Spirograph

The year was 1965, and British engineer Denys Fisher introduced the little ones to mathematics with a set of ridged plastic shapes known as Spirograph.

Fisher was inspired when studying the intricate patterns on a £1 note and wondered how they were made. Using pieces from a Meccano set, he created a drafting tool based on gears. After encouragement from friends and family to market the drawing set as a toy, Spirograph first went on sale at Schofields department store in Leeds (Yorkshire).

He debuted his invention at the 1965 Nuremberg International Toy Fair, where he sold the US distribution rights to Kenner and launched his own company to sell the toy in the UK. Spirograph was an instant hit, and by 1977, more than 30 million units had been sold.

This amazing toy was nothing more than 18 transparent plastic wheels, two transparent plastic rings, and two plastic bars – all with teeth along the edges – that created the most intricate designs when a pen traced the path of the small shape as it rolled along inside the bigger circle.

It seemed so simple, and yet these pieces of plastic and a pen miraculously created the most elaborate patterns of geometric swirls and shapes. It was dubbed “Toy of the Year” in 1967. More than 45 years later, in 2014, it was again a Toy of the Year finalist in two categories.

The weird thing about Spirograph was that you never knew when you were finished. Ultimately, you would just go around and around and around until you eventually ripped a hole in your masterpiece with the pen.

For the younger creative genius, there was Spirotot. Other products in the range included the amped-up Super Spirograph, the Spirograph-themed kaleidoscope known as the Spiroscope, and a glitter pen set called Sparkle Spirograph.

I remember the first Christmas I got a Spirograph. I lay on the lounge room floor all Christmas day drawing patterns while watching Billy Smarts Circus on the TV – and when I ran out of paper, I dressed my Action Man in his orange frogman suit and went diving under the coffee table.

Spirograph still excites and educates (albeit subliminally) and has even added a modern twist.

Today’s Spirograph includes all sorts of crazy neon plastic shapes – and the pins used to secure the rings have long since been banned as unsafe –  but the concept remains the same: the wonderful, seemingly magical (but mathematically sound) series of ridged circles and ellipses create the best in pre-Einstein years mixed with a little Warhol for good measure.

TRIVIA
The curved shapes you create by rolling around the outside teeth of a Spirograph wheel are technically known as “epitrochoids”. The shapes you create by rolling around the inside of a circle are called “hypotrochoids”.

The term “Spirograph” has become so ingrained in popular culture that the distant nebula ‘IC 418’ is also named ‘the Spirograph Nebula’ as its form hints at the patterns the toy generates.

In The Simpsons episode “Radioactive Man”, Bart visits the Spirograph factory where the mysterious Dr S claims, “There’s a direct correlation between the decline in Spirograph and the rise in gang activity”.

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