WEBVTT - Etch A Sketch! 0:00:01.120 --> 0:00:04.560 Welcome to Stuff you Should Know from how Stuff Works 0:00:04.600 --> 0:00:14.360 dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. 0:00:14.440 --> 0:00:19.200 There's Charles w. Chucky Bryant, and there's Jerry uh the 0:00:19.320 --> 0:00:24.560 Delicious dish rolland and this is Stuff you should Know, 0:00:24.760 --> 0:00:29.120 the vintage nostalgia addition that went off to China and 0:00:29.160 --> 0:00:32.559 then got sold to a different company edition. So do 0:00:32.600 --> 0:00:35.600 you want to have a rough list of classic toys 0:00:35.640 --> 0:00:38.360 we've covered? You wanna hear it? Oh? Lay it on me. 0:00:38.800 --> 0:00:41.199 I'm sure I've missed something, but it did help me 0:00:41.240 --> 0:00:43.640 think of some more that we should do. It. Slinky, 0:00:45.240 --> 0:00:47.480 we did slinky. Oh yeah, we did slink. Okay, yeah, 0:00:47.760 --> 0:00:52.880 Lego Oh yeah, of course. Barbie sure, her boyfriend g 0:00:53.040 --> 0:00:56.440 I Joe. Yeah, that was a good one. Sorry, wait 0:00:56.440 --> 0:00:59.080 a minute, Wait a minute, I'm sorry. Did we just 0:00:59.120 --> 0:01:01.960 specifically do a G I Joe winner in Action figures one? 0:01:03.240 --> 0:01:07.440 I think both. We definitely did action figures, although probably not. Okay, 0:01:07.560 --> 0:01:10.560 go ahead, I'll cross check that. Hot wheels, So so 0:01:10.600 --> 0:01:12.320 this is a made up list, is what you're saying. 0:01:12.520 --> 0:01:15.760 Hot wheels? Ye, I'm glad you didn't. You didn't call 0:01:15.800 --> 0:01:23.800 it hot wheels. Easy bake oven m play dough, silly putty. 0:01:24.760 --> 0:01:28.720 All right, do you count boomerangs? Yes, sure, do you 0:01:28.720 --> 0:01:37.240 count Monopoly? Yeah, Yo yos. Of course, Hula Hoops. I 0:01:37.319 --> 0:01:39.640 knew Hula Hoops was after Yo Yos. I just knew it. 0:01:40.000 --> 0:01:42.839 Teddy Ruxpan, we we covered him in our Christmas show 0:01:42.880 --> 0:01:45.400 this year. Oh yeah, that's a deep cut right there. 0:01:45.520 --> 0:01:48.560 And then that's all I have. But um, I could 0:01:48.560 --> 0:01:50.520 have sworn we did it on Frisbees, but I cannot 0:01:50.560 --> 0:01:55.360 find it. Yeah. I feel like we did Frisbees too, 0:01:55.400 --> 0:01:57.760 because I think we talked about like frall for something 0:01:57.800 --> 0:02:00.320 at some point. Yeah, I don't know. Maybe it's out 0:02:00.320 --> 0:02:02.400 there and I just didn't or maybe it's under a 0:02:02.440 --> 0:02:08.240 flying disc or something. Oh that's possible. Yeah, we made 0:02:08.240 --> 0:02:11.440 that joke about calling it a novelty flying disc because Frisbee, 0:02:11.560 --> 0:02:14.520 like used to see everybody who called anything else to Frisbee. 0:02:14.639 --> 0:02:16.840 Maybe I'll have to look, but that there's probably more 0:02:16.840 --> 0:02:19.400 out there. But that's a solid you know, twelve or thirteen. 0:02:20.160 --> 0:02:24.760 That's pretty good, which leads us to edge sketch. Yes, 0:02:24.960 --> 0:02:28.560 one of the hundred top hundred toys of the century, 0:02:29.200 --> 0:02:33.480 according to UM, I want to say not the toy 0:02:33.520 --> 0:02:36.120 Hall of Fame. It's just in the Toy Hall of Fame. 0:02:38.240 --> 0:02:42.440 Kid who makes lists online? All right, Uh, this is 0:02:42.480 --> 0:02:45.480 the hundred best toys of the century. This is the 0:02:45.600 --> 0:02:49.280 hundred best guitar solos of the seventies. Oh man, I'd 0:02:49.280 --> 0:02:51.440 love to do a show on that. That would be 0:02:51.480 --> 0:02:54.200 pretty cool. I can't remember who named that that who 0:02:54.280 --> 0:02:56.720 made that list, but it's a high honor. It's a 0:02:56.800 --> 0:02:59.200 high accolade, even if we can't remember who came up 0:02:59.240 --> 0:03:02.359 with it. Like, it just catches the ubiquitous toy. Everybody 0:03:02.400 --> 0:03:04.400 knows what an that just sketches unless you go to 0:03:04.440 --> 0:03:06.960 France and then they'll say, oh, you mean like cro 0:03:07.240 --> 0:03:11.160 magic and you you might say, like, well, why would 0:03:11.160 --> 0:03:13.640 they have anything to say about the extra sketch in France? 