- Etch A Sketch
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Etch A Sketch 
Type Drawing toy Inventor André Cassagnes Company Ohio Art Company Country France, USA Availability 1960– Official website Etch A Sketch is a registered trademark for a mechanical drawing toy manufactured by the Ohio Art Company.
An Etch A Sketch is a thick, flat gray screen in a plastic frame. There are two knobs on the front of the frame in the lower corners. 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. The left control moves the stylus horizontally, and the right one moves it vertically.
The Etch A Sketch was introduced near the peak of the Baby Boom, and is one of the best known toys of that generation. It was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame at The Strong in Rochester, New York, in 1998. 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.[1] It remains popular to this day.
Contents
Mechanics
Etch A Sketch with inside shown
The toy can be considered a simplified version of a 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. To erase the picture, the artist turns the toy upside down and shakes it. Doing this causes polystyrene 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 (see picture).
History
The Etch A Sketch toy was invented in the late 1950s by André Cassagnes,[2][3][4][5] in his basement. He called it "L'Ecran Magique", the magic screen. In 1959, he took his drawing toy to the International Toy Fair in Nuremburg, Germany. The Ohio Art Company saw it but had no interest in the toy. When Ohio Art saw the toy a second time, they decided to take a chance on the product. The L'Ecran Magique was soon renamed the Etch A Sketch and became the most popular drawing toy in the business. After a complex series of negotiations, The Ohio Art Company launched the toy in the United States in time for the 1960 holiday season with the name "Etch A Sketch". Ohio Art supported the toy with a televised advertising campaign.[6] Etch a Sketch was manufactured in Bryan, Ohio until the company moved the manufacturing plant to Shenzhen, China in 2001.[7]
Later versions
Etch A Sketch Animator
The Etch A Sketch AnimatorThe Etch A Sketch Animator, which debuted in 1986,[6] featured a low-resolution dot matrix display and used two knobs for drawing, like a regular Etch A Sketch, with several buttons to manipulate the 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 was 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, with others planned. The three developed are 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.[6] 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.
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 like handheld TV games and work like a regular Etch A Sketch, except on the television screen and with the addition of colors and sound effects.
Etch A Sketch art
There are many practicing artists who use the Etch A Sketch to produce professional lineographic work. Most artists make their work permanent by removing the aluminium powder. This is done either by drilling holes in the bottom of the toy or by removing the entire plastic backing. It is then resealed as a semi-permanent, shake-resistant piece of art.[8]
Anecdote
In France, Etch a Sketch was sold under the name of "Télécran".[9]
See also
- Magna Doodle, a somewhat similar toy using a different principle of operation.
- The Mystic Writing Pad (also called Wunderblock), an old childrens toy, which can be used for writing or drawing. Consisting of a thin sheet of clear plastic covering a thick waxed board. Sigmund Freud referred to it as a metaphor in his concept of the unconscious.
References
- ^ "Toy Industry Association Announces Its Century of Toys List." Business Wire, 21 January 2003. Retrieved 31 October 2008.
- ^ "Ohio Art - Our Story". Ohio Art. http://www.ohioart.com/our_story.jsp. Retrieved 13 July 2010.
- ^ Rogers, W. Sherman (2009). African American Entrepreneur: Then and Now. ABC-CLIO. p. 221.
- ^ "Etch A Sketch turns 50: amazing art created with the drawing toy". Telegraph (London). July 12, 2010. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/howaboutthat/7885062/Etch-A-Sketch-turns-50-amazing-art-created-with-the-drawing-toy.html. Retrieved 13 July 2010.
- ^ "Icon of childhood is 50: Etch A Sketch has carved a spot of honor in pop culture". The Connors Group. http://www.tradingmarkets.com/news/stock-alert/oart_icon-of-childhood-is-50-etch-a-sketch-has-carved-a-spot-of-honor-in-pop-culture-981040.html. Retrieved 13 July 2010.[dead link]
- ^ a b c The Ohio Art Company - Company History
- ^ Joseph Kahn (December 7, 2003). "AN Ohio Town Is Hard Hit as Leading Industry Moves to China". The New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990CE3DE133DF934A35751C1A9659C8B63&scp=1&sq=%22etch%20a%20sketch%22%20+%20China&st=cse.
- ^ Vlosich, G. "GVART + DESIGN - Original one-of-a-kind pop art", 2008, accessed August 24, 2011.
- ^ "TV ad on french TV" Institut national de l'audiovisuel, 02 December 1979.
External links
Categories:- 1960 introductions
- Art and craft toys
- Toys of the 1960s
- National Toy Hall of Fame inductees
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