<P> Being a kind of a flywheel of a gyroscope in principle, fidget spinners come with similar effects enabling a player to pull various tricks and stunts while forces of a gyroscope take hold . A fidget spinner can be balanced on top of fingers, thrown and caught, and so on . </P> <P> As of 2017, the patent status of the various fidget spinners on the market was unclear . </P> <P> Catherine Hettinger, a chemical engineer by training, was initially credited by some news stories to have been the inventor of the fidget spinner, including by media outlets such as The Guardian, The New York Times, and the New York Post . Hettinger filed a patent application for a "spinning toy" in 1993 and a patent was issued, but Hettinger allowed the patent to lapse in 2005 after she could not find a commercial partner . A May 2017 Bloomberg News article showed that Hettinger was not the inventor of the fidget spinner, and Hettinger agreed . </P> <P> In an interview appearing on May 4, 2017 on NPR, Scott McCoskery described how he invented a metal spinning device in 2014 to cope with his own fidgeting in IT meetings and conference calls . In response to requests from an online community, he began selling the device he called the Torqbar online . </P>

When did the first fidget spinners come out