WEBVTT - SYSK's 12 Days of Christmas… Toys: Etch A Sketch! 0:00:01.840 --> 0:00:04.680 Hey, everyone, it's time for our episode on etcha sketch, 0:00:05.000 --> 0:00:08.520 the little tablet that you could draw on using two 0:00:08.680 --> 0:00:12.160 dials for some reason, and then when you made a masterpiece, 0:00:12.200 --> 0:00:15.440 you'd shake it up and start over again. Or if 0:00:15.480 --> 0:00:18.239 you're a real jerk, you could shake up someone else's 0:00:18.239 --> 0:00:20.960 masterpiece when they weren't ready to shake it up yet. 0:00:21.480 --> 0:00:23.480 This is a good one. I guess all of our 0:00:23.520 --> 0:00:26.520 toy episodes were good ones, so it goes without saying, 0:00:26.960 --> 0:00:29.760 but it is a good one. 0:00:31.280 --> 0:00:41.400 Welcome to Stuff you should Know from HowStuffWorks dot com. 0:00:41.479 --> 0:00:44.800 Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's 0:00:44.920 --> 0:00:50.479 Charles w. Chucky Bryant, and there's Jerry the Delicious dish 0:00:50.600 --> 0:00:55.640 Rolling And this is stuff you should know. The vintage 0:00:55.720 --> 0:00:59.760 Nostalgia edition that went off to China and then got 0:00:59.800 --> 0:01:01.440 so do a different company edition. 0:01:02.360 --> 0:01:04.280 So do you want to have a rough list of 0:01:05.040 --> 0:01:07.640 classic toys we've covered? You want to hear it? 0:01:07.680 --> 0:01:08.920 Oh? Lay it on me, Charles. 0:01:08.920 --> 0:01:11.320 I'm sure I've missed something, but it did help me 0:01:11.360 --> 0:01:12.560 think of some more that we should do. 0:01:13.280 --> 0:01:17.480 Slinky, We did slinky, Oh yeah, we did sleek okay. 0:01:17.360 --> 0:01:22.959 Yeah, lego Oh yeah, of course Barbie sure, her boyfriend 0:01:22.959 --> 0:01:23.600 g I Joe. 0:01:24.880 --> 0:01:27.040 Yeah, that was a good one. Sorry, wait a minute, 0:01:27.120 --> 0:01:29.959 Wait a minute, I'm sorry. Did we just specifically do 0:01:30.040 --> 0:01:32.160 a G I Joe one or an Action Figures one? 0:01:33.319 --> 0:01:35.800 I think both. We definitely did Action Figures. 0:01:35.360 --> 0:01:38.880 Although not Okay, go ahead, I'll. 0:01:38.680 --> 0:01:39.959 Cross check that. Hot wheels. 0:01:40.000 --> 0:01:41.959 So so this is a made up list, is what 0:01:42.000 --> 0:01:42.479 you're saying. 0:01:42.640 --> 0:01:44.160 Hot wheels. 0:01:44.280 --> 0:01:47.000 Yeah, I'm glad you didn't. You didn't call it hot wheels. 0:01:47.680 --> 0:01:55.120 Easy bake oven mm hm, play dough, silly putty? All right? 0:01:55.200 --> 0:01:56.280 Do you count boomerangs? 0:01:57.480 --> 0:01:58.760 Yeh sure, do. 0:01:58.760 --> 0:02:04.000 You count Monopoly? Yeah, Yo yos? 0:02:04.520 --> 0:02:05.000 Of course. 0:02:05.280 --> 0:02:05.960 Hula Hoops. 0:02:07.280 --> 0:02:09.359 I knew Hula Hoops was after Yo Yos. I just 0:02:09.440 --> 0:02:09.760 knew it. 0:02:10.120 --> 0:02:13.400 Teddy Ruxxban we covered him in our Christmas show this year. 0:02:13.880 --> 0:02:15.520 Oh yeah, that's a deep cut right there. 0:02:15.639 --> 0:02:18.760 And then that's all I have. But I could have 0:02:18.800 --> 0:02:21.080 sworn we did it on Frisbees, but I cannot find it. 0:02:23.919 --> 0:02:25.799 Yeah. I feel like we did Frisbees too, because I 0:02:25.800 --> 0:02:28.640 think we talked about like frawl for something at some point. 0:02:29.000 --> 0:02:30.760 Yeah. I don't know. Maybe it's out there and I 0:02:30.880 --> 0:02:33.799 just didn't or maybe it's under flying disc or something. 0:02:34.720 --> 0:02:39.200 Oh, that's possible, because yeah, we made that joke about it, 0:02:39.240 --> 0:02:42.040 calling it a novelty flying disc because Frisbee like used 0:02:42.080 --> 0:02:44.720 to sue everybody who called anything else to Frisbee. 0:02:44.720 --> 0:02:47.320 Maybe I'll have to look, but there's probably more out there. 