1 00:00:00,280 --> 00:00:09,840 Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is production of iHeartRadio. Hello, 2 00:00:10,119 --> 00:00:14,120 Speaker 1: and welcome to This Day in History Class, a show 3 00:00:14,200 --> 00:00:17,160 Speaker 1: that believes there's no time like the present to learn 4 00:00:17,280 --> 00:00:22,160 Speaker 1: about the past. I'm Gabe Lucier, and today we're talking 5 00:00:22,200 --> 00:00:25,959 Speaker 1: about a classic toy that's delighted generations of children and 6 00:00:26,000 --> 00:00:29,920 Speaker 1: adults alike, even though most of them have no idea 7 00:00:30,200 --> 00:00:42,720 Speaker 1: how it works. The day was July twelfth, nineteen sixty. 8 00:00:43,520 --> 00:00:47,440 Speaker 1: The Ohio Art Company released a new mechanical drawing toy 9 00:00:47,800 --> 00:00:52,680 Speaker 1: called the etch A Sketch. Its design was deceivingly simple, 10 00:00:53,159 --> 00:00:56,360 Speaker 1: just a nine x eight inch red plastic frame with 11 00:00:56,440 --> 00:00:59,200 Speaker 1: a flat gray screen in the middle and two big 12 00:00:59,240 --> 00:01:03,280 Speaker 1: white knobs in the lower left and right corners. Turning 13 00:01:03,320 --> 00:01:06,440 Speaker 1: those knobs would reveal the true magic of the device, 14 00:01:06,880 --> 00:01:09,800 Speaker 1: causing a thin black line to appear on the screen, 15 00:01:10,200 --> 00:01:12,440 Speaker 1: almost as if it had been drawn on there from 16 00:01:12,480 --> 00:01:16,679 Speaker 1: the other side of the plastic. By turning the knobs carefully, 17 00:01:16,920 --> 00:01:20,160 Speaker 1: kids could control the direction of the line, allowing them 18 00:01:20,200 --> 00:01:23,840 Speaker 1: to draw pictures as intricate or as abstract as they pleased. 19 00:01:24,800 --> 00:01:27,640 Speaker 1: The Etches Sketch looked a little like a toy version 20 00:01:27,680 --> 00:01:30,759 Speaker 1: of a black and white television but the pictures shown 21 00:01:30,800 --> 00:01:35,600 Speaker 1: on its screen weren't produced with electronics of any kind. Instead, 22 00:01:35,959 --> 00:01:39,480 Speaker 1: the toy relied on nothing but science and clever engineering, 23 00:01:39,920 --> 00:01:44,720 Speaker 1: harnessing the peculiar effect of electrostatic charge and aluminum powder 24 00:01:45,040 --> 00:01:48,840 Speaker 1: to create a drawing tool unlike any other. And the 25 00:01:48,880 --> 00:01:53,160 Speaker 1: best part was the etche Sketch was one hundred percent reusable. 26 00:01:53,720 --> 00:01:56,600 Speaker 1: Anytime a kid filled up the screen with doodles or 27 00:01:56,760 --> 00:01:59,360 Speaker 1: made a mistake with their line work, they could simply 28 00:01:59,400 --> 00:02:02,160 Speaker 1: turn the toy upside down, give it a shake to 29 00:02:02,240 --> 00:02:05,520 Speaker 1: reset the powder, and then start again with a fresh 30 00:02:05,600 --> 00:02:11,640 Speaker 1: blank canvas. It was versatile, entertaining, and sometimes frustrating, but 31 00:02:11,720 --> 00:02:15,200 Speaker 1: maybe most importantly, the Etchi Sketch was the most forgiving 32 00:02:15,280 --> 00:02:19,519 Speaker 1: toy on the market. Those qualities, coupled with a successful 33 00:02:19,560 --> 00:02:22,880 Speaker 1: TV ad campaign, made the Echi Sketch the must have 34 00:02:23,080 --> 00:02:27,120 Speaker 1: toy of the nineteen sixty Christmas season. It's since gone 35 00:02:27,160 --> 00:02:29,600 Speaker 1: on to become one of the most popular and most 36 00:02:29,680 --> 00:02:33,840 Speaker 1: recognizable toys in the world, not to mention a reliable 37 00:02:33,880 --> 00:02:38,280 Speaker 1: pastime for family road trips, indoor recess, and any other 38 00:02:38,360 --> 00:02:41,520 Speaker 1: time you feel like making drawing more complicated than it 39 00:02:41,600 --> 00:02:45,160 Speaker 1: needs to be. The inventor of the Echi sketch was 40 00:02:45,160 --> 00:02:50,240 Speaker 1: a French electrician named Andre Cassanne. The idea came to 41 