I recently learned that the Etch A Sketch toy had been created by a Frenchman. If you want to know, in France, we call it “l’Écran magique” (the magic screen). As I wanted to know a bit more about that, I started researching:
Who Created the Etch A Sketch?
A French electrician employed by Lincrusta Co. named André Cassagnes was the mind behind the Etch A Sketch. He was then working at a factory in a northern Paris neighborhood where is was not creating toys.
The 30-year-old Cassagnes was working at the plant placing a plate over an electrical light switch. That was around 1955. On the new plate’s translucent protective decal, which was covered by a decal, he scribbled some pencil marks. He removed the decal and saw that his marks were still discernible on the other side.
There was a rational explanation for this phenomenon that seemed miraculous. Some of the tiny metallic particles on the decal that had been attracted to it by an electrical discharge had been moved by Cassagnes’ pencil. This incident gave him the inspiration to create a sketching tool that replicated what he had just witnessed.
Cassagnes experimented with a variety of materials before settling on glass for its transparency, aluminum powder since it was readily available in Lincrusta, and a pen that resembled a joystick to make the designs.
The backside of the screen has a coating of “pulverulent material such as aluminum powder” that the Etch A Sketch uses to work. To avoid clumping, the powder is combined with microscopic plastic beads. A “movable tracing stylus” that is buried behind the screen is controlled by two knobs. The left knob controls the stylus’s horizontal movement, and the right one controls its vertical movement. The stylus is moved through the powder by turning the knobs, and it scrapes the powder off the screen to expose vertical or horizontal lines. Simply flip the Etch A Sketch over, shake it, and recoat the screen with aluminum powder to remove the picture.
Eventually, Cassagnes formed a partnership with Paul Chaze, the proprietor of a small plastic injection molding business, who, with the help of his accountant, Arthur Granjean, was able to get patents for the toy in both France and the United States. It’s crucial to note that Granjean is occasionally incorrectly attributed as the creator of the Etch A Sketch since he submitted and paid for the patents (on July 23, 1959).
Evolution of the Design
A redesign of the Etch-A-Sketch toy was developed by the Ohio Arts Company thirteen years later. The two most noticeable modifications were the inclusion of a protective layer of clear plastic film put over the top of the glass plate, making the device safer to use in case it was dropped and the glass plate cracked, and a better casing that stopped the aluminum powder from escaping.
The Ohio Art Company first rejected the toy but subsequently decided to take a risk on it, going on to become the producer of the Etch A Sketch. For $25,000, they bought the toy’s rights, and Cassagnes collaborated with Jerry Burger, the company’s head engineer, to improve the design. The joystick was replaced with the recognizable two-knob system, which had a television-like design to mirror the time’s most popular home appliance.
In time for the 1960 Christmas season, this updated model—Now known as the Etch A Sketch—entered the market. It quickly gained popularity, selling more than 600,000 units.
The popularity of the Etch A Sketch may be credited to both its creative design and its astute marketing strategies, which included animated ads that highlighted the toy’s distinct drawing and erasing features. It immediately rose to prominence as one of the very first toys to get television advertising.
The impact of the Etch A Sketch goes well beyond its ground-breaking style. It was one of the first toys inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame in 1998. The Etch A Sketch was ranked among the top 100 toys of the 20th century in 2003 by the Toy Industry Association.
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If you like reading about the story behind the creation of famous toys, I previously wrote about the invention LEGO and the Slinky.
As I was looking into the articles I wrote on this blog, I stumbled upon the one about the invention of the dishwasher. I was convinced I wrote about the washing machine, but it was not the case. Both are used to washing, but I already got the first (and I don’t use it, but it came with the kitchen), and I really need the second, because the weekly trips to the laundromat are not a fun time. But for now, let’s look into the past with…
Before There Was a Washing Machine
There was a time before the days of modern conveniences when laundry was an arduous and time-consuming task. In ancient times, individuals had to wash their garments by hand, frequently next to a river or stream. Sand, stones, and soap were used to remove stains and grime from the clothes. For example, the Romans constructed public laundries where they utilized fermented human urine, rich in ammonia, to bleach linen. The Gauls employed birch cinders to improve the cleaning process.
It seems that more people ask “who invented electricity?” than “who discovered electricity?” There’s a difference between inventing and discovering, but there’s also a difference between discovering the existence of electricity and the invention of technic to produce it.
What is electricity?
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines electricity this way:
a fundamental form of energy observable in positive and negative forms that occurs naturally (as in lightning) or is produced (as in a generator) and that is expressed in terms of the movement and interaction of electrons.
a science that deals with the phenomena and laws of electricity
Who discovered electricity?
