Posted on 07/14/2010 5:20:58 AM PDT by Daffynition
(July 13) -- Happy 50th birthday, Etch A Sketch.
This week in 1960, the Etch A Sketch first hit the market, according to HowStuffWorks.com. Fifty years later, the beloved piece of technology has been transformed from a simple toy to a medium for fine art, a movie character thanks to the "Toy Story" series, and an iPhone app.
Even after half a century, the Etch A Sketch maintains its youthful appearance. Once only available in the iconic red-with-grey-screen variety, the drawing tool now comes in neon-colored housings and multicolor interfaces.
The premise behind the Etch A Sketch is simple: Two knobs tied to pulleys manipulate a stylus underneath a glass housing, and an aluminum powder serves as the toy's "ink."
One quick shake, and hundreds of tiny styrene beads wipe the surface clean, making it ready for another drawing session.
It was originally called the L'Ecran Magique, or "The Magic Screen," by inventor Arthur Granjean from France. When he couldn't get local toy companies to manufacture his magic screen, he sold it to The Ohio Art Company, bringing the toy to American shores and turning it into a pop culture icon.
You’re so bad. ROTFLOL!
Hey, kids still do that. At out previous house, a family living 4 doors down allowed their young children to travel no further than our driveway. They'd come down to see us and my mom who lived with us at the time. They'd chalk up our driveway something fierce, and we'd watch them play.
One's out of college now, the other a Junior in college. The older one was president of my Kiwanis club's Key Club during high school. We're still close to the family, almost like relation.
Raise you hand if you spent an afternoon trying to completely fill the entire screen.
Do kids even still play with these anymore?
My science teacher told me when I was in high school that the aluminum powder in one of these mixed with rust from a box of regular steel wool pads that were soaked in vinegar water and then left out to dry and oxidized would make thermite powder, ratio was 2:1 iron oxide to aluminum powder.
Ignition was done with some 4th of July sparklers or a highway flare.
And then there was something about mixing with Play-do....
I didn’t like them at all and never wanted one but do remember one afternoon sitting in a porch swing with a boy and attempting to clean the screen completely. I think we succeeded, I do know that we could see the inner workings.
I had one of those but I don’t remember it being black slate but some type of black plastic material that was kind of semi soft and the opaque plastic sheet would kind of stick to it and you used a stylus to draw on the plastic sheet. The pressure of the stylus would cause the plastic to stick to the black plastic and show the lines you drew.
It also helped to have a dad who was a Marine Corp demolitions expert.
I was pretty good at drawing stairs.
Hey, me, too.
ping
Yep, that’s what it was like. I used the term ‘slate’ for simply not knowing exactly what the composition of the backboard was. For want of a better word...
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