0:02:47.320 --> 0:02:49.520 But that's a solid you know, twelve or thirteen. 0:02:50.240 --> 0:02:54.880 That's pretty good, which leads us to Edges sketch. Yes, 0:02:55.080 --> 0:02:58.120 one of the one hundred top hundred toys of the 0:02:58.200 --> 0:03:03.600 century according to I want to say, not the Toy 0:03:03.639 --> 0:03:06.520 Hall of Fame. It's just in the Toy Hall of Fame. 0:03:06.520 --> 0:03:09.080 I think according to some snot nose kid who makes 0:03:09.160 --> 0:03:10.000 lists online. 0:03:10.600 --> 0:03:14.240 All right, this is the one hundred best toys of 0:03:14.280 --> 0:03:17.160 the century. This is the one hundred best guitar solos 0:03:17.200 --> 0:03:18.000 of the seventies. 0:03:18.639 --> 0:03:21.120 Oh man, I'd love to do a show on that. 0:03:21.120 --> 0:03:23.640 That would be pretty cool. I can't remember who named 0:03:23.639 --> 0:03:26.640 that that who made that list, but it's a high honor. 0:03:26.639 --> 0:03:28.919 It's a high accolade, even if we can't remember who 0:03:28.960 --> 0:03:32.000 came up with it. Like the etcher sketches a ubiquitous toy. 0:03:32.040 --> 0:03:34.440 Everybody knows what an ecch of sketches unless you go 0:03:34.480 --> 0:03:36.880 to France and then they'll say, oh, you mean La 0:03:36.960 --> 0:03:41.000 cara megic right, and you might say, like, well, why 0:03:41.040 --> 0:03:43.240 would they have anything to say about the extra sketch 0:03:43.240 --> 0:03:47.800 in France? Turns out, buddy, the etcha sketch is actually 0:03:47.800 --> 0:03:50.120 French in origin. Did you know that before this? 0:03:50.760 --> 0:03:54.080 I did not. I didn't either, because it seems like 0:03:54.240 --> 0:03:57.720 super American, you know, it looks like a TV and 0:03:58.160 --> 0:04:01.920 just feels like pure Americana. So when I realized it 0:04:01.960 --> 0:04:06.240 had some French stank on it, my dreams were dashed. 0:04:07.400 --> 0:04:10.080 You like, it smells like champagne and cheese, which is 0:04:10.520 --> 0:04:11.280 kind of pleasant. 0:04:11.600 --> 0:04:13.480 No, I didn't really care. I thought I thought it 0:04:13.520 --> 0:04:18.000 was great sketch, erase and sketch again the log line 0:04:18.240 --> 0:04:22.799 that will forever be tied to this really interesting little toy. 0:04:23.160 --> 0:04:26.240 And I can't remember who it is in this article, 0:04:26.240 --> 0:04:28.240 but so they were interviewing different folks. I think it 0:04:28.279 --> 0:04:32.080 was someone from the company commented, and I totally agree that, Like, 0:04:32.160 --> 0:04:37.960 it's amazing that today in the digital world and Bluetooth 0:04:37.960 --> 0:04:40.960 and Wi Fi and video gaming as it is, that 0:04:41.080 --> 0:04:45.839 this little lo fi toy that doesn't even have batteries 0:04:45.880 --> 0:04:49.200 in it, much less hook up to the internet is 0:04:49.279 --> 0:04:51.920 still like super popular and still has a little bit 0:04:51.960 --> 0:04:54.400 of mystique, and I agree with them, and I think 0:04:54.440 --> 0:04:57.680 the reason why one of them is like you look 0:04:57.720 --> 0:04:59.360 at it and you're still kind of like, how does 0:04:59.400 --> 0:04:59.920 this thing work? 0:05:00.680 --> 0:05:03.839 Right, Well, we're going to ruin that mystique for everybody 0:05:03.839 --> 0:05:07.960 because we're gonna explain how it works actually in this episode. Right, 0:05:08.000 --> 0:05:10.200 But hopefully it won't affect that you just sketch sales 0:05:10.240 --> 0:05:11.760 because we love that you sketch, you know. 0:05:12.160 --> 0:05:13.440 All right, should we go to France? 