7 ms·

Inventor of Etch A Sketch dies in France at 86

51 points by saurabh 14y ago

daniel-cussen 14y ago
"Ohio Art saw his idea at the Nuremberg Toy Fair in 1959. The toy, with its gray screen, red frame and two white knobs that are twisted back and forth to create drawings, was launched in 1960 and became the top seller that holiday season. More than 100 million have been sold worldwide since." Wow, that must have grossed over a billion in today's dollars. There's a billion-dollar idea for you.
- CKKim 14y ago
  Indeed. Reading the Wikipedia entry on Cassagnes I wonder: 'idea' or 'discovery'? "Cassagnes, an electrician at the Lincrusta Company, was performing a routine installation of a factory light switch plate wrapped in a translucent decal covering. During the installation, he removed the decal and wrote on it with a pencil, noticing that image transferred to the opposite face. Cassagnes tinkered with his discovery, which led to the world's first prototype of the Etch A Sketch." I love these stories of something chanced upon by accident being turned into a product. It wouldn't surprise me if most successful ideas come about this way, rather than from a 'visionary' entrepreneur brainstorming the 'next big thing'.
richardburton 14y ago
The relevant xkcd: http://xkcd.com/551/ http://xkcd.com/551/
- pavel_lishin 14y ago
  The relevant Dilbert: http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/1995-04-03/ http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/1995-04-03/ (Brief aside: is XKCD the modern Dilbert?)
brador 14y ago
I don't understand the part of how he came to his invention. Can someone explain please? >he peeled a translucent decal from a light switch plate and found pencil mark images transferred to the opposite face So he had a sticker you can see through, used pencil to draw on it and you could see those left on the surface under it. But how does that link with the way an Etch-a-sketch works?
- SoftwareMaven 14y ago
  The Etch a Sketch works by scraping aluminum off of glass, so the implementation is kind of the inverse of the inspiration; but they both revolve around taking a pointer and running it across something adhering to the surface.
edouard1234567 14y ago
100M of these have been sold. Most popular tablet yet!
- melling 14y ago
  The iPad has already sold 100m. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPad http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPad I would expect Android tablets to be accelerating through that number in the next year or two. The world is going to change quickly.
  - rikacomet 14y ago
    100m before there was TV in every home, and before Kotler had written the bible on marketing, is way different than 100m of Ipad.
    - melling 14y ago
      I'm not putting down the Etch-a-Sketch. We had one in our house when I was a kid. Just putting the tablet numbers into perspective because the person to which I replied didn't seem to understand how quickly tablets are selling. The iPad is only 3 years old. Android tablets are just starting to take off.
      - edouard1234567 14y ago
        "... didn't seem to understand how quickly tablets are selling..." what part of my statement makes you think that? Shake your screen and try again.
cseelus 14y ago
Stunning what some people are able to create with this stuff: http://www.gvetchedintime.com/gvetchedintime/gallery.php http://www.gvetchedintime.com/gvetchedintime/gallery.php
- prezjordan 14y ago
  It's amazing how simple the etch-a-sketch is, but most people find it difficult to draw basic shapes. Side-note: I'm not very good with an etch-a-sketch but I found a hidden ability of mine and drew this [1], which got thrown in "Weird NJ" magazine. [1]: http://i3.minus.com/jbuePHaiXbDPXg.JPG http://i3.minus.com/jbuePHaiXbDPXg.JPG
arjn 14y ago
Beautiful, simple, entertaining.
- mauvehaus 14y ago
  And an enormous mess if you get curious and take it apart to see how it works. They're hard to take apart for a reason. Fortunately, I did it on a keychain-sized one, and not a full sized one.
ChuckMcM 14y ago
The true inventor of the iPad :-) I was one of those kids that eventually couldn't take it any more and I took my Etch-a-Sketch apart to figure out how the heck it worked. Just a warning, that stuff gets on everything. :-) There are only a handful of toys that left a big impression on me as a young man, this one was right up there with the Slinky.