0:03:13.960 --> 0:03:18.000 Turns out, buddy, the a just sketch is actually French 0:03:18.040 --> 0:03:21.040 in origin. Did you know that before this? I did not. 0:03:22.080 --> 0:03:25.240 I didn't either, because it seems like super American, you know, 0:03:25.280 --> 0:03:29.720 it looks like a TV and just feels like pure Americana. 0:03:30.560 --> 0:03:34.920 So when I realized I had some French stank on it, uh, 0:03:35.000 --> 0:03:38.760 my dreams were dashed. You like, it smells like champagne 0:03:38.800 --> 0:03:42.040 and cheese. Which is kind of pleasant. No, I didn't 0:03:42.040 --> 0:03:44.360 really care. I thought it was I thought it was great. Sketch, 0:03:44.400 --> 0:03:48.960 erase and sketch again. The logline that will forever be 0:03:49.080 --> 0:03:54.680 tied to this really interesting little toy. And um, I 0:03:54.680 --> 0:03:56.560 can't remember who it is in this article, but they 0:03:56.560 --> 0:03:58.640 were interviewing different folks. I think it was someone from 0:03:58.640 --> 0:04:02.200 the company commented, and I totally agree that, like, it's 0:04:02.200 --> 0:04:07.800 amazing that today, in in the digital world and Bluetooth 0:04:07.840 --> 0:04:11.080 and WiFi and video gaming as it is, that this 0:04:11.160 --> 0:04:15.680 little um low fi toy that doesn't even have batteries 0:04:15.720 --> 0:04:19.080 in it, much less hook up to the internet is 0:04:19.120 --> 0:04:21.800 still like super popular and still has a little bit 0:04:21.839 --> 0:04:24.280 of mystique. And I agree with them, And I think 0:04:24.320 --> 0:04:27.560 the reason why one of them is like you look 0:04:27.600 --> 0:04:29.240 at it and you're still kind of like, how does 0:04:29.279 --> 0:04:32.720 this thing work? Right, Well, we're going to ruin that 0:04:32.760 --> 0:04:35.400 mystique for everybody because we're gonna explain how it works 0:04:35.440 --> 0:04:39.200 actually in this episode. But hopefully it won't affect that 0:04:39.320 --> 0:04:41.560 just sketch sales, because we love I just catch you know, 0:04:42.040 --> 0:04:44.880 all right, should we go to France? We will go 0:04:44.920 --> 0:04:47.960 to France sometime. It's apparently not clear whether it was 0:04:48.040 --> 0:04:51.600 nineteen fifty five or nineteen fifty six, But in a 0:04:51.640 --> 0:04:55.680 little town called Vitry Sir Sin, which means Victory on 0:04:55.760 --> 0:05:01.280 the Sin River, there was a company called what was 0:05:01.320 --> 0:05:07.599 the name of the company, chuck uh lynn crusta company name. 0:05:08.320 --> 0:05:10.679 It is a terrible name. But the reason they called 0:05:10.720 --> 0:05:13.960 themselves that is because Lynn Crusta is a type of 0:05:14.040 --> 0:05:17.280 wall covering that was really popular in the nineteenth or 0:05:17.360 --> 0:05:20.320 early twenty centuries. You know, like, have you ever been 0:05:20.320 --> 0:05:23.320 into an old, creepy, abandoned house and like the walls 0:05:23.320 --> 0:05:26.600 are covered in what looks like dimpled tin with like 0:05:26.640 --> 0:05:30.640 some weird patterns to it or whatever. M m no, 0:05:30.880 --> 0:05:35.240 but keep going, Okay, So where if you you could 0:05:35.320 --> 0:05:38.240 rub your hand over it's very much it's like heavily embossed. 0:05:38.760 --> 0:05:42.400 Sometimes it's painted and it's just imagined. That is like 0:05:42.440 --> 0:05:46.200 Wayne scouting in the house. That is Lynn Crusta. And 0:05:46.279 --> 0:05:48.240 so that is one of the two things that this 0:05:48.279 --> 0:05:51.599 company made in the fifties, Lynn crusta wall coverings and 0:05:51.800 --> 0:05:55.760 artificial leather that is really neither here nor there, but 0:05:55.839 --> 0:05:57.599 I could I was with you. I was like, what 0:05:57.720 --> 0:05:59.400 kind of a name is that for a company. I 0:05:59.440 --> 0:06:02.440 looked it up. They just basically be like if you 0:06:02.520 --> 0:06:06.520 and I called our podcast podcast, because that's what we did, 0:06:06.600 --> 0:06:13.360 was make podcasts, crust pod Crusta, just the name crust Anyway. 