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PLAY DOHWho created Play Doh?Noah McVickerPlay?dough was actually?invented?by accident. In the 1930s, Noah McVicker worked for his family's soap company. It was called Kutol Products. There, he?made?a new kind of wallpaper cleaner.IT USED TO COME IN JUST ONE?COLOR.Back when it was still a household product,?Play-Doh?came in just one dud of a?color: off-white. When it hit stores as a toy in the 1950s, red, blue, and yellow were addedSILLY PUTTY Today I found out?Silly Putty?was?invented?by accident.?Silly Putty?was originally?invented?by James Wright, working at General Electric's New Haven, Connecticut lab in 1943. Silly Putty was invented by accident. During World War II, engineer James Wright was working for the U.S. War Production Board, trying to create an inexpensive substitute for synthetic rubber at a General Electric lab in Connecticut. When he dropped boric acid into silicone oil, he got a substance that was stretchier and bouncier than rubber, with a weird added feature: When you flattened it against a newspaper or comic-book page, it picked up a perfect copy of the print it touched.Cool though that was, Wright’s discovery turned out to be no better than the synthetic rubber that already existed. The government didn’t want his “nutty putty,” but a few years later, businessman Peter Hodgson noticed what a hit the stuff was at a party. He renamed it “Silly Putty” and marketed it as a toy, packaging it in colorful plastic eggs because he put it out around Easter time.Silly Putty become one of the 20th century’s most popular toys … and then people started coming up with practical uses for it, like picking up dirt and lint, and sticking it to a wobbly leg to make a table more stable. Astronauts on the Apollo 8 moon mission even used the goo to keep their tools secure in zero gravity!LegoIn 1958, the LEGO brick with the familiar tubes inside and studs on was patented.?This was done on 28 January, 1958 and all 2 x 4 LEGO bricks ?since then have been produced to the exact measurements of this patent.A LEGO brick from 1958 would interlock with a brick from 2015.?The patent introduced what is called a “universal system”?so that each piece is compatible with all other pieces, it doesn’t matter the year or set it belongs to.Lego inventor- Ole Kirk Christiansen was?a carpenter.?He lost his business and began to make?toys out of his leftover?wood. He?was inspired to construct a small wooden duck toy for his children and when they loved it he put them into production to sell.Mr Potato Head The History of Mr. Potato HeadGeorge Lerner, a toy inventor from Brooklyn, created Mr. Potato Head. The year was 1949, and he came up with the idea of taking facial features and body parts and inserting them into vegetables and fruits to make a face. Lerner's earliest versions included potatoes taken from his mother's garden. He would use other fruits and vegetables to make dolls for his younger sisters to play with.Little Interest at the StartThe idea of using food as toys didn't prove to be a very?popular?one. Americans remembered the rationing of food and other materials during World War II and the idea didn't catch on. Toy manufacturers considered it a waste of resources, and rejected the idea outright.Eventually, Lerner managed to persuade a cereal company to include his toy as the prize in their products. He sold the rights to the idea for $5,000, which was a considerable amount of money at the time.Mr. Potato Head is BornThe new toy went into production and was officially "born" on May 1, 1952. Mr. Potato Head was offered to the public for $0.98. The first version available for sale contained the following pieces:EarsEyes (two pairs)Facial hair (eight pieces of felt)FeetHandsHats (three)Mouths (two)Noses (four)PipeThis version of the toy didn't include a body. The buyer would have to provide the potato for children to play with. The new toy was an instant hit with children, and the television ads started in 1952 helped to boost sales to over one million units in the first year.Pogo StickAround since the 1920s in the UK the US made their own version. ON May 21, 1957, George B Hansburg of New York patented the?pogo stick. 1. Hansburg's?invention?was a modification of a British patent awarded to Walter Lines in 1922 for a “new or improved hopping-pole for use in exercise or in playing games”.Frisbee The Frisbee was invented in the 1950s by a group of Middlebury students playing with thin metal pie plates. In the second version, five Middlebury College students were the inventors when they tossed empty Frisbie Pie Co. (Bridgeport, Conn.) plates to each other while on an autumn 1939 road trip. On this day in 1957, machines at the Wham-O toy company roll out the first batch of their aerodynamic plastic discs–now known to millions of fans all over the world as Frisbees.Barbiebarbie?was?created?by ruth handler —?INVENTOR, WIFE, MOTHER.This sparked Ruth's vision to create a 3-D?doll?for girls to play out their dreams. Then, in 1959, the first?Barbie doll-named after Ruth's daughter-made?its debut at New York Toy Fair.Released in 1959, the?first-ever?Barbie doll?features golden hair, a black and white bathing suit and blue eyeshadow. While this rare?Barbie?has an estimated?worth?of $8,000, a mint condition?doll?sold at auction for $27,450. Over 55 years later, Barbie is a global icon inspiring girls everywhere to be anything. From her 180 careers, to her fantasy roles and her countless fashions and accessories - Barbie has always offered girls choices and endless storytelling possibilities.Television in the 50sright000So many things changed in people's lives in the fifties, but if one thing stands out as defining the age more than any other, it is the coming of television. At the beginning of the decade, television was a luxury item - only 350,000 households had a television set. By 1960, nearly three quarters of the population had television. For every generation born since the 50s, television has been taken for granted as part of our lives.The early yearsTelevision broadcasting in the UK started before the War. The television service broadcast by the BBC was officially inaugurated on 2nd November 1936. Television was broadcast up to the outbreak of World War II and was