Invented by : Arthur Granjean
Invented in year : 1959
Etch A Sketch is a mechanical drawing toy manufactured by the Ohio Art Company. It is composed of a thick, flat gray screen in a plastic frame. The toy is a sort of simple Plotter. The inside surface of the glass screen is coated with aluminium powder which is then scraped off by a movable stylus, leaving a dark line on the light gray screen. The stylus is controlled by the two large knobs, one of which moves it vertically and the other horizontally. The two knobs are located on the front of the frame in the lower corners. The left control moves the stylus horizontally, and the right one moves it vertically. Twisting the knobs moves a stylus that displaces aluminium powder on the back of the screen, leaving a solid line. The knobs create lineographic images. To erase the picture, the artist turns the toy upside down and shakes it. Doing this causes styrene beads to smooth out and re-coat the inside surface of the screen with aluminium powder. The "black" line merely exposes the darkness inside the toy. Filling in large "black" areas will allow enough light through to expose parts of the interior
History of the Invention
Etch A Sketch appeared at the time of Baby Boom. In the late 1950's, Andre Cassagnes, an electrician in France, stumbled upon the idea of creating a drawing toy with a joystick, glass and aluminum powder. Cassagnes called this early concept, the "Telecran," which, through relationships with key business partners, made its way to Winzeler. Winzeler connected Cassagnes with Jerry Burger, Chief Engineer at the Ohio Art Company, so they could collaborate and perfect the system. The system they developed in the late 1950s is the same system that is at the core of the Etch A Sketch® today. The technical basis of the toy was developed in the late 1950s by the Frenchman Arthur Granjean. Granjean displayed his prototype, which he had built in his basement and called "L'Ecran Magique" ("The Magic Screen"), at the 1959 International Toy Exhibition in Nuremburg, Germany. There, executives of the Ohio Art Company saw the potential of the device, and acquired the rights to develop and produce it. In a year of research and development, the Etch A Sketch® achieved its now classic name and shape (US patent #3,760,505).
Development in the invention of Etch A Sketch
First marketed in 1960, the Etch A Sketch® has become one of the most popular creative children's toys of recent times. It also lead to several other similar based toys.
Etch A Sketch Animator - The Etch A Sketch Animator debuted in 1986. It featured a low-resolution dot matrix display and used two knobs for drawing, like a regular Etch A Sketch, with several buttons to manipulate said drawings. It had a few kilobytes of memory, capable of storing 12 frames of pictures in any combination up to 96 times. It contained a speaker, which made static-like sounds when the knobs were moved and during animations.
Etch A Sketch Animator 2000 - The Etch A Sketch Animator 2000 was a portable toy developed by Ohio Art in 1987, debuting in 1988. It is an upgraded version of the Etch A Sketch Animator. It used a stylus to draw on an interfacing pad, and the drawing appeared above on a low-resolution LCD screen. It had the ability to animate a sequence of frames as well as the ability to save animations on memory cartridges. The Animator 2000 could also play games loaded on cartridges. Three games were developed for it: Overdrive, a racing game in the vein of Pole Position; Putt Nuts, an 18-hole miniature golf game; and Flyby, a simplistic flight simulator. The Animator 2000 was discontinued shortly after its introduction, rendering copies of some of these games scarce.
Etch A Sketch Color - In 1993, Ohio Art launched a Color Etch A Sketch. It was similar to the original Etch A Sketch as it used the traditional two-knob interface to draw but it differed on it's ability to produce a color copy of each picture drawn. It also featured six colors.
Etch A Sketch Electronics ETO - Plug and Play Drawing System / Etch A Sketch Wired - These are basically hand-held controllers that connect to a television and work like a regular Etch A Sketch, except on the television screen and with the addition of colors and sound effects.
In 2003, the Toy Industry Association named Etch A Sketch to its Century of Toys List, a roll call commemorating the 100 most memorable and most creative toys of the 20th century. It remains popular to this day.
Role of Etch A Sketch in the Improvement Of Human Life
- It has influenced a generation of artists who have made a road for themselves to press; magazines, newspapers, and TV
- It stimulates Coordination as one needs to create curves by manipulating both knobs at once. Also, the line generated by the stylus must remain unbroken, so that elaborate designs must be planned out in advance.
- Etch A Sketch® experts succeed in creating some truly impressive designs, and can preserve their designs by draining the powder from the device.
