaspoon 20 Mule Team Borax
• 1 tablespoon corn oil
• Frying pan
• Wooden spoon
• Cutting board
• Ziploc Storage Bag or airtight container

What to Do
In the bowl, combine the water and fifty drops of food coloring. Then add the flour, salt, alum, borax, and corn oil. Mix well. With adult supervision, cook and stir over medium heat for three minutes (or until the mixture holds together). Turn onto the cutting board and knead to proper consistency. Store in the Ziploc Bag or airtight container.

What Happens
The alum and borax prevent bacteria from turning the thick, colored dough sour.

Why It Works
The patent for Play-Doh puts it this way: "We are unable to state definitely the theory upon which this process operates, because the reactions taking place in the mass are complicated."

Bizarre Facts

• In 1956 in Cincinnati, Ohio, brothers Noah W. McVicker and Joseph S. McVicker, employees of Rainbow Crafts, a soap company, invented Play-Doh and received a patent for it in 1965. Kenner acquired Play-Doh, only to be bought out by Hasbro, which transferred PlayDoh to its Playskool division.
• The patent for Play-Doh (U.S. Patent No. 3,167,440) can be obtained by sending a written request and a check for three dollars to the Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks, Washington, D.C. 20321.
• After you make Play Dough in an old pan, the pan will be sparkling clean. The combination of flour and salt cleans the pan.
• Play-Doh is available in twenty-one colors.
• The Play-Doh boy, pictured on every can of Play-Doh, was created in 1960 and is named Play-Doh Pete.

Mmmmm, Good!
Kids eat more Play-Doh than crayons, fingerpaint, and white paste combined.

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