Etch A Sketch

Etch A Sketch is a mechanical drawing toy in which two knobs move a stylus across a powder-coated screen. Shaking the toy coats the screen again, erasing the drawing.

Connect

Cartesian coordinate system: A system for locating points on a plane using perpendicular axes and pairs of coordinates. Each knob controls motion along one axis, so their combined movement traces two-dimensional paths.
André Cassagnes: A French electrical technician and inventor who created the drawing toy that became Etch A Sketch. Cassagnes devised the mechanism behind the toy and presented it to manufacturers.
Etch A Sketch art: Artwork made by drawing with the two knobs of an Etch A Sketch and preserving the resulting image. Artists turn the toy’s limited controls and unerasable-in-practice strokes into a deliberate medium.
Drawing tablet: An electronic input device that lets a stylus control marks or actions on a computer. A tablet can undo, layer, and store marks, while the toy’s drawing is transient and mechanically constrained.
Pantograph: A linkage of connected arms that reproduces or scales motion through geometric constraints. The internal linkage translates knob rotation into controlled stylus movement across the screen.
Ohio Art Company: An American toy manufacturer founded in 1908 and known for producing Etch A Sketch. The company acquired the design, developed the product, and brought it to market.
Etch A Sketch animation: Animation created by making successive drawings on an Etch A Sketch and recording each state. The screen can produce frame-by-frame images, though each new frame requires clearing the previous one.
LCD writing tablet: A pressure-sensitive display that records marks and clears them electronically, often with one button. Both are reusable drawing surfaces, but the LCD tablet uses pressure and electronic erasure instead of powder and knobs.
Aluminum powder: Finely divided aluminum metal used in products and industrial processes. The stylus scrapes powder from the screen to expose dark lines beneath it.
Etch A Sketch launch: The 1960 introduction of Etch A Sketch as a mass-market drawing toy in the United States. Its launch established the name and form recognized by generations of toy users.