0:06:13.480 --> 0:06:15.240 I think I know what you're talking about because I have, 0:06:16.720 --> 0:06:20.000 uh we have a pie safe that has that metal 0:06:20.480 --> 0:06:22.920 tin stuff. But it's I've never seen it on a wall, 0:06:22.960 --> 0:06:25.479 but I bet it's about the same thing, virtually the 0:06:25.560 --> 0:06:28.800 same thing. Yeah, okay, so that's link Crusta and that's 0:06:28.800 --> 0:06:36.279 where this guy worked. His name was Andre Cassagnas. Well, 0:06:36.320 --> 0:06:43.640 if it's French, wouldn't it be uh Caissan is that pronounced? Yeah, 0:06:43.680 --> 0:06:47.280 I think you just nailed it. Actually, Andre Cassong. Well 0:06:47.320 --> 0:06:49.320 that's what we're gonna call him. And we have gone 0:06:49.320 --> 0:06:52.000 back in time. You didn't know fifty five or fifty six, 0:06:52.040 --> 0:06:55.320 I say we go to fifty four. Just play it safe, 0:06:55.360 --> 0:06:57.960 setup shop in France and maybe get some emails done. 0:06:58.920 --> 0:07:01.560 Alright for a couple of years. Why not we could 0:07:01.600 --> 0:07:04.480 use a break um because you know, podcaster burnouts a 0:07:04.520 --> 0:07:10.400 real thing. Really, we're dropping, We're dropping like flies, all right. 0:07:10.480 --> 0:07:13.200 So he's working in this factory. It's north of Paris, 0:07:13.960 --> 0:07:17.360 and they are making these uh wall coverings like you're 0:07:17.360 --> 0:07:21.280 talking about. And he this is a little confusing how 0:07:21.320 --> 0:07:24.240 this actually happens if you ask me, or at least 0:07:24.240 --> 0:07:26.760 the way that the first article put it, it's confusing. 0:07:28.520 --> 0:07:30.920 Oh you're leaving it to me. I noticed by your 0:07:31.000 --> 0:07:34.840 by your pass after that, well, I mean no, let's 0:07:34.880 --> 0:07:37.160 let's I'll start it. But I just still don't quite 0:07:37.160 --> 0:07:42.160 get it. He marked up with pencil on a see 0:07:42.160 --> 0:07:45.440 through decal, so like he was putting on an electrical plate, 0:07:46.200 --> 0:07:48.760 um like a light switch. And on that plate, like 0:07:48.840 --> 0:07:52.160 many things, has like a little see through plastic that 0:07:52.200 --> 0:07:55.120 you peel off. Um, so he was writing on that 0:07:55.280 --> 0:07:58.840 he peeled it off. But then that's where it loses me. 0:07:58.880 --> 0:08:03.720 It's to exactly what took place. So okay, remember this 0:08:03.800 --> 0:08:06.760 is link Crusta and they make metal wall coverings, which 0:08:06.800 --> 0:08:12.800 means there's metal dust in the air, metal shavings everywhere, right, 0:08:12.840 --> 0:08:15.720 all of them are. Um that's what's crazy. This guy 0:08:15.760 --> 0:08:17.920 made it to that ripole age of eighty six after 0:08:17.960 --> 0:08:21.520 breathing that for years. But um, so there's there's metal 0:08:21.600 --> 0:08:25.640 dust everywhere, including on this electrical switch plate that he's installing. 0:08:26.120 --> 0:08:29.760 And I guess the decal against the plate. And I 0:08:29.800 --> 0:08:32.760 think what happened was when he marked on the decal 0:08:33.440 --> 0:08:35.800 and pulled the decale off, he'd seen that he had 0:08:36.320 --> 0:08:40.319 disturbed the metal shavings that were stuck to the underside 0:08:40.320 --> 0:08:44.560 of the decal. Do you see what I mean? Like 0:08:44.640 --> 0:08:47.680 he he had disturbed the shape, so so there was 0:08:47.720 --> 0:08:51.559 like the whole decal is coated in a metal dust. 0:08:52.040 --> 0:08:55.120 He marks on it with a pencil and the impression 0:08:55.200 --> 0:09:01.720 that he makes like gouges out lines on the backside 0:09:01.760 --> 0:09:05.760 the decal. But I know it's really tough. It was magic. Basically, 0:09:05.800 --> 0:09:09.880 this man witnessed a feat of magic that still cannot 0:09:09.880 --> 0:09:12.160 be explained to this day. And that's where he