0:05:14.400 --> 0:05:17.599 We will go to France sometime. It's apparently not clear 0:05:17.640 --> 0:05:20.480 whether it was nineteen fifty five or nineteen fifty six, 0:05:21.040 --> 0:05:24.880 but in a little town called Vitry sir Sin, which 0:05:24.920 --> 0:05:28.520 means Victory on the Sinn River, there was a company 0:05:29.240 --> 0:05:32.600 called what was the name of the company. 0:05:32.320 --> 0:05:37.760 Chuck uh linn crusta company, right, terrible name. 0:05:38.440 --> 0:05:40.800 It is a terrible name. But the reason they called 0:05:40.839 --> 0:05:44.040 themselves that is because lynn Crusta is a type of 0:05:44.200 --> 0:05:47.360 wall covering that was really popular in the nineteenth and 0:05:47.480 --> 0:05:50.440 early twentieth centuries. You know, like have you ever been 0:05:50.440 --> 0:05:53.440 into an old, creepy, abandoned house and like the walls 0:05:53.480 --> 0:05:56.720 are covered in what looks like dimpled tin with like 0:05:56.760 --> 0:05:58.800 some weird patterns to it or whatever. 0:06:00.600 --> 0:06:02.320 No, but keep going. 0:06:03.000 --> 0:06:06.039 Okay, so where if you you could rub your hand 0:06:06.080 --> 0:06:09.360 over it's very much it's like heavily embossed. Okay, sometimes 0:06:09.400 --> 0:06:12.520 it's painted and it's it just imagined that as like 0:06:12.560 --> 0:06:16.320 Wayne Scotting in the house. That is Lin Crusta. And 0:06:16.400 --> 0:06:18.360 so that is one of the two things that this 0:06:18.440 --> 0:06:21.680 company made in the fifties, link crustal wall coverings and 0:06:21.920 --> 0:06:25.880 artificial leather. That is really neither here nor there, but 0:06:25.960 --> 0:06:27.760 I could. I was with you, I was like, what 0:06:27.839 --> 0:06:29.520 kind of a name is that for a company? I 0:06:29.560 --> 0:06:32.200 looked it up and they just it basically be like 0:06:32.240 --> 0:06:36.120 if you and I called our podcast podcast because that's 0:06:36.160 --> 0:06:38.240 what we did, was make podcasts. 0:06:37.760 --> 0:06:42.720 Or call the company crust pod, Crusta, just the name 0:06:42.800 --> 0:06:44.839 crust Anyway, I think I know what you're talking about 0:06:44.880 --> 0:06:49.400 because I have we have a pie safe that has 0:06:49.520 --> 0:06:52.520 that metal tin stuff. But it's, uh, I've never seen 0:06:52.560 --> 0:06:53.880 it on a wall, but I bet it's about the. 0:06:53.839 --> 0:06:57.719 Same thing, virtually the same thing. Yeah, yep, Okay, So 0:06:57.800 --> 0:07:00.560 that's Link Crusta and that's where this guy worked. His 0:07:00.680 --> 0:07:05.640 name was Andre Cassagnis. I bet that you hill. 0:07:06.200 --> 0:07:11.120 Well, if it's French, wouldn't it be Caissan? Is that 0:07:11.200 --> 0:07:12.360 she pronounced? 0:07:13.520 --> 0:07:16.440 Yeah, I think you just nailed it. Actually, Andre Cassol, 0:07:17.240 --> 0:07:17.760 Well that's. 0:07:17.600 --> 0:07:19.640 What we're gonna call him. And we have gone back 0:07:19.680 --> 0:07:22.080 in time. You didn't know fifty five or fifty six. 0:07:22.120 --> 0:07:25.040 I say we go to fifty four, just to play 0:07:25.040 --> 0:07:27.200 it safe, setup shop in France and maybe get some 0:07:27.240 --> 0:07:28.080 emails done. 0:07:29.040 --> 0:07:30.760 All right for a couple of years. 0:07:30.840 --> 0:07:33.600 Sure, why not? We could use a break because you know, 0:07:33.640 --> 0:07:34.960 podcaster burnouts a real thing. 0:07:35.680 --> 0:07:38.520 He really is as we thought, we're dropping, we're dropping 0:07:38.560 --> 0:07:39.200 like flies. 0:07:40.200 --> 0:07:42.760 All right. So he's working in this factory. It's north 0:07:42.800 --> 0:07:47.280 of Paris, and they are making these wall coverings like 0:07:47.320 --> 0:07:51.160 you're talking about, and he this is a little confusing 0:07:51.240 --> 0:07:54.080 how this actually happens if you asked me, or at 0:07:54.160 --> 0:07:56.880 least the way the first article put it, it's confusing. 