1977: SPIROGRAPH inventor at work on his NEW CREATION! | Tomorrow’s World | Science | BBC Archive 

Denys Fisher, thinker, engineer, & inventor of the Spirograph, died 17 September, 2002, aged 84. Forty years ago, in 1962, Denys Fisher, working in the Yorkshire family business, King Fisher Engineering, of Leeds, had the idea for the Spirograph, a fantastic educational toy that was to make his fortune. It took three years to bring the idea to fruition. The Spirograph began its life as an idea for a pattern drawing machine for industry. Fisher worked for years on the idea before he hit upon the method of ensuring a high degree of mathematical precision. Fisher's next problem was how to apply his invention to industrial work, but his family were so intrigued by his creation, which could produce a multitude of intricate and colourful designs, that he decided to market it as a toy. The Denys Fisher Toys Group was formed in 1965, and, in its first year of operation with only 12 employees, had a turnover of £30,000. In the late 1960s the Spirograph became a legend in the toy world, and was voted the best educational toy for four years 1966-69. In the early days Fisher enlisted the services of Robert Fieldhouse, whose job was to make marketing and financial sense of the Spirograph bonanza. The capital for expansion came early through the sales explosion of the educational toy. Pre-tax profits of the group climbed from £70,000 in 1966 to £337,000 in the following year. Much of this came from the licences to produce Spirograph in North America. Indeed, the key to the Denys Fisher Group's expansion in those days was the inflow of royalties from overseas. Fisher headed the company until 1970, when General Mills, the multi-million dollar American food combine, took over the business. Michael Rhodes.

I used it for hundreds of hours - 5 miles south of Leeds never knowing it was invented in Leeds...

Did you know there is a direct correlation in the decline of spirograph and the rise in gang activity? Think about it.

Would be great to share it ❤

Try this: ht=74ps:=2F=2Fgit=68ub=2Ecom=2Fldo=2Fcurve

Why dont someone write the program to use same hole numbers and gear sizes as original spirograph. We give the numbers and pen color and nib size then it draws at a set speed with maybe key input to increese or slow the drawing speed.

Mathmos still make the original lava lamp. I saw a TV programme about it recently. And spirograph is still produced. Funny you should mention those string and nail pictures. I've just found a book on how to do it. I bought it in the 70s but never got around to using it. So the book languished on my shelves till now. It's very much of its time and very dated😂😂.

@@bahoonies True, but the current lava lamp isn't anywhere as cool as the original wax and oil one that burnt if you touched it!

@davewalker7126 It's exactly the same as the original apart from the halogen bulb used now. Mathmos advise not to touch it when it's switched on as it gets hot.

@@bahoonies I doubt it still contains paraffin and Carbon tetra chloride :)

@@davewalker7126 There's a video around here that details what's in it and how you can make your own. I think Technological Connections.

I also want to know. Additionally, the explanation of how it actually works was lacking, and I would like more detail on that.

​@@abraxasjinx5207I was going to describe it to you but it's so simple you can look it up. That is what Google is for.😊

I always thought that was from a decline in stamp collecting but I stand corrected 👍

Thanks Dr. S!

We will! No you won't.

A slight correlation kinda. A "direct" correlation, absolutely not. There is a direct correlation between people making absurd claims, and them not understanding a definition. Yes, I get that it was supposed to be a joke. But the only joke is the lack of knowledge. It would have been funnier if you actually left the word "direct" out. Because then you would have made a true statement. Comedy is subjective, and the subject of your joke, is uninformed. Being a moron, only makes you funny for other morons. Don't worry now they'll all come in, and say crap to me like; "You must be the life of the party", "Man, can't take a joke", and so on. You know, the common idiot responses, by the common idiots, who think idiotic statements are funny.

Spirograph was obviously a gateway drug.

Every time I hear these informative videos I keep expecting a bunch of jokes, I've seen too much Monty Python

I got mine for Christmas (1986 or maybe '87). I'd never known of such a thing. I still have all of it. The ink still flows.

Remarkably, spirograph is still being sold.

​@@bahooniesyeah, but it is really expensive now. I saw one in a store about a year ago and the price was something like $40.

@hotchick69 It costs me a lot more to fill my car's tank and it doesn't give me anywhere near the mileage of a spirograph lol.

@@CuteLesbo69 I think that's less in today's bucks of what it cost then.

you can get a spirograph app for smart phones though, so it all depend son how you present a smart phone to a child. if you just put tik tok on it you might as well drop your kid on their head too, they'll grow up dumb as a rock. but if you give them apps that get them problem solving they could be the next denys fisher

No. Fisher Price is an American company.

Yes, using Logo, Scratch and laser cutters and 3D printers.

Our technology has made us less creative, people like this are rarer today, art is dying.

@@ericconnor8419 i kinda suspect the opposite is true but that people like this seem rarer *because more people are mildly creative*. it's good, and in time it'll be apparent who the real geniuses of our time are, but right now I think the thing to do is to try to be such a person yourself!

​@ericconnor8419 Don't worry about art dying. It's future is very safe. The number of talented artists on RU-vid alone is staggering.

he would create anime girls using AI

Now there was a guy to be respected. He was considered for James Bond, but rejected the role because he didn’t approve of the character. Instead, he did the _Danger Man_ series, featuring a secret agent who got by with his wits and his charm, and never blew anything up.

@@DKShoneys-dc2dp indeed, I fully agree.

those symbols are on the money for security purpose, so people cant replicate them and make forgeries of money, and so complex shapes like these allow forgeries to be detected. So they likely wouldnt have been allowed to tell him anything because they would have been telling him how to make perfect forgeries.

@@ge2719 you have a point there. But the technique was not new, that's what I was hinting at.

Look up "Rose Engine Lathe"

@@StonesAndSand indeed.

And to turn this into a software-thing, a mere "app" is a mistake. It is the physicality of the toy that makes it. The difference between the printed page and a garbage "ebook" is immense. Practical toys - Meccano, Lego - will never be surpassed.

"Now it would be software-based"? Now the same plastic pieces are sold in the same kits in stores in many countries.

Toys in the physical world have a magic to them that computer games don't. A child would get a real kick out of being able to create complex patterns using a bit of plastic. Something from nothing.

Wish patents were as easy to file now 😢😅

Its a Hewlett Packard 9825 desktop calculator and plotter, available from 1976 until mid 1980

The toy shown in the video was sold under the name "Spectrograph".

@@JohnDlugosz Thanks! I'll have to look that up.