got 0:09:12.160 --> 0:09:17.520 his idea for the etch just sketch amazing. So a big, 0:09:17.559 --> 0:09:21.120 big moment he has that that literal lightbulb that goes 0:09:21.160 --> 0:09:24.360 off of his or I'm not literal of course, light 0:09:24.400 --> 0:09:27.160 bulb above his head, although you never know, there may 0:09:27.160 --> 0:09:29.040 have been a light bulb in that factory right above 0:09:29.040 --> 0:09:31.920 his head. Why not? Uh? And he said, all right, 0:09:32.040 --> 0:09:36.000 this is uh, this, this can be something. He however, 0:09:36.080 --> 0:09:40.120 did not have a lot of money to sink into 0:09:40.400 --> 0:09:44.280 this weird idea, and so he had to partner with 0:09:44.360 --> 0:09:48.839 somebody with money, man named Paul uh Chase c j 0:09:49.040 --> 0:09:53.040 z E or maybe Shaw's if he's French. And this 0:09:53.080 --> 0:09:55.840 guy had some dough because he owned a plastic injection 0:09:55.920 --> 0:09:59.400 molding company. This is like early on, I wonder if 0:09:59.440 --> 0:10:03.800 we could count. That's a toy, the the little plastic 0:10:04.440 --> 0:10:07.839 machines that spent out little plastic guitars in Chicago and 0:10:07.920 --> 0:10:12.120 it zoos. Yes, Rama, that would definitely count. Yeah, that 0:10:12.280 --> 0:10:14.640 goes on the list. Yeah, so he didn't. It wasn't 0:10:14.679 --> 0:10:17.640 mold rama, but it was plastic injection molding that this 0:10:17.679 --> 0:10:20.320 guy made his money from. Uh. And this where things 0:10:20.360 --> 0:10:24.680 get a little confusing historically because, uh, the man who 0:10:25.000 --> 0:10:30.280 his accountant, his name was Arthur Grangenny. You are nailing 0:10:30.320 --> 0:10:33.920 the French today. Try to run French people, You can't. 0:10:33.960 --> 0:10:38.360 Chuck is pronouncing your words just beautifully. So his accountant 0:10:38.840 --> 0:10:41.839 is actually given credit a lot of times because he 0:10:41.960 --> 0:10:47.120 filed the patent under his name, which I'm curious about 0:10:47.120 --> 0:10:51.800 how that works legally. Uh. He so he was do 0:10:51.840 --> 0:10:54.760 you remember the first time we did south By Southwest 0:10:55.480 --> 0:10:59.760 and on the sign it had like somebody I can't 0:10:59.800 --> 0:11:02.400 remember whose name it was, but whoever had like filed 0:11:02.440 --> 0:11:05.559 the application to get us into south By Southwest. It 0:11:05.679 --> 0:11:07.920 said that like, that's who was performing in the room 0:11:07.960 --> 0:11:12.120 that day. I think this is the same, basically the 0:11:12.200 --> 0:11:16.640 same thing. Where as like the US government bureaucracy, the 0:11:16.720 --> 0:11:20.680 Patent and UM Trademark office basically said, whoever his name 0:11:20.760 --> 0:11:23.439 is on there, that is, who is the patent holder. 0:11:23.840 --> 0:11:27.040 And since um Grand Gene, who was the accountant of Chaise, 0:11:27.160 --> 0:11:33.880 who was the partner of qusayan Um, since he was 0:11:33.960 --> 0:11:37.160 the one who actually filled out the application and paid 0:11:37.240 --> 0:11:39.719 for the application for the patent, as far as the 0:11:39.760 --> 0:11:43.400 government was concerned, he was the person who patented the 0:11:43.640 --> 0:11:46.319 just catch in the United States, even though grand made 0:11:46.400 --> 0:11:49.880 no claim on it whatsoever, immediately transferred the title over 0:11:49.920 --> 0:11:54.880 to Shase. He's for for decades, everybody thought Arthur grand 0:11:54.960 --> 0:11:58.440 Jean was the guy who invented the A sketch. Interesting, alright, 0:11:58.480 --> 0:12:01.560 so that was July nine fifty nine was when this 0:12:01.559 --> 0:12:05.360 patent was granted. And um, I guess we should just 0:12:05.360 --> 0:12:08.960 look at the little guy itself, the little TV, looking 0:12:09.080 --> 0:12:13.040 that iconic red frame with the two dials which it 0:12:13.120 --> 0:12:15.880 didn't have initially. Well we'll get to that. But um, 0:12:15.920 --> 0:12:19.400 the underside of the screen here has what's known in 0:12:19.400 --> 0:12:24.040 the patent as a pull virulent material such as aluminum powder. 