0:07:58.680 --> 0:08:01.040 Oh you're leaving it to me by notice, by your 0:08:01.120 --> 0:08:02.680 by your balls. After that? 0:08:02.760 --> 0:08:06.160 Well, I mean, no, let let's I'll start it. But 0:08:06.200 --> 0:08:08.360 I just still don't quite get it. He marked up 0:08:09.160 --> 0:08:14.000 with pencil on a sea through decal, so like he 0:08:14.080 --> 0:08:17.400 was putting on an electrical plate like a light switch 0:08:17.800 --> 0:08:20.000 and on that plate, like many things, has like a 0:08:20.000 --> 0:08:24.360 little sea through plastic that you peel off. So he 0:08:24.480 --> 0:08:27.840 was riding on that he peeled it off. But then 0:08:27.880 --> 0:08:30.320 that's where it loses me. It's to exactly what magic 0:08:30.360 --> 0:08:30.880 took place. 0:08:32.200 --> 0:08:35.640 So okay, remember this is link Krusta and they make 0:08:35.720 --> 0:08:38.840 metal wall coverings, which means there's metal dust in the air, 0:08:38.960 --> 0:08:40.200 metal shavings everywhere. 0:08:40.320 --> 0:08:40.920 Yeah, and he's. 0:08:42.720 --> 0:08:46.040 Right, all of them are. What's crazy. This guy made 0:08:46.080 --> 0:08:48.040 it to the ripe old age of eighty six after 0:08:48.080 --> 0:08:52.559 breathing that for years. But so there's there's metal dust everywhere, 0:08:52.600 --> 0:08:56.440 including on this electrical switch plate that he's installing. And 0:08:56.520 --> 0:09:00.000 I guess the decal against the plate, and I think 0:09:00.000 --> 0:09:02.960 think what happened was when he marked on the decal 0:09:03.559 --> 0:09:06.120 and pulled the decal off, he'd seen that he had 0:09:06.440 --> 0:09:10.400 disturbed the metal shavings that were stuck to the underside 0:09:10.440 --> 0:09:13.880 of the decal. Oh do you see what I mean? 0:09:14.320 --> 0:09:17.960 So he had disturbed the shape, so there was like 0:09:18.160 --> 0:09:22.360 the whole decal is coated in a metal dust. He 0:09:22.440 --> 0:09:25.440 marks on it with a pencil and the impression that 0:09:25.480 --> 0:09:31.640 he makes like gouges out lines on the backside of 0:09:31.880 --> 0:09:35.880 the decal. I know, it's really tough. It was magic. Basically, 0:09:35.920 --> 0:09:40.000 this man witnessed a feat of magic that still cannot 0:09:40.040 --> 0:09:42.240 be explained to this day. And that's where he got 0:09:42.280 --> 0:09:45.520 his idea for the etches sketch amazing. 0:09:46.120 --> 0:09:50.400 So a big, big moment. He has that literal light 0:09:50.440 --> 0:09:54.000 bulb that goes off of his or not literal of course, 0:09:54.320 --> 0:09:57.120 light bulb above his head, although you never know, there 0:09:57.160 --> 0:09:58.840 may have been a light bulb in that factory right 0:09:58.880 --> 0:09:59.520 above his head. 0:10:00.080 --> 0:10:00.440 Why not? 0:10:01.080 --> 0:10:04.000 And he said, all right, this is uh, this, this 0:10:04.080 --> 0:10:07.360 can be something. He however, did not have a lot 0:10:07.360 --> 0:10:13.080 of money to sync into this weird idea, and so 0:10:13.200 --> 0:10:16.480 he had to partner with somebody with money, man named 0:10:16.480 --> 0:10:21.320 Paul Chase Cze or maybe Shaw's if he's French. 0:10:21.960 --> 0:10:22.640 Oh that's good. 0:10:22.960 --> 0:10:24.880 And this guy had some dough because he owned a 0:10:24.920 --> 0:10:26.840 plastic injection molding company. 