The best way is to begin with the natural occurrence of electricity. In that domain, the Greeks seem to take the first place (not Benjamin Franklin, he’ll come way later in history). In fact, the word “electricity” comes from the Greek elektron which means “amber,” because they rubbed amber with fur and observed the attraction of feathers and other objects. That was the discovery of static electricity—this phenomenon was not perceived as connected to the electric current until the 19th century.
It was in about 600 BC. With time, researchers and archeologists discovered what they believe may have been ancient batteries meant to produce light at ancient Roman sites, but also in archeological digs leading to Persians artefacts.
Who invented electricity?
The famous Ben Franklin’s kite experiment—with a kite, a key, and a storm—occurred in 1752. It proved that lightning and electric sparks were connected. But it didn’t lead to the use of the word “electricity.’ That came even before. English physician William Gilbert used the Latin word ‘electricus’ in the year 1600 to describe the product of that first Greek experiment. And a few years later, another English scientist, Thomas Browne, used the word ‘electricity’ in a paper in which he talked about his research based on William Gilbert’s work. That said, Franklin’s work inspired a lot of Europeans.
Benjamin Franklin Drawing Electricity from the Sky (1816)
English scientists were really dedicated to exploring the possibilities of electricity. In the early 1700s, Francis Hauksbee invented the first electrostatic generator based on German scientist Otto von Guericke’s invention—it was a primitive form of the frictional electrical machine. But it’s another discussion, one about lamps.
Francis Hauksbee was a member of The Royal Society—formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge—as was William Nicholson who, with surgeon Anthony Carlisle, discovered electrolysis in May 1800, the decomposition of water into hydrogen and oxygen by voltaic current. This led Italian physicist and chemist Alessandro Volta to the discovery of the voltaic pile, a battery. That’s why batteries are rated in volts.
Englishman Michael Faraday is also famous for the construction of a voltaic pile, one with seven British halfpenny coins stacked together with seven disks of sheet zinc, and six pieces of paper moistened with salt water—as it was learned in 1812. A few years later, in 1821, after the Danish physicist and chemist Hans Christian Ørsted discovered the phenomenon of electromagnetism, Faraday built devices to produce what he called ‘electromagnetic rotation’—one of these is known as the homopolar motor, and helped build the foundation of modern electromagnetic technology. These discoveries can’t all be credited to Faraday though. He based his work on the failed experiments of William Hyde Wollaston and Humphry Davy, fellow members of the Royal Society.
Michael Faraday English Scientist is a drawing by Mary Evans
But Faraday didn’t stop there. He explored the electromagnetic properties of materials, worked with light and magnets, and more. In 1831, he discovered electromagnetic induction—the production of an electromotive force across an electrical conductor in a changing magnetic field. What he established was then modeled mathematically by James Clerk Maxwell as Faraday’s law. This discovery leads Faraday to construct the electric dynamo, the ancestor of modern power generators and the electric motor. Finally, Faraday established that only a single ‘electricity’ exists—at that time, it was thought that there was more than one.
Faraday was not the only one influenced by Hans Christian Ørsted’s discovery. Another one was André-Marie Ampère, a French physicist and mathematician who was one of the founders of the science of classical electromagnetism, which he referred to as ‘electrodynamics.’ For him, it really started when his friend François Arago showed the members of the French Academy of Sciences the discovery made by Ørsted. After that, Ampère began developing a mathematical and physical theory to understand the relationship between electricity and magnetism. He showed that two parallel wires carrying electric currents attract or repel each other, depending on whether the currents flow in the same or opposite directions, respectively. This is what laid the foundation of electrodynamics and, of course, Ampère’s law, which states that the mutual action of two lengths of current-carrying wire is proportional to their lengths and the intensities of their currents. The base unit of electric current in the International System of Units (SI) was subsequently named after him—the ‘ampere’ or ‘amp.’
In 1826, German physicist Georg Ohm defined the relationship between power, voltage, current, and resistance in what is now known as ‘Ohm’s Law.’ That’s why the ohm became the basic unit for resistance.
Really, the late 19th century saw the greatest progress in electrical engineering. As you may have noticed, I avoided talking about lights, and more precisely the light bulb, because it will be the subject of another article. For now, let’s go back to electricity.