0:12:24.640 --> 0:12:28.079 Is that French as well? I don't know, uh? And 0:12:28.120 --> 0:12:29.920 then to keep that from clumping up there a little 0:12:29.920 --> 0:12:34.760 tiny plastic beads and then the two knobs control um 0:12:34.800 --> 0:12:39.280 again from the patent, a movable tracing stylus, although initially 0:12:39.320 --> 0:12:42.800 it was a joystick, isn't that right? Yeah, yeah, basically 0:12:42.840 --> 0:12:46.480 like an atari um, but it served the same purpose 0:12:46.520 --> 0:12:49.960 and it was it was um held together the same 0:12:49.960 --> 0:12:53.840 way through an intricate system of pulleys and gears that 0:12:53.840 --> 0:12:57.360 that moved the stylus either upward or downward. And then 0:12:57.360 --> 0:12:59.720 if you combine the upward and downward together you could 0:12:59.720 --> 0:13:02.320 make the diagonals and circles and stuff like that. But 0:13:02.480 --> 0:13:05.960 it's if you it's really tough to describe what's going 0:13:06.000 --> 0:13:08.319 on and and and that's just sketch. But there's an 0:13:08.520 --> 0:13:11.280 House Stuff Works article from years back called Inside and 0:13:11.360 --> 0:13:13.480 that just sketch where the people the House of Verse 0:13:13.600 --> 0:13:16.319 like took one apart and photographed it and explained it 0:13:16.360 --> 0:13:19.720 step by step, and it really becomes much simpler and 0:13:19.840 --> 0:13:22.000 ruins any bit of magic. There is to it when 0:13:22.040 --> 0:13:24.319 you see inside ants just sketch, but it's still kind 0:13:24.320 --> 0:13:27.040 of wondrous, you know, like the engineer and you was like, wow, 0:13:27.080 --> 0:13:29.920 that's pretty cool. Yeah, it's sort of like, Um, I mean, 0:13:29.960 --> 0:13:32.520 it's not a negative image, I don't think. But what's 0:13:32.520 --> 0:13:36.080 going on when you're moving those knobs, Uh, there's a 0:13:36.120 --> 0:13:40.000 stylist that's actually removing like the screen is coated with 0:13:40.000 --> 0:13:43.960 this powder. So it's actually removing powder, not adding something 0:13:44.000 --> 0:13:47.680 to the screen. Yes, exactly. And of course if you 0:13:47.720 --> 0:13:51.720 want to get that away and start a new picture, 0:13:52.040 --> 0:13:54.760 you just shake that thing up and that recoads the 0:13:54.760 --> 0:13:58.280 screen once again with that powder. Yeah. So like you 0:13:58.320 --> 0:14:01.000 know how your TV screen always has tons of dust 0:14:01.080 --> 0:14:03.560 on it, no matter how often you dust it. Sure, 0:14:04.480 --> 0:14:08.480 So that's because like that dust is attracted electrostatically through 0:14:08.480 --> 0:14:12.560 an electrical charge to the glass. That's they take advantage 0:14:12.559 --> 0:14:15.840 of that same thing with the underside of the um 0:14:16.000 --> 0:14:19.040 etch a sketch and that aluminum dust which sticks to everything, 0:14:19.080 --> 0:14:21.000 like it wants to stick to the glass because I 0:14:21.000 --> 0:14:23.600 think it's missing some electrons or something. And then when 0:14:23.640 --> 0:14:26.440 you move the stylus through it, you're just removing that 0:14:26.440 --> 0:14:28.920 that dust. Like you said, it's not a negative. It's 0:14:28.960 --> 0:14:31.760 the removal of dust. And that's the next that just 0:14:31.800 --> 0:14:34.760 sketch like at its at its core. And what's interesting, 0:14:34.840 --> 0:14:37.520 Chuck is like, that is how a nuts just sketch 0:14:37.600 --> 0:14:40.760 today works. That's how ants just sketch worked in nineteen 0:14:40.880 --> 0:14:45.200 sixty two, like the two meaning like also but that 0:14:45.200 --> 0:14:49.600 that that dude, Andre Cassaigne said, this is how this 0:14:49.680 --> 0:14:52.280 is gonna work. And it's it's basically the same thing. 