Light Switch

Andre did.

The story behind Andre’s start as inventor is kind of sketchy. Growing up in Paris, Andre worked in his parent’s bakery … it was a dream job but there was just one small problem. He was allergic to wheat … so Andre had to find a new career … and ended up as an electrician for a company that made picture frame coverings and used Aluminium powder in the process.

One day while at work he was installing a translucent light switch plate … that is a plate you could see through … he took off the decal and wrote a few words on the plate … and the words magically showed up on the other side … and that’s when the light went on.

Drawing on the experience, Andre came up with his first invention which he showed off proudly at the Nuremburg Toy Fair in Germany … but few attendees seemed interested in it … until a tiny US company called Ohio Art thought they maybe could do something with it … and they did. Selling over 600,000 units of the toy that first year.

Today, over 50 years later, Andre’s invention that came to him when he replaced a light switch plate … is in the National Toy Hall of Fame … and virtually everyone over a certain age in North America has played with one at one time or another – Etch a Sketch.

Etch A Sketch is a great idea … because you never know what you can do just by drawing on your own experience.