0:10:27.679 --> 0:10:28.760 This is like early on. 0:10:29.160 --> 0:10:30.720 I wonder if we could count that as a toy, 0:10:30.800 --> 0:10:36.200 the uh the little plastic machines that spit out little 0:10:36.200 --> 0:10:38.480 plastic guitars in Chicago and at zoos. 0:10:38.600 --> 0:10:42.600 Oh, yes, Lama, that would definitely count. Yeah, that goes 0:10:42.640 --> 0:10:43.199 on the list. 0:10:43.280 --> 0:10:45.640 Yeah, so he didn't it wasn't moldorama, but it was 0:10:45.679 --> 0:10:49.760 plastic injection molding that this guy made his money from. Uh. 0:10:49.800 --> 0:10:52.680 And this where things get a little confusing historically, because 0:10:54.160 --> 0:10:57.560 the man who his accountant, his name was Arthur gra. 0:10:59.520 --> 0:11:03.560 You were the French today. Try to run French people, 0:11:03.600 --> 0:11:06.839 you can't. Chuck is pronouncing your words just beautifully. 0:11:07.320 --> 0:11:10.480 So his accountant has actually given credit a lot of 0:11:10.520 --> 0:11:16.199 times because he filed the patent under his name, which 0:11:16.440 --> 0:11:18.080 I'm curious about how that works legally. 0:11:20.040 --> 0:11:23.160 He so he was, do you remember the first time 0:11:23.320 --> 0:11:27.880 we did south By Southwest and on the sign it 0:11:28.000 --> 0:11:31.080 had like somebody I can't remember whose name it was, 0:11:31.120 --> 0:11:33.960 but whoever had like filed the application to get us 0:11:33.960 --> 0:11:36.760 into south By Southwest? It said that like that's who 0:11:36.840 --> 0:11:38.400 was performing in the room that day. 0:11:38.480 --> 0:11:39.520 I don't remember that at all. 0:11:40.160 --> 0:11:42.840 I think this is the same, basically the same thing. 0:11:42.880 --> 0:11:47.440 Where as like the US government bureaucracy, the patent in 0:11:48.080 --> 0:11:51.640 Trademark office basically said whoever's name is on there, that 0:11:51.800 --> 0:11:55.880 is who is the patent holder. And since Grangene, who 0:11:55.920 --> 0:12:00.000 was the accountant of Shay's, who was the partner of Kess, 0:12:00.880 --> 0:12:05.360 and since he was the one who actually filled out 0:12:05.360 --> 0:12:09.080 the application and paid for the application for the patent. 0:12:09.280 --> 0:12:11.640 As far as the government was concerned, he was the 0:12:12.360 --> 0:12:15.199 person who patented the etches sketch in the United States, 0:12:15.360 --> 0:12:17.920 even though gran Gene made no claim on it whatsoever 0:12:18.240 --> 0:12:23.360 immediately transferred the title over to Chase. He's for decades 0:12:23.440 --> 0:12:26.480 everybody thought Arthur Graanjine was the guy who invented the 0:12:26.520 --> 0:12:27.240 etches sketch. 0:12:27.600 --> 0:12:30.120 Interesting, all right, So that was July twenty third, nineteen 0:12:30.200 --> 0:12:34.800 fifty nine, was when this patent was granted. And I 0:12:34.840 --> 0:12:37.280 guess we should just look at the little guy itself, 0:12:37.360 --> 0:12:41.400 the little TV, looking that iconic red frame with the 0:12:41.440 --> 0:12:45.040 two dials, which it didn't have initially. We'll get to that. 0:12:45.160 --> 0:12:49.400 But the underside of this screen here has what's known 0:12:49.440 --> 0:12:53.120 in the patent as a pole virulent material such as 0:12:53.160 --> 0:12:54.080 aluminum powder. 0:12:54.760 --> 0:12:55.720 Is that French as well? 0:12:55.960 --> 0:12:59.320 I don't know. And then to keep that from clumping 0:12:59.400 --> 0:13:03.200 up there a little tiny plastic beads and then the 0:13:03.240 --> 0:13:07.679 two knobs control again from the patent, a movable tracing stylus, 0:13:08.480 --> 0:13:10.839 although initially it was a joystick, isn't that right? 