51 points by saurabh 14y ago

"Ohio Art saw his idea at the Nuremberg Toy Fair in 1959. The toy, with its gray screen, red frame and two white knobs that are twisted back and forth to create drawings, was launched in 1960 and became the top seller that holiday season. More than 100 million have been sold worldwide since." Wow, that must have grossed over a billion in today's dollars. There's a billion-dollar idea for you.

CKKim 14y ago
Indeed. Reading the Wikipedia entry on Cassagnes I wonder: 'idea' or 'discovery'? "Cassagnes, an electrician at the Lincrusta Company, was performing a routine installation of a factory light switch plate wrapped in a translucent decal covering. During the installation, he removed the decal and wrote on it with a pencil, noticing that image transferred to the opposite face. Cassagnes tinkered with his discovery, which led to the world's first prototype of the Etch A Sketch." I love these stories of something chanced upon by accident being turned into a product. It wouldn't surprise me if most successful ideas come about this way, rather than from a 'visionary' entrepreneur brainstorming the 'next big thing'.

richardburton 14y ago

The relevant xkcd: http://xkcd.com/551/ http://xkcd.com/551/

pavel_lishin 14y ago
The relevant Dilbert: http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/1995-04-03/ http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/1995-04-03/ (Brief aside: is XKCD the modern Dilbert?)

brador 14y ago

I don't understand the part of how he came to his invention. Can someone explain please? >he peeled a translucent decal from a light switch plate and found pencil mark images transferred to the opposite face So he had a sticker you can see through, used pencil to draw on it and you could see those left on the surface under it. But how does that link with the way an Etch-a-sketch works?

SoftwareMaven 14y ago
The Etch a Sketch works by scraping aluminum off of glass, so the implementation is kind of the inverse of the inspiration; but they both revolve around taking a pointer and running it across something adhering to the surface.

edouard1234567 14y ago

100M of these have been sold. Most popular tablet yet!

melling 14y ago
The iPad has already sold 100m. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPad http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPad I would expect Android tablets to be accelerating through that number in the next year or two. The world is going to change quickly.
- rikacomet 14y ago
  100m before there was TV in every home, and before Kotler had written the bible on marketing, is way different than 100m of Ipad.
  - melling 14y ago
    I'm not putting down the Etch-a-Sketch. We had one in our house when I was a kid. Just putting the tablet numbers into perspective because the person to which I replied didn't seem to understand how quickly tablets are selling. The iPad is only 3 years old. Android tablets are just starting to take off.
    - edouard1234567 14y ago
      "... didn't seem to understand how quickly tablets are selling..." what part of my statement makes you think that? Shake your screen and try again.

cseelus 14y ago

Stunning what some people are able to create with this stuff: http://www.gvetchedintime.com/gvetchedintime/gallery.php http://www.gvetchedintime.com/gvetchedintime/gallery.php

prezjordan 14y ago
It's amazing how simple the etch-a-sketch is, but most people find it difficult to draw basic shapes. Side-note: I'm not very good with an etch-a-sketch but I found a hidden ability of mine and drew this [1], which got thrown in "Weird NJ" magazine. [1]: http://i3.minus.com/jbuePHaiXbDPXg.JPG http://i3.minus.com/jbuePHaiXbDPXg.JPG

arjn 14y ago

Beautiful, simple, entertaining.

mauvehaus 14y ago
And an enormous mess if you get curious and take it apart to see how it works. They're hard to take apart for a reason. Fortunately, I did it on a keychain-sized one, and not a full sized one.

ChuckMcM 14y ago

The true inventor of the iPad :-) I was one of those kids that eventually couldn't take it any more and I took my Etch-a-Sketch apart to figure out how the heck it worked. Just a warning, that stuff gets on everything. :-) There are only a handful of toys that left a big impression on me as a young man, this one was right up there with the Slinky.