Home Science News Invention News Current Events

INVENTION NEWS:

In the late 1950's, a man by the name of Arthur Granjean invented something he called “L'Ecran Magique", which is French for “the magic screen”, in his garage.  In 1959, he took his drawing toy to the International Toy Fair in Nuremburg, Germany.  The Ohio Art Company saw it but had no interest in the toy.  When Ohio Art saw the toy a second time, they decided to take a chance on the product.  The L'Ecran Magique was soon renamed the Etch A Sketch and became the most popular drawing toy in the business. In the 1960’s, Ohio Art used television to advertise the Etch A Sketch in commercials world-wide. 

The response was so incredible that the company decided to continue manufacturing them until noon Christmas Eve 1960.  The Etch A Sketches were then immediately shipped to the West Coast so people in California could buy Etch A Sketch on Christmas Eve and have them for Christmas.

The Etch A Sketch has changed very little over the years.  In the 1970s, Ohio Art offered hot pink and blue frames.  But people still wanted the bright red frames that were so popular. The print on the frame has changed slightly, but the inner workings have remained exactly the same.  The screen's reverse side is coated with a mixture of aluminum powder and plastic beads.  The left and right knobs control the horizontal and vertical rods, moving the stylus (drawing pen) where the two meet.  When the stylus moves, it scrapes the screen leaving the line you see. The knobs have changed slightly. The new shape has a different edge for easier handling and turning. This toy is the most popular child art toy there is.

Binney & Smith established its business office in New York City. Then they bought a water-powered stone mill along the Bushkill Creek in Easton, Pennsylvania, to take advantage of the region’s large slate supply. The slate was used to make a new company product slate school pencils!

Shortly after of its successful launch of slate pencils, the company developed another school product: chalk. This is no ordinary chalk, though; it’s dustless chalk! Teachers across the nation love it! In fact, dustless chalk was so popular, it won a gold medal at the St. Louis World Exposition.

While Binney & Smith representatives show their new pencils and dustless chalk in local schools, they notice a need for better-quality, affordable wax crayons. The company quickly changes its industrial marking crayons to be used in schools. They make the crayons smaller and add colored pigments to the paraffin wax. The crayons are an overnight success with children and teachers!