At Mike's birthday party today I saw a Spirograph-like toy, made in China, with no indication of the word "Spirograph". Very cheap but perfectly functional. Did the patent expire? Was there ever a patent? I spent a lot of time with this toy when I was young. I found a version at Amazon, though this also looked very cheap and not at all like the original, not to mention being out of stock. I found some that looked like what I played with on eBay. I guess they really don't make them like they used to.
As you might have expected, I immediately thought of ways I could implement an online version. Fortunately for my dissertation, a lot of other people already have. Anu Garg wrote a particularly nice Spirograph java applet. Play with it!
Created by Anu Garg
The Spirograph was invented by Denys Fisher (1918-2002), a mechanical engineer from England. Using interlocking wheels, it allowed anyone, young or old, to make incrediblely intricate patterns by simply following around the main wheel with a smaller wheel through which you put the point of a pen. Fischer introduced the Spirograph at the 1965 Nuremburg International Toy Fair where it was picked up by Kenner. In two years, 5.5 million sets had been sold, making it the number one toy in the U.S.. For more on the history of the Spirograph and other toys check out David Hoffman and Viktor Budnik's Kid Stuff: Great Toys from Our Childhood. Interestingly, Fischer conceived the idea while doing research on new design for bomb detonators for NATO.
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