00:02:50,320 --> 00:02:52,760 Speaker 1: him while he was installing a light fixture in a 42 00:02:52,800 --> 00:02:57,040 Speaker 1: factory during the mid nineteen fifties. The factory produced a 43 00:02:57,080 --> 00:03:02,200 Speaker 1: fancy kind of imposed wall covering called lincrusta, and aluminum 44 00:03:02,280 --> 00:03:06,640 Speaker 1: powder happened to be used in the manufacturing process. Some 45 00:03:06,760 --> 00:03:09,639 Speaker 1: of that powder happened to get on the clear protective 46 00:03:09,720 --> 00:03:13,320 Speaker 1: plastic of a light switch plate that Casanie was installing. 47 00:03:13,919 --> 00:03:16,240 Speaker 1: When he peeled it off, he made some marks on 48 00:03:16,320 --> 00:03:18,600 Speaker 1: it with a pencil and was surprised to find that 49 00:03:18,600 --> 00:03:22,080 Speaker 1: the marks became visible on the opposite side of the plastic. 50 00:03:22,720 --> 00:03:26,040 Speaker 1: Casanie knew right away that he had just observed an 51 00:03:26,040 --> 00:03:30,640 Speaker 1: electrostatic phenomenon. His pencil had raked a line through the 52 00:03:30,680 --> 00:03:34,280 Speaker 1: metallic powder, pushing aside the particles that had stuck to 53 00:03:34,320 --> 00:03:39,000 Speaker 1: the plastic thanks to static electricity. After making this discovery, 54 00:03:39,160 --> 00:03:43,000 Speaker 1: Casanie began designing a toy that could create drawings using 55 00:03:43,040 --> 00:03:47,320 Speaker 1: aluminum powder and a stylus or plotter. He spent the 56 00:03:47,360 --> 00:03:50,800 Speaker 1: next five years or so tinkering with the device and 57 00:03:50,840 --> 00:03:54,240 Speaker 1: eventually won a prize for it. At a French invention competition. 58 00:03:55,040 --> 00:03:58,839 Speaker 1: By that point, Casanie was calling it Le crome magique 59 00:03:59,200 --> 00:04:01,920 Speaker 1: or the Matte screen, and with the help of an 60 00:04:02,000 --> 00:04:05,760 Speaker 1: investor named Paul Schayes, he eventually secured a patent for 61 00:04:05,800 --> 00:04:10,360 Speaker 1: the device in both France and the United States. Design Wise, 62 00:04:10,600 --> 00:04:13,920 Speaker 1: Cassanie's original model was pretty close to the etch A 63 00:04:13,960 --> 00:04:18,120 Speaker 1: sketch we know today. Its rectangular plastic case was even 64 00:04:18,160 --> 00:04:22,159 Speaker 1: that same familiar red color. The main difference was that 65 00:04:22,200 --> 00:04:24,960 Speaker 1: you controlled the direction of the line with a joystick 66 00:04:25,040 --> 00:04:29,160 Speaker 1: mechanism rather than with a pair of knobs. Functionally, however, 67 00:04:29,360 --> 00:04:32,240 Speaker 1: the toy worked about the same. If you were to 68 00:04:32,320 --> 00:04:35,800 Speaker 1: crack open in etch A Sketch today, which you absolutely shouldn't, 69 00:04:36,200 --> 00:04:39,400 Speaker 1: you'd find a mixture of non toxic aluminum powder and 70 00:04:39,520 --> 00:04:43,800 Speaker 1: tiny plastic beads attached to a flat clear screen. The 71 00:04:43,800 --> 00:04:46,400 Speaker 1: beads are there to help keep the powder from clumping 72 00:04:46,480 --> 00:04:49,520 Speaker 1: when it's pushed around by the stylus. But the most 73 00:04:49,760 --> 00:04:53,000 Speaker 1: ingenious part of the design is how the stylus is moved. 74 00:04:53,520 --> 00:04:57,200 Speaker 1: The toy's knobs are connected to a sophisticated pulley system, 75 00:04:57,440 --> 00:05:00,360 Speaker 1: which moves a metal stylus along a series of right 76 00:05:00,400 --> 00:05:04,240 Speaker 1: angled rails. If you turn the left knob, the stylus 77 00:05:04,279 --> 00:05:07,279 Speaker 1: moves horizontally, and if you twist the right knob, the 78 00:05:07,320 --> 00:05:11,680 Speaker 1: stylus moves vertically to the user. This action appears to 79 00:05:11,720 --> 00:05:14,240 Speaker 1: be drawing a dark line on top of a light 80 00:05:14,320 --> 00:05:18,320 Speaker 1: gray background, but in reality, the stylus is etching the 81 00:05:18,360 --> 00:05:22,000 Speaker 1: powder away from the screen, meaning that the black line 82 00:05:22,040 --> 00:05:25,440 Speaker 1: you see is actually negative space on a screen that's 83 00:05:25,520 --> 00:05:31,159 Speaker 1: otherwise covered with electrostatically charged powder. Likewise, when you flip 84 00:05:31,200 --> 00:05:34,120 Speaker 1: the screen over to shake away the current picture, you 85 00:05:34,320 --> 00:05:37,840 Speaker 1: aren't really erasing a line so much as filling it in, 86 00:05:38,440 --> 00:05:41,400 Speaker 1: recoding the empty parts of the screen with a fresh 87 00:05:41,520 --> 00:05:46,560 Speaker 1: layer of aluminum dust. In nineteen fifty nine, andre Cassanye 88 00:05:46,720 --> 00:05:52,680 Speaker 1: introduced the Magic screen at the International Toy Fair in Nuremberg, Germany. However, 89 00:05:52,920 --> 00:05:57,200 Speaker 1: the device was quickly dismissed by the bigger manufacturers because 90 00:05:57,240 --> 00:05:59,640 Speaker 1: they thought the inventor wanted too much money for the 91 00:05:59,720 --> 00:06:03,920 Speaker 1: right place to produce it. Initially, the Ohio Art Company 92 00:06:03,960 --> 00:06:06,760 Speaker 1: passed on the Magic screen as well, but after a 93 00:06:06,800 --> 00:06:09,920 Speaker 1: second look later that year, the company realized that it 94 00:06:09,920 --> 00:06:14,320 Speaker 1: had made a mistake. It ultimately agreed to Kasanye's supposedly 95 00:06:14,400 --> 00:06:18,880 Speaker 1: high price, forking over twenty five thousand dollars for the license, 96 00:06:19,320 --> 00:06:22,200 Speaker 1: more than the company had ever paid for a single toy. 97 00:06:23,080 --> 00:06:26,320 Speaker 1: Shortly after the deal was struck, Casanie worked with the 98 00:06:26,320 --> 00:06:30,320 Speaker 1: company's chief engineer, Jerry Berger, to redesign the toy for 99 00:06:30,360 --> 00:06:34,000 Speaker 1: the American market. The inventor had already swapped out the 100 00:06:34,040 --> 00:06:37,720 Speaker 1: cumbersome joystick for the now famous knobs, but it took 101 00:06:37,760 --> 00:06:41,320 Speaker 1: some work to adapt the inner mechanism for mass manufacturing. 102 00:06:42,080 --> 00:06:45,920 Speaker 1: Of course, the biggest change was the product's name. At first, 103 00:06:45,960 --> 00:06:49,000 Speaker 1: the company considered keeping the name Magic Screen, but for 104 00:06:49,080 --> 00:06:52,240 Speaker 1: marketing purposes they thought the rhyming name etch A Sketch 105 00:06:52,480 --> 00:06:56,440 Speaker 1: was more fun and evocative. Production began in the summer 106 00:06:56,480 --> 00:06:59,960 Speaker 1: of nineteen sixty in conjunction with a TV ad campaign. 107 00:07:00,880 --> 00:07:04,360 Speaker 1: The earliest commercial centered on a little girl named Pernella 108 00:07:04,680 --> 00:07:06,960 Speaker 1: who has to hide under a basket to play with 109 00:07:07,040 --> 00:07:09,800 Speaker 1: her etch A Sketch because everyone in the house keeps 110 00:07:09,840 --> 00:07:13,520 Speaker 1: wanting to borrow it. Some kids may have found themselves 111 00:07:13,560 --> 00:07:16,720 Speaker 1: in the same situation. When the toy finally hit retail 112 00:07:16,800 --> 00:07:21,280 Speaker 1: shelves on July twelfth, nineteen sixty, It initially sold for 113 00:07:21,400 --> 00:07:24,600 Speaker 1: two dollars and ninety nine cents, which is equal to 114 00:07:24,760 --> 00:07:29,080 Speaker 1: just over thirty dollars in today's money. Many parents thought 115 00:07:29,120 --> 00:07:31,960 Speaker 1: that was a bargain for a mess free art activity 116 00:07:32,120 --> 00:07:34,800 Speaker 1: that could be used again and again, and by the 117 00:07:34,840 --> 00:07:38,560 Speaker 1: time the holiday season rolled around, Ohio Art was having 118 00:07:38,600 --> 00:07:42,240 Speaker 1: a tough time keeping up with demand. In fact, the 119 00:07:42,320 --> 00:07:46,840 Speaker 1: company continued manufacturing etches Sketches all the way until noon 120 