Executive toy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
An executive toy is a novelty item that is usually a small mechanical gadget placed on the desk of a corporate executive or other office workers. They have no work-related function but are usually interesting to look at and entertaining.
The first executive toy may have been a gadget designed by the great mathematician and engineer Philo of Byzantium (about 280 BC - about 220 BC), an octagon-shaped ink pot with openings on each side. One could turn the pot so that any face is on top and dip the pen in the opening, but the ink never ran out through the holes on other sides. The inkwell was suspended in the centre on a series of gimbals and remained stationary in spite of any rotation.[1]
Examples of executive toys include:
- Ant farm
- Baoding balls
- Crookes radiometer
- EcoSphere (closed Aquarium)
- Etch A Sketch
- Hoberman sphere
- Drinking bird
- Magic 8-Ball
- Mechanical puzzle
- Music box
- Newton's cradle
- Pin Art
- USB toys
- Rubik's Cube
- Novelty lighter
- Top
- Yo-yo
- Paddle ball
- Squirt gun
- Snow globe
- Lava lamp
- Plasma globe
- Neodymium magnet toys
- Mechanical bank
- Stress ball
[edit] References
- ^ * Piter James, and Nick Thorpe. Ancient Inventions, ISBN 0-345-40102-6
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