0:13:11.760 --> 0:13:15.959 Yeah? Yeah, basically like an atari, but it served the 0:13:15.960 --> 0:13:19.840 same purpose and it was it was held together the 0:13:19.880 --> 0:13:22.959 same way through an intricate system of pulleys and gears 0:13:23.559 --> 0:13:27.480 that moved the stylus either upward or downward. And then 0:13:27.480 --> 0:13:29.800 if you combine the upward and downward together, you could 0:13:29.840 --> 0:13:32.920 make diagonals and circles and stuff like that. But it's 0:13:33.720 --> 0:13:36.800 it's really tough to describe what's going on in a 0:13:36.920 --> 0:13:39.720 Nutch just sketch. But there's a House Stuff Works article 0:13:39.760 --> 0:13:42.680 from years back called inside a Nutches Sketch where the 0:13:42.679 --> 0:13:45.040 people at House of Verse like took one apart and 0:13:45.120 --> 0:13:47.640 photographed it and explained it step by step, and it 0:13:47.760 --> 0:13:51.240 really becomes much simpler and ruins any bit of magic 0:13:51.280 --> 0:13:53.560 there is to it when you see inside an Etches sketch. 0:13:53.720 --> 0:13:55.520 But it's still kind of wondrous, you know, like the 0:13:55.640 --> 0:13:58.000 engineer in you is like, wow, that's pretty cool. 0:13:58.280 --> 0:14:01.160 Yeah, it's sort of like it's not a negative image, 0:14:01.240 --> 0:14:03.680 I don't think. But what's going on when you're moving 0:14:03.720 --> 0:14:09.120 those knobs. There's a stylus that's actually removing like the 0:14:09.200 --> 0:14:12.440 screen is coated with this powder, so it's actually removing powder, 0:14:12.960 --> 0:14:14.760 not adding something to the screen. 0:14:15.520 --> 0:14:16.559 Yes, exactly. 0:14:16.960 --> 0:14:19.840 And of course if you want to get that away 0:14:20.400 --> 0:14:23.200 and start a new picture, you just shake that thing 0:14:23.280 --> 0:14:26.360 up and that recoats the screen once again with that powder. 0:14:27.480 --> 0:14:30.040 Yeah. So, like you know how your TV screen always 0:14:30.120 --> 0:14:32.280 has tons of dust on it no matter how often 0:14:32.320 --> 0:14:36.320 you dust it. Sure, So that's because like that dust 0:14:36.400 --> 0:14:40.880 is attracted electrostatically through an electrical charge to the glass. 0:14:41.240 --> 0:14:44.520 That's they take advantage of that same thing with the 0:14:44.600 --> 0:14:48.040 underside of the etch a sketch and that aluminum dust 0:14:48.080 --> 0:14:50.360 which sticks to everything like it wants to stick to 0:14:50.400 --> 0:14:52.880 the glass because I think it's missing some electrons or something. 0:14:53.240 --> 0:14:55.440 And then when you move the stylus through it, you're 0:14:55.520 --> 0:14:58.040 just removing that that dust. Like you said, it's not 0:14:58.080 --> 0:15:01.280 a negative. It's the removal of dust. And that's the 0:15:01.600 --> 0:15:04.000 that's just sketch like at its at its core. And 0:15:04.120 --> 0:15:07.160 what's interesting, Chuck, is like that is how I met 0:15:07.280 --> 0:15:09.960 just sketched today works. That's how I not just sketch 0:15:10.040 --> 0:15:14.000 worked in nineteen sixty two, like the two meaning like 0:15:14.080 --> 0:15:19.400 also but that that dude Andre Cassolgne said, this is 0:15:19.440 --> 0:15:21.800 how this is gonna work, and it's it's basically the 0:15:21.840 --> 0:15:22.400 same thing. 0:15:22.680 --> 0:15:25.480 That's pretty awesome. Let's take a break. Yes, we're going 0:15:25.560 --> 0:15:28.560 to come back and talk about coming state side right 0:15:28.560 --> 0:15:28.920 after this. 0:15:47.720 --> 0:15:50.280 All right, so Chuck, So how do we agree on 0:15:50.360 --> 0:15:53.120 his last name? I think I'm butchering it still, and 0:15:53.160 --> 0:15:55.200 I even took years of French in high school. 0:15:55.520 --> 0:15:56.720 I think you said Castle. 0:15:58.320 --> 0:16:03.160 All right, Andre cass Role, that seems that seems wrong. 0:16:03.680 --> 0:16:06.440 Yeah, I'm still gonna go with Caisson. 