0:14:52.600 --> 0:14:55.240 That's pretty awesome. Uh, let's take a break. Yes, we're 0:14:55.240 --> 0:15:18.480 gonna come back and talk about coming stateside right after this. Alright, So, Chuck, 0:15:18.600 --> 0:15:20.960 so how did we agree on his last name? I 0:15:21.000 --> 0:15:24.000 think I'm butchering it still. And I even took years 0:15:24.000 --> 0:15:26.640 of French in high school. I think he said casserole. 0:15:28.200 --> 0:15:33.720 All right, Andre Casserole. That seems it seems wrong. Yeah, 0:15:33.800 --> 0:15:38.640 I'm I'm still gonna go with Cassan. Okay, there you go. 0:15:39.120 --> 0:15:43.320 Andre Cassan. Um, he knew he was onto something like 0:15:43.360 --> 0:15:45.760 this guy was an electrician. He was like, this is 0:15:45.920 --> 0:15:48.840 a great idea, this is a prototype I made, This 0:15:48.920 --> 0:15:52.400 is this is worth something? So he um and Cruise, 0:15:52.480 --> 0:15:56.400 I guess funded a trip to the Nuremberg Toy Fair 0:15:57.160 --> 0:16:02.080 UM in ninety nine. And uh, it was there that 0:16:02.400 --> 0:16:06.200 Cassan was walking around saying, check this thing out. It 0:16:06.360 --> 0:16:10.360 is yours for a mere hundred thousand dollars, which at 0:16:10.400 --> 0:16:13.920 the time was a lot of money. I think it 0:16:14.000 --> 0:16:17.480 was eight hundred and seventy thou dollars today. And that's 0:16:17.480 --> 0:16:19.720 what this guy wanted for the for the right to 0:16:19.800 --> 0:16:23.960 produce this um. And every toymaker at the place said no, 0:16:24.480 --> 0:16:29.000 including a little toymaker called ohio Art Um. Everybody turned 0:16:29.040 --> 0:16:31.600 it down, and Cassan went home from the toy fair 0:16:31.640 --> 0:16:35.520 empty handed. But he he didn't give up. He still persisted. 0:16:35.800 --> 0:16:38.320 But that was a big strikeout for him right out 0:16:38.320 --> 0:16:42.400 of the gate. Yes, so Ohio Art eventually settles on 0:16:42.480 --> 0:16:45.560 a number of grand for the rights to make this 0:16:45.640 --> 0:16:49.280 thing in the United States. Uh. It is still called 0:16:49.920 --> 0:16:54.000 La Chrome Magique in France because they had a different 0:16:54.040 --> 0:16:56.120 licensing deal over there. From the from the get go 0:16:57.080 --> 0:16:59.920 Um and Ohio Art company is pretty interesting. It started, 0:17:00.040 --> 0:17:04.040 did you see that thing? Should? Yeah? They started out 0:17:04.080 --> 0:17:07.159 in nineteen o eight, founded by a man named a 0:17:07.280 --> 0:17:12.480 dentist named Dr Henry S. WinCE Winsler in Archibald Ohio. 0:17:13.119 --> 0:17:17.760 He gets out of dentistry because he's like, hey, man, 0:17:17.840 --> 0:17:22.720 toys is the future. Toys is There's no future in teeth. 0:17:23.000 --> 0:17:25.639 In a decade, no one in America is gonna have teeth. 0:17:25.720 --> 0:17:29.880 It's just a losing trade to be in his dentistry. Yeah, 0:17:29.960 --> 0:17:32.760 so he uh all the way forward. He rented a 0:17:33.119 --> 0:17:38.600 UM musical, hired fifteen women and they were making metal 0:17:38.680 --> 0:17:43.560 picture frames at first, to great great success. M hmm yeah. Um. 0:17:44.040 --> 0:17:48.040 So they they use something called the metal lithography, which 0:17:48.080 --> 0:17:52.000 is a type of printing, and I think the metal 0:17:52.119 --> 0:17:55.840 refers to like the medium that you're using to print with, 0:17:56.359 --> 0:17:59.080 like the like you carve a picture out of metal 0:17:59.119 --> 0:18:01.040 and you put inc it and then you print on 0:18:01.080 --> 0:18:04.119 whatever you want. But they were printing on to metal. 0:18:04.440 --> 0:18:07.720 Like they had like these UM picture frames and pictures 0:18:07.720 --> 0:18:10.760 that were like a huge seller of a Cupid. It 0:18:10.880 --> 0:18:13.560 was a pair of like oval plates basically, but they 0:18:13.560 --> 0:18:16.520 were metal printed printed pictures on them, like a Cupid 0:18:16.560 --> 0:18:20.440 hanging out and then the same Cupid sleeping, and it's 0:18:20.520 --> 0:18:23.000 just kind of like whatever, Like these days, it seems 0:18:23.040 --> 0:18:25.800 kind of it's got a tinge of old timey creepiness. 