More recently, a novelty for teaching children to draw - a magic screen - has hit the toy market. This toy allows you to draw straight lines, both horizontal and vertical, by pressing the handles at the corners of the toy. In this case, the drawing can be erased over and over again and start creativity again. So who invented the magic screen that has become very popular among modern kids and their parents?
The magic screen consists of a plastic case, completely sealed and covered with durable glass. There is aluminum powder adhering to it under the glass. When a child moves one of the handles that control the magic screen, the cursor erases the powder from the glass, and a dark line appears on the screen. If you turn the knobs one by one, you can draw a horizontal or vertical line, and if you move the knobs at the same time, you can get a circle or a diagonal line.
It would seem that the inventor who invented the magic screen did not take into account that there are much more opportunities for teaching children to draw on modern tablets and phones in various applications. However, the toy has gained popularity due to its obvious advantages: the child develops fine motor skills of the hands, the eyes do not get tired of the light and the constant flickering of the monitor. At the same time, the child develops perseverance and a sense of responsibility, since he does not have the right to make mistakes when drawing, because it is impossible to erase part of the drawing or go back a few steps. To start drawing on the magic screen from the very beginning, turn it over or shake it.
The toy with the original name “Etch-A-Sketch” was developed by the French electrician Andre Cassagne in the distant 50s. A few years later, the magic screen was launched into mass production abroad, and in the 80s in our country, without the consent of the author, domestic copies were released for Soviet children.
Andre Cassagne was born in the suburbs of Paris into a family of bakers, but due to an allergy to flour he had to change his field of activity, so he became an electrician. The idea for the toy came to him at work. when, installing the switch shield at the factory, he made a mark on it with a pencil and noticed that this inscription was imprinted on the paper in which the shield was wrapped. Cassagne experimented with this property, which led to the creation of a magic screen, the first prototype of which he presented at the Toy Fair in Nuremberg in 1959.
André Cassagne, who invented the magic screen, is also known as the master of kites, the inventor of the magic screen in the form of a ball and the game "Behind the Wheel", which is a magnetic machine moving along a road drawn by a child.
