Denys Fisher

Denys Fisher
Born(1918-05-11)11 May 1918
Leeds, England
Died17 September 2002(2002-09-17) (aged 84)
Barrow-in-Furness, England
OccupationEngineer
Known forInventor of Spirograph
Spouses
Elizabeth Stephenson
​
​
(m. 1940)​
Kate Waide
​
(m. 1969)​

Denys Fisher (11 May 1918 – 17 September 2002) was an English engineer who invented the spirograph toy and created the company Denys Fisher Toys.

Personal life and education

Fisher's early years were spent living in a railway carriage in a field. During an illness he read Lamb’s Infinitesimal Calculus which sparked a lifelong fascination with logic and maths. He attended Leeds University, but dropped out to join the family firm, Kingfisher (Lubrication) Ltd. Fisher married Elizabeth Stephenson in 1940. They had a daughter and two sons. He subsequently married Kate Wade in 1969. They had two sons. He lived in Dumfries before moving to Clappersgate, Cumbria, in the 1980s.[1]

Denys Fisher Engineering

In 1960 he left the firm to set up his own company, Denys Fisher Engineering, in Leeds. In 1961 the company won a contract with NATO to supply springs and precision components for its 20 mm cannon. Nato awarded the company a £50,000 contract for five million units.[2]

Spirograph

With the money from the NATO contract, Fisher was able to dedicate time to what was to become the Spirograph. Between 1962 and 1964 he developed various drawing machines from Meccano pieces, eventually producing a prototype Spirograph. Patented in 16 countries, it went on sale in Schofields department store in Leeds in 1965. A year later, Fisher licensed Spirograph to Kenner Products in the United States. In 1967 Spirograph was chosen as the UK Toy of the Year.[3]

Other projects

Denys Fisher Toys, which also produced other toys and board games, was sold to Palitoy in 1970 and it was subsequently bought by Hasbro. Through the 1980s and 1990s Fisher continued to work with Hasbro in developing new toys and refining Spirograph.[4]

Toys and games

Denys Fisher Toys produced the following toys and games:

References

  1. ^ "Denys Fisher". The Times. 26 October 2002. Retrieved 5 April 2024.
  2. ^ "Denys Fisher". The Times. 26 October 2002. Retrieved 5 April 2024.
  3. ^ "Denys Fisher". The Times. 26 October 2002. Retrieved 5 April 2024.
  4. ^ "Denys Fisher". The Times. 26 October 2002. Retrieved 5 April 2024.
  5. ^ a b Cimino, John (Summer 2018). "The Legends and Lore of the Incredible Hulk, Stretch Armstrong, and the Mego Elastic Superheroes". RetroFan (1). TwoMorrows Publishing: 9–13.
  6. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 13 February 2017. Retrieved 12 February 2017.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)