00:07:46,960 --> 00:07:50,400 Speaker 1: on Christmas Eve. That allowed them to send out one 121 00:07:50,520 --> 00:07:53,559 Speaker 1: last shipment to the West Coast for all those last 122 00:07:53,600 --> 00:07:58,000 Speaker 1: minute shoppers. The company's big push seems to have paid off, 123 00:07:58,320 --> 00:08:02,160 Speaker 1: as ohio Art reportedly sold more than six hundred thousand 124 00:08:02,280 --> 00:08:05,680 Speaker 1: units that first year, But even that was just a 125 00:08:05,720 --> 00:08:08,760 Speaker 1: small taste of the success to come. As the Etcha 126 00:08:08,840 --> 00:08:11,960 Speaker 1: Sketch had debuted at the perfect time, right at the 127 00:08:12,000 --> 00:08:16,440 Speaker 1: peak of the baby boom. All those early adopters eventually 128 00:08:16,480 --> 00:08:19,160 Speaker 1: passed on their love of the toy to the next generation, 129 00:08:19,720 --> 00:08:22,120 Speaker 1: and they in turn did the same with their kids. 130 00:08:22,800 --> 00:08:26,120 Speaker 1: In that way, the Echa Sketch gradually became a staple 131 00:08:26,200 --> 00:08:31,480 Speaker 1: of childhood play for multiple generations and county. For most 132 00:08:31,520 --> 00:08:34,440 Speaker 1: of the toy's first sixty years on the market, it 133 00:08:34,520 --> 00:08:37,479 Speaker 1: was made by the Ohio Art company at a facility 134 00:08:37,520 --> 00:08:41,920 Speaker 1: in Brian, Ohio. In late two thousand, however, the company 135 00:08:41,920 --> 00:08:47,319 Speaker 1: announced a cost saving measure that moved production overseas to China. Sadly, 136 00:08:47,480 --> 00:08:51,440 Speaker 1: the company's financial fortunes didn't improve in the years to follow, 137 00:08:51,720 --> 00:08:55,760 Speaker 1: and in twenty sixteen, Ohio Art sold the Echiesketch rights 138 00:08:55,840 --> 00:08:59,920 Speaker 1: to Spinmaster, a Toronto based toy company that still produced 139 00:09:00,200 --> 00:09:04,240 Speaker 1: it today. More than one hundred and fifty million Etches 140 00:09:04,280 --> 00:09:08,040 Speaker 1: Sketches have been sold worldwide to date, and while various 141 00:09:08,160 --> 00:09:12,479 Speaker 1: versions have been released over the years with different colors, shapes, features, 142 00:09:12,520 --> 00:09:17,440 Speaker 1: and sizes, the toy's basic appeal remains the same. The 143 00:09:17,520 --> 00:09:20,679 Speaker 1: etch of Sketch is both simple and complex at the 144 00:09:20,720 --> 00:09:24,520 Speaker 1: same time. It challenges you to draw what you imagine 145 00:09:24,679 --> 00:09:28,480 Speaker 1: in a medium that's both restrictive and exacting. But if 146 00:09:28,520 --> 00:09:32,319 Speaker 1: you fail and ruin your drawing with a careless, misplaced line, 147 00:09:32,800 --> 00:09:36,280 Speaker 1: the Etches Sketch doesn't shame you, and that's because its 148 00:09:36,320 --> 00:09:40,959 Speaker 1: creators understood that there's satisfaction in starting over, just as 149 00:09:41,000 --> 00:09:47,480 Speaker 1: there is and getting something right the first time. I'm 150 00:09:47,520 --> 00:09:51,000 Speaker 1: Gabe Lucier and hopefully you now know a little more 151 00:09:51,040 --> 00:09:55,240 Speaker 1: about toy history today than you did yesterday. You can 152 00:09:55,320 --> 00:09:59,120 Speaker 1: learn even more about history by following us on Twitter, Facebook, 153 00:09:59,160 --> 00:10:04,400 Speaker 1: and Instagram at TDI HC Show. You can also rate 154 00:10:04,440 --> 00:10:07,319 Speaker 1: and review the show on Apple Podcasts, or you can 155 00:10:07,360 --> 00:10:10,559 Speaker 1: get in touch directly by writing to This Day at 156 00:10:10,600 --> 00:10:15,080 Speaker 1: iHeartMedia dot com. Thanks to Chandler Mays and Ben Hackett 157 00:10:15,080 --> 00:10:17,600 Speaker 1: for producing the show, and thanks to you for listening. 158 00:10:17,960 --> 00:10:21,040 Speaker 1: I'll see you back here again tomorrow for another day 159 00:10:21,360 --> 00:10:22,800 Speaker 1: in history class.