James Clerk Maxwell was a Scottish scientist who specialized in the field of mathematical physics. In 1865, he published ‘A Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field,’ a paper on electromagnetism in which he derived an electromagnetic wave equation with a velocity for light in close agreement with measurements made by experiment, and deduced that light is an electromagnetic wave. Basically, he demonstrated that electric and magnetic fields travel through space as waves move at the speed of light. His work made him a founder of the modern field of electrical engineering.
It certainly influenced German physicist Heinrich Hertz who, in 1886, was the first to conclusively prove the existence of the electromagnetic waves predicted by Maxwell’s equations of electromagnetism. Hertz’s proof of the existence of airborne electromagnetic waves led to an explosion of experimentation with this new form of electromagnetic radiation, which was called ‘Hertzian waves.’ That was until the 1910s when the term ‘radio waves’ became current.
Other discoveries were made after that. A lot. We will explore those subjects in subsequent articles.
The Commercial Electricity
Discoveries, theories, and experiments had to lead somewhere. We needed practical uses of electricity. Michael Faraday’s power generator set the stage for an electrical revolution—this is where the history of the light bulb became important. Having light bulbs was useless unless you had a practical source of energy to power them. Thomas Edison wanted to provide that. In order to make electricity practical and inexpensive. In 1882, he built the first electric power plant that was able to produce electricity, the Pearl Street generating station’s electrical power distribution system, which provided 110 volts of direct current (DC) to 59 customers in lower Manhattan.
Nikola Tesla
By working in Paris with the Continental Edison Company, Serbian-American inventor Nikola Tesla gained a lot of practical experience in electrical engineering. Soon, he started to design and build updated versions of generating dynamos and motors. In 1884, he moved to the United States with the help of his manager, Charles Batchelor. He ended up working on street lighting but quit after six months with the company. That didn’t stop his work and his new systems didn’t go unnoticed. Nevertheless, investors were not interested in his ideas for new types of alternating current (AC) motors and electrical transmission equipment.
Thomas Edison’s direct current had limitations that were overcome by the AC. In fact, in Europe, the AC power system was developed and adopted rapidly after 1886. In the US, Edison tried to discredit alternating currents as too dangerous in a public campaign called the ‘war of the currents.’ But progress can’t be stopped and, in 1888, alternating current systems gained further viability with the introduction of a functional AC motor—Nikola Tesla’s design for an induction motor was one of them. With Thomas Edison leaving the electric power business, direct current lost the war, and, by October 1890, Edison Machine Works began developing AC-based equipment. Mergers, patents, and other financial deals pushed AC power to the front. Well into the 20th century, some cities still used DC, but most adopted AC quickly.
A lot of people contributed to the ‘invention’ of electricity as we think of it today. Now, the difficulty is to produce more and more of it. That leads to new inventions!
Some time ago, I wrote about Philo Farnsworth, a man who played a big role in the development of the television set. That’s when I thought it would be a good idea to complement this article with a history of the creation of television. Now, it’s time to do exactly that.
Who Created Television?
It’s not possible to give just one name to answer this question. The invention of television was a long process, the development of different ideas and the creation of new technology that led to the result we now know.
You probably have heard about the Komodo Dragon. It always bothered me that it was called a “dragon” as its appearance didn’t correspond with what I imagine a dragon looks like. It’s ridiculous to see things like that, but the human brain is strange. Anyway, I was looking into where the name came from, and that led me to read about what I think of when were are talking about “Dragons.”
Who Created The Dragon?
The word “dragon” is dating back to the 13th century when it first entered the English language. It was derived from two ancient languages: Latin and Greek. In Latin, the word “dracōnis” referred to a dragon, and in Greek, it was known as “drakōns.”
Parmesan Cheese is my favorite cheese. I buy it in quantity from Italy because I eat a lot of it, and it’s weirdly cheaper for me than buying a small package at the supermarket here in France. Recently, as I was searching for recipes to find a way to add more Parmesan cheese to my diet, I went looking into its history.
Who Created Parmesan Cheese?
Parmigiano Reggiano (the original name of Parmesan cheese) first appeared in the area surrounding the Italian cities of Parma and Reggio Emilia, during the Middle Ages. To preserve the excess milk they were producing at the time, Benedictine monks who lived in this region invented the cheese.
Being the new owner of a house with a garden (like I was saying two weeks ago), I started to look at what I could grow in that garden. It’s a bit late for this year, but I want to be ready for the spring.
Anyway, that led me to read some articles and I was “shocked” (it’s clearly too strong a word) to learn that someone created the strawberry.
Who Created the Strawberry?
First of all, when I’m talking about the strawberry, I’m talking about the one we eat nowadays. Turns out, wild strawberries have been used for decorative purposes since at least Ancient Rome.
