And we all know, here on SpirographicArt.com, that Spirograph is a Classic Toy. Nice to have the Royal Mail acknowledge it too.

Actually, they have every reason to be proud of it. Spirograph was developed and first marketed by a British engineer, Denys Fisher, and hit the stores in 1965. Kenner acquired the rights for the the American market and started distributing Spirograph in the USA in 1966.

The first patent on spirograph was, according to Wikipedia, registered by a Polish mathematician and inventor, Bruno Abakanowicz, but I have not seen any pictures of his invention. It may have been nothing like Denys Fisher’s plastic gears and wheels which we know and love.

You can purchase the stamp, along with those of the other Classic Toys, on the Royal Mail website here.

PS: Thanks to Jason from New Zealand for the heads-up about this stamp!

The post The Royal Mail Honours Spirograph with New Stamp appeared first on SpiroGraphicArt.

Lego Technic spirograph machine by PG52

Whether or not you’re a Lego aficionado, you might find this mechanism for drawing a spirograph-like design intriguing. Technically it’s not a hypotrochoid like a spirograph pattern produced inside a ring. Rather, it’s a pintograph, produced by a pen held by two mechanical arms attached to rotating wheels – a variation of a harmonograph which is produced by a pendulum mechanism. This Lego pintograph, however, has a rotating table, so it produces a radially-symmetrical design – like a hypotrochoid. By controlling the speed of the rotation, as well as the lengths of the arms, many different designs can be produced.

The builder goes by the name of PG52, and he’s apparently French. His machine went through several generations. Below I’ll show his videos for Version 4 and Version 5. Narration of the first is in French but there are English subtitles. If you’re into LEGO Technic and can read French, you may be interested in what he shared on a LEGO Technic forum at http://www.techlug.fr/Forum/topic7691-30.html – or just examine the pictures.

Merci PG52, où que tu sois.

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Nathan is a math teacher as well as a father and an inventor – and quite the artist as well, especially when his chosen medium is pancake batter.

After some trial and error, he has figured out how to make a working spirograph mechanism for drizzling out pancake batter in a hypotrochoid pattern in a frying pan.

You can buy the plans for his “Pangraph” on his website and make one for yourself if you have the tools and skills.

His videos are funny, too. Scroll down for more, and check out his YouTube channel for more silliness.

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Any parallels with how you use spirograph?

Psst: in the video they’re using Stabilo 88 pens, the kind I like for Spirograph.

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Tony Orrico explores the geometry of the body and the creation of geometric figures that Spirograph lovers will recognize as somehow related to the beloved toy. Here are a couple of videos. There are more videos on his website, TonyOrrico.com.

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“Your eyes won’t believe what your hands have done.”
“So much fun you’ll never want to stop.”

Introducing Super Spirograph:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9mrNm5PIEE

Spiromania, 1973, with a “live” band, promoting regular and Super Spirograph:

Spirograph Plus, with the extra arm, from the 1980s:

Much later, a commercial for the stunted version of Spirograph that was sold before the latest version came out – warning: this is in Dutch!

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