0:18:25.840 --> 0:18:29.000 But in the first half of the twentieth century, there 0:18:29.000 --> 0:18:32.800 were fifty million sets of those things sold in the 0:18:32.880 --> 0:18:36.440 United States, which is an astounding amount. It's basically every 0:18:36.480 --> 0:18:38.879 house in America had a pair of this, and that 0:18:38.960 --> 0:18:42.680 really kind of made Ohio art like a very viable business. 0:18:43.160 --> 0:18:46.520 But they eventually got into things like sand pails and 0:18:46.560 --> 0:18:49.000 little trucks and that kind of thing. Anything that was 0:18:49.040 --> 0:18:51.879 printed with metal before the time that plastic toys came along, 0:18:52.080 --> 0:18:54.480 they were into so it wasn't a huge leap into 0:18:54.520 --> 0:18:56.560 the edge just sketch, but the edge sketch was definitely 0:18:56.600 --> 0:18:59.679 different than anything that they'd ever kind of messed around 0:18:59.680 --> 0:19:06.240 with for Did you know I've done metal lithography? No? Yeah, 0:19:06.240 --> 0:19:09.320 it was one of our in industrial arts. It was, 0:19:09.680 --> 0:19:11.600 you know, and at least at my school, each quarter 0:19:11.640 --> 0:19:16.280 you did a different medium or whatever, and uh, lithography 0:19:16.520 --> 0:19:19.280 was something we did one quarter. Do you remember what 0:19:19.359 --> 0:19:24.800 you printed? I'm trying to remember what I printed. It's 0:19:24.840 --> 0:19:26.639 funny I can remember that because we also at one 0:19:26.720 --> 0:19:30.280 quarter was screen printing. Remember the T shirts? I did 0:19:30.320 --> 0:19:34.280 monkeys T shirts like this, see no evil here, No 0:19:34.400 --> 0:19:38.840 evil monkeys. No, the Band of Monkeys. They're there their 0:19:39.200 --> 0:19:43.639 logo with the guitar spelled out as monkeys, Like, wow, 0:19:43.720 --> 0:19:46.760 did you draw it yourself? No? No, no, of course 0:19:46.800 --> 0:19:50.800 not um, but we did metal sheet lithography. I don't 0:19:50.840 --> 0:19:54.720 remember all of the process, but what I do remember 0:19:54.960 --> 0:20:01.160 was essentially was like burning chemically burning images onto metal 0:20:01.200 --> 0:20:06.360 plates and then that metal plate was used to print. Okay, 0:20:07.280 --> 0:20:11.680 So so the metal and metal lithography does it talks 0:20:11.720 --> 0:20:14.520 about the metal press that you're using to print with 0:20:15.320 --> 0:20:18.080 like at the end of There may be different processes, 0:20:18.200 --> 0:20:21.680 but in my class, we would um do this thing 0:20:21.720 --> 0:20:25.280 and apply this like uh image with like this gel 0:20:25.600 --> 0:20:28.920 onto a metal sheet and use this combination of chemicals 0:20:28.920 --> 0:20:31.000 that would burn that into like make it part of 0:20:31.000 --> 0:20:33.080 the metal. And then all of a sudden you would 0:20:33.119 --> 0:20:35.520 have a metal sheet within thing on it like a 0:20:35.560 --> 0:20:38.480 negative image, and then you would use that in the 0:20:38.480 --> 0:20:42.040 printing process to print a positive image, right, and you 0:20:42.040 --> 0:20:45.720 could print use that to print onto anything including other metal. Right. 0:20:46.440 --> 0:20:48.719 Well hey man, that's where my knowledge and again this 0:20:48.800 --> 0:20:50.880 was ninth grade me, so I've I've forgotten a lot 0:20:50.880 --> 0:20:54.520 of things over that time period, right, And I'm sure 0:20:54.520 --> 0:20:57.000 I just butchered that. But that's my one little dance 0:20:57.000 --> 0:20:59.679 with metal lithography. Well, I'll tell you who would be 0:20:59.680 --> 0:21:02.240 able to tell us exactly how you could, um, how 0:21:02.400 --> 0:21:05.240 metal lithography works. It's anybody who works at Ohio Art, 0:21:05.280 --> 0:21:08.160 because not only was that their bread and butter before 0:21:08.160 --> 0:21:12.919 the atch just catch it still is today. Actually so 0:21:12.920 --> 0:21:15.440 so Ohio Art, like I guess, gets in touch with 0:21:15.960 --> 0:21:19.880 um Andre Cassan and and either he got in touch 0:21:19.880 --> 0:21:21.400 