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Does anyone know how old the toys that launched a propeller from a stick-spiral are? I used to play around with these as a kid, and was fascinated how low tech

by mihaic 5y ago

Does anyone know how old the toys that launched a propeller from a stick-spiral are? I used to play around with these as a kid, and was fascinated how low tech they could be and still fly.

Wingman4l7 5y ago
Pretty old -- the Wrights played with something similar as children: https://www.wyso.org/news/2017-12-25/the-toys-of-orville-wright https://www.wyso.org/news/2017-12-25/the-toys-of-orville-wri...
- novosel 5y ago
  Wright brothers were also quoted saying that they can make this table fly (the table where the interview was taking place at) if they could have a powerful enough motor at hand. This was, of course, after the first man flight was achieved.
- hnbad 5y ago
  Can I just point out how jarring it is to read "pretty old" followed by a mention of the Wright brothers, the last of whom died in 1948.
  - Wingman4l7 5y ago
    Perhaps yes, but they were children over a century ago (and I strongly suspected these sorts of toys predated their time, anyway).
    - dhosek 5y ago
      That's the great span thing going on there. The house where my parents live has always been in my family had as its original residents my father, my aunt, my grandmother and my great-great-grandmother (yes, that's the number of correct greats there). The last of these was born before the establishment of the Austro-Hungarian empire in what's now the Czech Republic and was at the time the Austrian Empire. Family history in the old country is a bit murky so I don't have any dates for her ancestors, but she would have known people who lived under the Holy Roman Empire.
    - hnbad 5y ago
      Sure, but with a toy that simple I would expect it to be a lot older than just a century. But I guess it may be a cultural context thing: in my country some houses were built before Europeans even set foot in North America and the city I grew up in was literally founded by the Romans. Given how simple the toy is, I wouldn't be surprised to find out it dates back 500 or even 5000 years or more, even if it had to be re-invented several times in between.
adolph 5y ago
This helicopter-like top originated in Jin dynasty China around 320 AD https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bamboo-copter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bamboo-copter Edit: This Chinese helicopter toy was introduced into Europe and "made its earliest appearances in Renaissance European paintings and in the drawings of Leonardo da Vinci."
function_seven 5y ago
Not the thing you're talking about, but I remember having a lot of fun with these: https://instructional-resources.physics.uiowa.edu/demos/10c1020-propeller-stick-hand-helicopter https://instructional-resources.physics.uiowa.edu/demos/10c1... Just a stick with a 2-blade prop on the end. You spin the stick between your hands and see how high it'll go. But that got boring real quick! The real fun was trying to shred your friends' faces with it at 10 paces away.

by mihaic 5y ago

Does anyone know how old the toys that launched a propeller from a stick-spiral are? I used to play around with these as a kid, and was fascinated how low tech they could be and still fly.

Wingman4l7 5y ago

Pretty old -- the Wrights played with something similar as children: https://www.wyso.org/news/2017-12-25/the-toys-of-orville-wright https://www.wyso.org/news/2017-12-25/the-toys-of-orville-wri...

novosel 5y ago
Wright brothers were also quoted saying that they can make this table fly (the table where the interview was taking place at) if they could have a powerful enough motor at hand. This was, of course, after the first man flight was achieved.
hnbad 5y ago
Can I just point out how jarring it is to read "pretty old" followed by a mention of the Wright brothers, the last of whom died in 1948.
- Wingman4l7 5y ago
  Perhaps yes, but they were children over a century ago (and I strongly suspected these sorts of toys predated their time, anyway).
  - dhosek 5y ago
    That's the great span thing going on there. The house where my parents live has always been in my family had as its original residents my father, my aunt, my grandmother and my great-great-grandmother (yes, that's the number of correct greats there). The last of these was born before the establishment of the Austro-Hungarian empire in what's now the Czech Republic and was at the time the Austrian Empire. Family history in the old country is a bit murky so I don't have any dates for her ancestors, but she would have known people who lived under the Holy Roman Empire.
  - hnbad 5y ago
    Sure, but with a toy that simple I would expect it to be a lot older than just a century. But I guess it may be a cultural context thing: in my country some houses were built before Europeans even set foot in North America and the city I grew up in was literally founded by the Romans. Given how simple the toy is, I wouldn't be surprised to find out it dates back 500 or even 5000 years or more, even if it had to be re-invented several times in between.

adolph 5y ago

This helicopter-like top originated in Jin dynasty China around 320 AD https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bamboo-copter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bamboo-copter Edit: This Chinese helicopter toy was introduced into Europe and "made its earliest appearances in Renaissance European paintings and in the drawings of Leonardo da Vinci."

function_seven 5y ago

Not the thing you're talking about, but I remember having a lot of fun with these: https://instructional-resources.physics.uiowa.edu/demos/10c1020-propeller-stick-hand-helicopter https://instructional-resources.physics.uiowa.edu/demos/10c1... Just a stick with a 2-blade prop on the end. You spin the stick between your hands and see how high it'll go. But that got boring real quick! The real fun was trying to shred your friends' faces with it at 10 paces away.