0:16:08.080 --> 0:16:12.280 Okay, there you go. Andre Caisson. He knew he was 0:16:12.320 --> 0:16:15.160 onto something like this guy was an electrician. He was like, 0:16:15.480 --> 0:16:18.840 this is a great idea, this is a prototype I made, 0:16:18.840 --> 0:16:22.560 this is this is worth something? So he and Cruz 0:16:22.600 --> 0:16:26.520 I guess, funded a trip to the Nuremberg Toy Fair 0:16:28.200 --> 0:16:32.960 in nineteen fifty nine, and it was there that Caisson 0:16:33.240 --> 0:16:36.600 was walking around saying, check this thing out. It is 0:16:36.680 --> 0:16:40.480 yours for a mere one hundred thousand dollars, which at 0:16:40.520 --> 0:16:43.800 the time was a lot of money. One hundred I 0:16:43.800 --> 0:16:46.920 think it was eight hundred and seventy thousand dollars today. 0:16:47.240 --> 0:16:49.360 And that's what this guy wanted for the for the 0:16:49.440 --> 0:16:53.240 right to produce this, and every toy maker at the 0:16:53.280 --> 0:16:57.800 place said no, including a little toy maker called Ohio Art. 0:16:58.320 --> 0:17:01.160 Everybody turned it down, and Casson went home from the 0:17:01.200 --> 0:17:04.560 toy fair empty handed, but he didn't give up. He 0:17:04.680 --> 0:17:08.080 still persisted. But that was a big strikeout for him 0:17:08.119 --> 0:17:08.880 right out of the gate. 0:17:09.800 --> 0:17:13.159 Yeah. So Ohio Art eventually settles on a number of 0:17:13.200 --> 0:17:15.960 twenty five grand for the rights to make this thing 0:17:16.119 --> 0:17:20.560 in the United States. It is still called La cron 0:17:20.680 --> 0:17:24.840 Magique in France because they had a different licensing deal 0:17:24.880 --> 0:17:28.480 over there from the get go, and Ohio Art Company 0:17:28.600 --> 0:17:33.440 is pretty interesting. It started, did you see that thing did? Yeah? 0:17:33.480 --> 0:17:35.959 They started out in nineteen oh eight, founded by a 0:17:36.000 --> 0:17:42.720 man named a dentist named doctor Henry S. Winsler in Archibald, Ohio. 0:17:43.240 --> 0:17:47.840 He gets out of dentistry because he's like, hey, man, 0:17:47.960 --> 0:17:51.040 toys is the future. Toys is the future. 0:17:51.560 --> 0:17:54.359 There's no future in teeth. In a decade, no one 0:17:54.440 --> 0:17:56.520 in America is going to have teeth. It's just a 0:17:56.600 --> 0:17:58.840 losing trade to be in his dentistry. 0:17:59.720 --> 0:18:04.200 Yeah, so he saw the way forward. He rented a 0:18:04.359 --> 0:18:08.760 music hall, hired fifteen women, and they were making metal 0:18:08.800 --> 0:18:12.120 picture frames at first too great great success. 0:18:13.200 --> 0:18:18.160 Yeah. So they use something called the metal lithography, which 0:18:18.200 --> 0:18:22.199 is a type of printing and I think the metal 0:18:22.280 --> 0:18:25.399 refers to like the medium that you're using to print 0:18:25.720 --> 0:18:28.919 with like the like you carve a picture out of 0:18:28.920 --> 0:18:30.600 metal and you put ink on it and then you 0:18:30.640 --> 0:18:34.280 print on whatever you want. But they were printing onto metal, 0:18:34.560 --> 0:18:37.959 like they had like these picture frames and pictures that 0:18:38.000 --> 0:18:41.040 were like a huge cellar of a cupid. It was 0:18:41.080 --> 0:18:43.840 a pair of like oval plates basically, but they were 0:18:43.880 --> 0:18:47.000 metal printed pictures on them of like a cupid hanging 0:18:47.000 --> 0:18:50.800 out and then the same cupid sleeping, and it's just 0:18:50.880 --> 0:18:53.360 kind of like whatever. Like these days, it seems kind 0:18:53.359 --> 0:18:56.520 of it's got a tinge of old timey creepiness. But 0:18:56.600 --> 0:18:59.280 in the first half of the twentieth century, there were 0:18:59.520 --> 0:19:03.880 fifty million sets of those things sold in the United States, 0:19:04.359 --> 0:19:06.960 which is an astounding mouth. It's basically every house in 0:19:07.000 --> 0:19:09.600 America had a pair of this, and that really kind 0:19:09.640 --> 0:19:13.399 of made Ohio art like a very viable business. But 0:19:13.440 --> 0:19:16.960 they eventually got into things like sand pails and little 0:19:17.000 --> 0:19:19.520 trucks and that kind of thing. Anything that was printed 0:19:19.520 --> 0:19:22.040 with metal before the time that plastic toys came along 0:19:22.200 --> 0:19:24.600 they were into So it wasn't a huge leap into 0:19:24.640 --> 0:19:27.040 the edges sketch, but the Edges sketch was definitely different 0:19:27.080 --> 0:19:30.439 than anything that they'd ever kind of messed around with before. 