with them again or they got in touch with him. 0:21:21.440 --> 0:21:24.280 I think it was the ladder of the two and said, hey, 0:21:24.400 --> 0:21:26.320 we heard you're selling this for a hundred grand. It's 0:21:26.400 --> 0:21:29.400 way too rich for our blood. How about either fifteen 0:21:29.400 --> 0:21:32.600 thousand or twenty five thousand, depending on who you ask 0:21:32.640 --> 0:21:34.879 in the future. And Cassan is like, what are you 0:21:34.920 --> 0:21:37.320 talking about there, Like, just take the money. And so 0:21:37.600 --> 0:21:40.280 they either got it for fifteen thousand or twenty five thousand, 0:21:40.320 --> 0:21:42.840 which is still substantial. I mean it was like around 0:21:42.840 --> 0:21:46.880 a hundred k or um two k something like that, 0:21:46.920 --> 0:21:50.040 depending on which one it was, and Cassan was quite 0:21:50.040 --> 0:21:53.280 a happy man. There was a story where Um, the 0:21:53.320 --> 0:21:55.520 guy who was running the show at Ohio Art and 0:21:55.600 --> 0:21:58.720 his wife went over to meet Andre Cassan and just 0:21:58.800 --> 0:22:00.720 kind of have like an initial eating and like shake 0:22:00.800 --> 0:22:04.040 his hand and all that and buy the license from him, 0:22:04.080 --> 0:22:06.720 and Cassan was like welcome and had like this huge 0:22:06.720 --> 0:22:09.560 spread of baguettes and champagne and everything at his house, 0:22:09.600 --> 0:22:11.560 which is pretty cute because there was just like this 0:22:11.640 --> 0:22:14.439 humble guy who came up with a really great idea 0:22:14.480 --> 0:22:17.520 for a toy and was finally like selling it for 0:22:17.600 --> 0:22:25.000 a lot of cash. Interesting, what the baggetts in champagne? Yeah, 0:22:25.040 --> 0:22:27.240 but you know what are you gonna do? Well? Went 0:22:27.280 --> 0:22:31.119 in France, right, so he is. Once he's on board 0:22:31.119 --> 0:22:35.240 with Ohio Art, he gets together with their chief engineer, 0:22:35.320 --> 0:22:39.920 Jerry Burger and says, and Burger's like, listen here, frenchie, 0:22:40.440 --> 0:22:43.000 you need to drop the joystick. It's all knobs these days. 0:22:43.880 --> 0:22:47.520 And he said, what does that knob? And he was like, well, 0:22:47.600 --> 0:22:50.879 let me show you, and he he introduced the idea 0:22:51.040 --> 0:22:53.600 of UM, the same system like you were talking about, 0:22:53.600 --> 0:22:57.200 but knobs instead of a joystick to move that little 0:22:57.200 --> 0:23:01.119 line horizontal or vertical, or as you pointed out, if 0:23:01.119 --> 0:23:03.760 you're really talented and you can master both at once, 0:23:04.160 --> 0:23:07.280 you can actually do UM rooted. Well, if you're really good, 0:23:07.320 --> 0:23:11.919 you can do very nice current lines. But beyond rudimentary. 0:23:12.359 --> 0:23:15.280 No neither am I I can make a line go 0:23:15.440 --> 0:23:17.920 up and a line go to the left or right. Yeah, 0:23:17.960 --> 0:23:19.800 well we'll get you can't even make it go down. 0:23:20.480 --> 0:23:23.520 We'll get to the art of it. Um maybe at 0:23:23.560 --> 0:23:26.200 the end. But because there are some serious artists out 0:23:26.200 --> 0:23:29.439 there doing some cool stuff, but at any rate, at 0:23:29.560 --> 0:23:32.000 just sketch. It was rebranded as etch a sketch in 0:23:32.040 --> 0:23:35.919 the United States, Ohio Arts producing them for the nineteen 0:23:36.000 --> 0:23:40.520 six holiday season and they sold about six hundred thousand 0:23:40.560 --> 0:23:45.960 of these um that year, which is a it's a lot, yeah, 0:23:46.000 --> 0:23:47.640 and they sold it for a lot of money too. 0:23:47.720 --> 0:23:50.760 They they went for sale at two dollars and nine 0:23:51.240 --> 0:23:56.760 cents apiece, which is sixty four in today's money. Um. 0:23:57.320 --> 0:23:58.760 But I mean if you go by and it's just 0:23:58.760 --> 0:24:01.240 sketched today, it's between and in fifteen bucks. So that 0:24:01.320 --> 0:24:03.480 was a lot of money, especially to sell six hundred 0:24:03.520 --> 0:24:06.439