Etch A Sketch, Classic Red Drawing Toy with Magic Screen, for Ages 3 and Up

Product Information

Although the Etch A Sketch’s inner workings might seem like a mystery, they’re actually pretty straightforward. The inside of the toy’s glass screen is covered with aluminum powder, which has tiny beads mixed in to keep it from clumping. A stylus is connected to a pulley system, which, in turn, is attached to the horizontal and vertical metal rods. These rods are affixed to two knobs. When you move the knobs, the stylus is dragged through the powder, creating a line. Not happy with your drawing? All you have to do is shake the toy, and the aluminum powder will re-coat the screen and erase the markings. 7. IT FOUND A MARKET VIA TELEVISION. To erase their picture, an artist only needs to flip the toy and shake, redistributing the powder over the screen. Etch A Sketch of Mass Destruction? sewingfool - duly noted. In my excitement to share my old toy I misused the word, as apparently did Ohio Arts. Thank you for your comment. L.a.o. I’m no Jamie Hyneman, and my girlfriend won’t let me play with explosives in the house (this is, I suppose, her only flaw), so I can’t test this out myself, but it seems pretty straightforward and plausible.

As touched upon earlier, there have been a number of different improvements and changes made to the Etch a Sketch over the years. For example, one of the most significant was the introduction of the Color Etch a Sketch in 1993.

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The Etch A Sketch toy was invented in the late 1950s by André Cassagnes, an electrician who branded the toy L’Écran Magique (The Magic Screen). In 1959, he took his drawing toy to the International Toy Fair in Nuremberg, Germany where The Ohio Art Company saw it and acquired it. The Ohio Art Company launched the toy in the United States in time for the Christmas season in 1960, marked Etch A Sketch. Over 600,000 units of the toy were sold during this time. Originally, the toy used a plate glass screen, which was criticized by safety advocates for being easily broken and a danger to children. [8] In November 1970, Consumers Union filed a petition with the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, asking for emergency action under the 1969 Child Protection and Toy Safety Act. [9] The Food and Drug Administration responded that the toy had been redesigned, replacing the glass plate with plastic. [10] a b "Etch A Sketch Creator Dies". Gifts & Decorative Accessories Magazine. 31 January 2013. Archived from the original on 2 February 2013 . Retrieved 2 February 2013. Etch A Sketch is a mechanical drawing toy invented by André Cassagnes of France and subsequently manufactured by the Ohio Art Company. [1] It is now owned by Spin Master of Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Also inside are horizontal and vertical bars connected by thin steel wires to the knobs on the face of the toy. A stylus is mounted where the two bars cross, so when you turn a knob, it moves its bar and the bar moves the stylus. As the stylus moves across the inside surface of the screen, it scrapes off the aluminum powder and creates a dark line on the light gray screen, which is just the darkness of the toy’s interior set against the lighter aluminum powder. ANDRÉ CASSAGNES, CREATOR OF ETCH A SKETCH, DIES AT THE AGE OF 86". Toy Industry Association, Inc. 25 January 2013. Archived from the original on 8 November 2013 . Retrieved 24 January 2018. In 1993, Ohio launched a color Etch A Sketch. [7] Similar to the original Etch A Sketch, it used the traditional two-knob interface to draw, but also featured six colors. It also had the ability to produce a color copy of each picture drawn. Some of the image captions in this section may require cleanup to comply with Wikipedia guidelinesfor succinctness. Please improve this article if you can. ( June 2023) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message)Toy Industry Association Announces Its Century of Toys List". Business Wire. 21 January 2003 . Retrieved 5 March 2022. The toy initially used a plate-glass screen but was replaced with plastic for safety reasons. In 1995, the Etch A Sketch toy featured in the 1995 Pixar animated film “Toy Story.” It had a 12-second feature that was enough to give a significant sales boost. The production line had to work overtime to meet the demand. In 2001, manufacturing was moved to a plant in Shenzhen, China, to cut production costs. The Ohio Art Company was facing bankruptcy before securing financing to stay viable. It sold the rights to the Etch A Sketch name and the design to the Toronto-based Spin Master Corporation in February 2016. The toy got into the National Toy Hall of Fame in 1998. In 2003, the Toy Industry Association named Etch A Sketch one of the 100 most memorable toys of the 20th century. Cassagnes was born outside Paris, France, on September 23, 1926. [1] His parents owned and operated a bakery, where he worked as a teenager. [1] An allergy to flour forced him to seek another line of work, [2] and he became an electrician for the Lincrusta Company, a French manufacturer which produced picture frame covers using an aluminum powder. [1] This was present in Cassagnes’s original designs. He later re-designed the toy to have two knobs. 4. TOY MANUFACTURERS ORIGINALLY REJECTED THE ETCH A SKETCH.

sewingfool, the term is applied at different ages to different items, cars for example, my qualify in 50 years. My friend used to say that in the England 1oo KM is a long distance and in the United States 100 years is a long time ! While the Etch A Sketch seems as American as apple pie, it’s actually a French invention. According to lore, an electrician named Andre Cassagnes was installing a light fixture in a factory during the 1950s. The factory produced an ornate embossed wall covering called Lincrusta. Aluminum powder used in the manufacturing process made its way onto a light-switch plate that Cassagnes was installing, and he noticed that when he made pencil marks on the plate’s translucent protective decal, they showed up on its other side. Turns out, Cassagnes’s pencil had raked a line through the metallic powder, displacing the particles that had clung to the decal thanks to an electrostatic charge. Observing this phenomenon inspired Cassagnes to create his own drawing toy using a plotter and aluminum powder. 2. CREDIT IS OFTEN GIVEN TO THE WRONG INVENTOR. André Cassagnes (September 23, 1926 – January 16, 2013) was a French inventor, electrical technician, toymaker, and kite designer. Cassagnes is best known as the inventor of the Etch A Sketch, a popular mechanical drawing toy manufactured since 2016 by Spin Master, formerly by the Ohio Art Company. [1] Nelson, Valerie J. (2 February 2013). "Andre Cassagnes dies at 86; Etch A Sketch inventor". Los Angeles Times. O'Reilly, Terry (27 April 2013). "Brand Envy". CBC Radio One: Under the Influence . Retrieved 28 April 2013.

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In France, its country of origin, Etch A Sketch was sold under the name of "Télécran", [14] rather than L'Écran Magique. I hope they (Ohio Art) sent you a letter you can use to prove what you're saying, that would make this unique. I think I would ask them for that sort of letter for your own use..maybe notarized ? And that’s part of the fun, isn’t it? Not knowing how it works? The idea – in a young, fertile imagination – that it might actually be magic? If you prefer to think of it that way, I can’t blame you, but you should stop reading, because here’s what’s going on under the screen: