Father of the Frisbee Dies At 90

theodp writes "Walter Fredrick Morrison, whose post-World War II invention of a 'flying' plastic disc became the American recreational icon known as the Frisbee, has died at age 90 of age-related causes (great obit pic). Wham-O Inc. has sold more than 200 million Frisbees since Morrison sold the company the rights to what he called the Pluto Platter in 1957. The roots of today's aerodynamic Frisbees go back to 1937, when Morrison and his future wife tossed a large popcorn can lid back and forth for fun during a Thanksgiving party."

Re:news for neurotypicals, stuff that doesn't matt

[MichaelSmith]

Yeah but ten years ago we were younger and not as sentimental.

Frisbees are nice and all but...

[operator_error]

Aerobies are waaay more fun. To take mine away, you'll have to pry it from my cold, dead, ...oh wait.

http://www.aerobie.com/Products/Sprint.htm [aerobie.com]

"The farthest object thrown by man"

I miss your innovation, dude.

[Anonymous Coward]

I remember how much fun I had throwing a Frisbee...at people and hurting their hands because I threw it so hard (curve? what curve? mine cut through the wind and glided straight... ;)

Still, even though your idea will live on, you'll be missed. You could have created many more interesting things...

Oh, and for those who think about the discus and such being invented before the Frisbee (or Pluto Platter or whatever you wish to call it), keep in mind that the discus only flew in one direction without curving at all. Compare that with the modern Frisbee, which allows for a curve that creates the fun challenge of getting back to a person perfectly. If you really want me to get geeky, I'll note that in order to send it to a person with wind interference, you'd need to approximate the speed of the wind and the direction to determine the right release height, the correct angle of release and the proper amount of release strength. It gets even more complicated when you add the snap of some people's wrists. By the way, sports fans, that disproves the idea that "it's all in the wrist" when it comes to badminton and other games where that practice is preached. After all, you still need to make contact with a shuttlecock for it to even do the proper thing and go over the net, right? That involves your feet and arms, not just your wrist. ;)

sad... have a pluto platter.

[dchamp]

That's sad.

I have a Wham-O Pluto Platter I found in the attic of my Grandpa's house - it's not the original Bakelite Morrison Pluto Platter, but the plastic version, looks very similar. Mine says "WHAM-O" on the top, but the word "Frisbee" is not on it, from what I can tell mine was made in 1957.

Re:Not accurate

[Graff]

I seem to recall watching a documentary that showed the frisbee being invented some time back in 1885 or 1886.

The Frisbie was originally the pie plate used by the Frisbie Pie Company [about.com] to bake and sell its pies in. Yale students were throwing them around in games since the late 1800's, well before Fred Morrison came up with his "Pluto Platter". Wham-O decided to re-name the Pluto Platter to the Frisbie because that's what it was already widely called, then they had to re-name it again to "Frisbee" in order to avoid trademark infringement.

Re:what's with the quotes?

[rickshaf]

Uh, actually, no airfoil, either fixed or rotary, generates lift. For example, the wing of an airplane sitting on the ground generates no lift unless air is flowing over it. A frisbee sitting on the ground is just the same. Only when the person flying it imparts a force to it does it "fly". Another way of looking at this is to hold a frisbee at shoulder height in a horizontal position and then drop it. It will float in a semi-stable position down to the ground, because it has a large cross-sectional area WRT its mass. Do the same thing, but give it a bit of spin, and it will float down very smoothly. It's behavior is no different from a parachute, with the exceptions that parachutes aren't designed to spin, and you don't strap it on!