0:19:31.359 --> 0:19:33.600 Did you know I've done metal lithography. 0:19:34.680 --> 0:19:34.760 No? 0:19:36.160 --> 0:19:39.520 Yeah, it was one of our industrial arts. It was, 0:19:39.800 --> 0:19:41.720 you know, in at least at my school, each quarter 0:19:41.800 --> 0:19:46.720 you did a different medium or whatever, and lithography was 0:19:46.720 --> 0:19:47.800 something we did one quarter. 0:19:48.720 --> 0:19:50.000 Do you remember what you printed? 0:19:51.480 --> 0:19:55.240 Uh? I'm trying to remember what I printed. It's funny 0:19:55.280 --> 0:19:57.080 I can remember that because we also at one quarter 0:19:57.240 --> 0:20:00.440 was screen printing, and I remember the T shirt I did 0:20:00.440 --> 0:20:02.680 monkeys T shirts. 0:20:02.800 --> 0:20:05.399 Like the see No Evil, Hear No Evil monkeys. 0:20:05.520 --> 0:20:09.800 No the band the Monkeys. They're they're their logo with 0:20:09.880 --> 0:20:12.040 the guitar spelled out as monkeys. 0:20:13.280 --> 0:20:15.240 Like, Wow, did you draw it yourself? 0:20:15.960 --> 0:20:19.520 No? No, no, of course not. But we did metal 0:20:19.560 --> 0:20:22.800 sheet lithography. I don't remember all of the process, but 0:20:23.760 --> 0:20:28.000 what I do remember was it essentially was like burning 0:20:29.160 --> 0:20:33.280 chemically burning images onto metal plates and then that metal 0:20:33.280 --> 0:20:34.840 plate was used to print. 0:20:36.080 --> 0:20:41.439 Okay, So so the metal in metal lithography does it 0:20:41.560 --> 0:20:44.800 talks about the metal press that you're using to print with. 0:20:45.440 --> 0:20:48.200 Like at the end of There may be different processes, 0:20:48.320 --> 0:20:51.919 but in my class, we would do this thing and 0:20:51.960 --> 0:20:56.199 apply this like image with like this gel onto a 0:20:56.280 --> 0:20:59.320 metal sheet and use this combination of chemicals that would 0:20:59.359 --> 0:21:01.560 burn that in to like make it part of the metal, 0:21:02.080 --> 0:21:03.439 and then all of a sudden you would have a 0:21:03.480 --> 0:21:06.480 metal sheet with a thing on it, like a negative image, 0:21:06.840 --> 0:21:09.520 and then you would use that in the printing process 0:21:09.680 --> 0:21:11.480 to print a positive image. 0:21:11.640 --> 0:21:13.800 Right, and you could print use that to print onto 0:21:13.840 --> 0:21:15.800 anything including other metal. Right. 0:21:16.560 --> 0:21:18.800 Well, hey man, that's where my knowledge and again this 0:21:18.920 --> 0:21:21.119 was ninth grade me, So I've forgotten a lot of 0:21:21.160 --> 0:21:24.720 things over that time period, right, And I'm sure I 0:21:24.800 --> 0:21:27.199 just butchered that. But that's my one little dance with 0:21:27.280 --> 0:21:28.160 metal lithography. 0:21:28.600 --> 0:21:30.320 Well, I'll tell you who would be able to tell 0:21:30.359 --> 0:21:33.800 us exactly how you could how metal lithography works. It's 0:21:33.840 --> 0:21:36.960 anybody who works at Ohio Art, because not only was 0:21:37.000 --> 0:21:39.399 that their bread and butter before the etches sketch, it 0:21:39.600 --> 0:21:44.640 still is today. Actually, so so Ohio Art, like I guess, 0:21:44.680 --> 0:21:49.639 gets in touch with Andre Cassan and either he got 0:21:49.720 --> 0:21:51.200 in touch with them again or they got in touch 0:21:51.200 --> 0:21:53.040