resumed subsequently in June 1946. In the early years of television, there was only one channel - the BBC. One of the most popular of the early programmes was the panel game - "What's my Line". The panel of four would ask questions of a member of the public to determine what his occupation was. One of its first celebrities was Gilbert Harding - he later described himself as a "telephoney".One of the most watched events on television in the early 50s was the Queen's Coronation in 1953, narrated by Richard Dimbleby. Many people watched the event on a friend's set. It is often quoted that the Coronation really sparked off the interest in television, or was the catalyst for it. It is certainly true that in the years following the Coronation, the proportion of households with television sets went up rapidly - from 14% in 1952, to 21% in 1953 and 31% in 1954.But what did people watch in an average day? In the mid-fifties, the emphasis was on news, current affairs, history and serious drama. A selection BBC of programmes from 1955 included:'In the News'A fortnightly discussion on current affairs'Panorama'A fortnightly topical magazine - still going strong today!'Facts and Figures'A monthly survey for statistics in diagrammatic form'Animal, Vegetable, Mineral?'A quiz programme for archaeological experts'Leisure and Pleasure', 'Family Affairs', 'About the Home'The fifties equivalent of daytime television. A series of progammes for women. (All men presumably were out at work!)'War in the air'The development of air warfare up to, and including the Second World War. There was, understandably a huge interest in the War in this era.'Mock Auction'An early example of investigative television reporting. Mock auctions were a way of ripping the public off - they still are today!(Taken from the BBC Handbook, 1956)In addition to these programmes, the BBC broadcast a large number of traditional and contemporary plays. Some adapted for television, others written specifically for it. There was also coverage of major sporting events.Magic 8 ballA Bit of History on the Magic 8 Ball?Origins of the Magic 8 BallThe Magic 8 Ball is a fun toy to have around the house, especially when you have some friends over for a party and want to have fun. But what do you really know about this toy? The Magic 8 Ball was invented by Albert Carter. Albert Carter grew up in Cincinnati, in a time when spiritualism was at its peak, and in a house where his mother was a clairvoyant.Inspired by his mother’s qualities, he invented a fortune telling device of his own, called the?Syco-Seer. In 1946, Carter forged a business partnership with Abe Bookman to mass produce this device. Carter passed away before seeing his product patented. Nevertheless, Bookman continued to perfect the device and finally managed to patent it to what is today known as the Magic 8 Ball.Syco Seer, Precursor of Magic 8 BallThe Syco-Seer wasn’t a ball, it was a cylinder, but it still operated under the same principles that would be incorporated into the Magic 8 Ball. Instead of one die, the Syco-Seer had two suspended in the same murky liquid used in the later Magic 8 Ball.In 1950, Brunswick Billiards hired Alabe Crafts to make some of its fortune telling balls look like pool balls as part of a promotional campaign. Alabe responded by encasing its fortune teller cylinders into an oversized 8 ball sphere and thus, the Magic 8 Ball was born.How Does the Magic 8 Ball Work?The 20 sided die located inside the Magic Ball is made of a white plastic material with raised lettering suspended in a mysterious blue liquid. The lettering is raised so that the letters will be visible as they press upon the clear window. You should not over-shake the Ball as this may create air bubbles that will interfere with the letters’ ability to seal against the clear window, making them illegible.First computerThe world's first commercially-available computer was the Ferranti Mark I, delivered in February 1951 and based on a Manchester University prototype.In the UK, many of the early computer projects benefited from technological developments at the three Second World War R&D centres of excellence, namely: Bletchley Park, the Telecommunications Research Establishment and the Admiralty Signal Establishment. Leading scientists and engineers from these centres formed the nucleus of most UK computer design groups in the late 1940s.The first computer to undertake business data processing was probably LEO (Lyons Electronic Office), based on the design of the Cambridge University EDSAC. LEO ran its first simple clerical program in April puter Games 1950's to 1960's1959-1961????????????The majority of the early computer games on which everything we have now is based, were developed by individuals as a hobby on university mainframe computers. Because of the limited access to computers, these games were small in number and easily forgotten or never shown to the public. None the less quite a few are still known all of which were created on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) TX-0 machine. The three best known ones areMouse in the Maze: the player would place maze walls, bits of cheese and glasses or martini with a light pen interacting with the screen. Then one would release the mouse and watch it cross the maze to find the objects.HAX: various graphical displays and sounds could be made by adjusting two switches on the console.Tic-Tac-Toe:?Using a light pen the user could play a simple game of noughts and crosses against the computer.In October 1958, Physicist William Higinbotham created what is thought to be the?first video game. It was a very simple tennis?game, similar to the classic 1970s?video game?Pong, and it was quite a hit at a Brookhaven National Laboratory open house.What Was the First Video Game?The first video games were developed in the late 1940’s and early 1950’s, while?the first video games with physics were invented in the late 1950’s.The?first computerized video games without physics include a version of tic-tac-toe called?Bertie the Brain?(1950) and Alan Turing’s Chess game?Turochamp?(1952), the first games with physics are the “Pong-like”?Tennis for Two?(1958), and MIT’s space-shooter?Spacewar!?(1959 – 1962). ................
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