German Inventor, Innovator and Businessman Artur Fischer Dies At Age of 96

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German Inventor, Innovator and Businessman Artur Fischer Dies At Age of 96

Posted by timothy on Friday January 29, 2016 @01:06AM from the good-life dept.

Qbertino writes: As Spiegel.de reports (German link) inventor Artur Fischer has died at the age of 96. Artur Fischer is a classic example of the innovator and businessman of post-war Germany — he invented the synchronous flash for photography, the famed Fischer Fixing (aka Screwanchor/rawlplug or "Dübel" in German) and the Fischer Technik Construction Sets with which many a nerd grew up with, including the famous C64 Fischer Robotics Kit of the 80s. His heritage includes an impressive portfolio of over 1100 patents and he reportedly remained inventive and interested in solving technical problems til the very end. ... Rest in piece and thanks for the hours of fun tinkering with Fischertechnik. ... Now where did that old C64 robot go?

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Seriously by Anonymous Coward · 2016-01-29 01:23 · Score: 1

"Rest in piece"... for real?
Do you also want piece in the middle east?
1. Re:Seriously by ledow · 2016-01-29 01:27 · Score: 2
  
  Welcome to the 10th Generation Slashdot, where the new owner has no bloody idea about what they should be editing or allowing through - yet again.
2. Re:Seriously by Nidi62 · 2016-01-29 01:32 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Do you also want piece in the middle east?
  Wasn't piecing up the Middle East how it got into the mess it's in now in the first place?
  
  --
  The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
3. Re:Seriously by Lunix+Nutcase · 2016-01-29 01:35 · Score: 1
  
  One word: TIMMAY!!!
4. Re:Seriously by Anonymous Coward · 2016-01-29 01:54 · Score: 0
  
  Now if Timmy boy would die... we'd finally have some good news
5. Re:Seriously by SerpentMage · 2016-01-29 02:38 · Score: 1
  
  Play on words? Fisher Technik pieces is what I used to play with when I was a kid.
  
  --
  
  "You can't make a race horse of a pig"
  "No," said Samuel, "but you can make very fast pig"
6. Re:Seriously by Ihlosi · 2016-01-29 03:44 · Score: 1
  
  Wasn't piecing up the Middle East how it got into the mess it's in now in the first place?
  No. Piecing it up just made the general messedupness much more obvious.
7. Re:Seriously by flopsquad · 2016-01-29 03:54 · Score: 1
  
  Legit question: Aside from "Whatever each individual user personally decides is 'News for Nerds'", what criteria should they be applying here?
  
  I mean, this isn't going to generate a ton of buzz, so the "News" part isn't super strong. But this concerns the guy who invented, i.a., one of the quintessential nerdy kids' toys, Fischer Technik.
  
  I think is more /. than the day's fifth sorta-tangential-to-Uber post, or links to TMZ articles.
  
  --
  Nothing posted to /. has ever been legal advice, including this.
8. Re:Seriously by JoeMerchant · 2016-01-29 04:07 · Score: 1
  
  Maybe the editor is illiterate - I certainly wouldn't discount that possibility, but this could also be a pun attempt (failed, in my opinion) playing peace against the pieces found in Fischer construction kits.
9. Re:Seriously by Qbertino · 2016-01-29 09:15 · Score: 1
  
  That was a pun on Fishertechnik pieces. ... But I guess it *is* a bit to far off. :-)
  
  --
  We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
10. Re:Seriously by Darinbob · 2016-01-29 10:13 · Score: 1
  
  Possibly true, however the mistake was made by the submitter. Should the editor be allowed to fix spelling errors in the submission, or insert [sic]?
11. Re:Seriously by JoeMerchant · 2016-01-29 11:33 · Score: 1
  
  If they are not, I'd hardly call them "editor."
12. Re:Seriously by Darinbob · 2016-01-29 13:14 · Score: 1
  
  I think all of slashdot agrees with this statement.
Great going by edittard · 2016-01-29 01:26 · Score: 1

with which many a nerd grew up with
Seems quality's going up under the new regime it seems.

--
At the bottom of the /. main page it says 'Yesterday's News'. Well they got that right.
1. Re:Great going by Lunix+Nutcase · 2016-01-29 01:38 · Score: 1
  
  And yet editing is still as shitty as ever.
  
  Rest in piece
  Splendid job, timmay. *golf clap*
2. Re:Great going by karlnyberg · 2016-01-29 02:01 · Score: 2
  
  Doesn't everybody want whirled peas?
  
  --
  -- Karl --
3. Re:Great going by DarenN · 2016-01-29 02:17 · Score: 1
  
  Really, you're so humour-challenged that you didn't catch the really obvious pun?
  I mean, if you'd raged at it being a bad pun, or tasteless, I could see that. But missing it entirely? Sheesh. Or "Whoosh" in this instance.
  
  --
  Rational thought is the only true freedom
4. Re:Great going by edittard · 2016-01-29 05:56 · Score: 1
  
  If I was making that joke I would have pluralised it because...
  a) Readers are, on average, slightly dumber than the editors.
  b) One Fischertechnik, like one Meccano, is NFUTA.
  
  --
  At the bottom of the /. main page it says 'Yesterday's News'. Well they got that right.
5. Re:Great going by Anonymous Coward · 2016-01-29 07:45 · Score: 0
  
  Seems like you like saying "seems", it seems. Seems that way to me, seemingly.
6. Re:Great going by Anonymous Coward · 2016-01-31 11:44 · Score: 0
  
  NFUTA is expanded in the third line.
I want peace! Peace! Peace, I tell you! by Anonymous Coward · 2016-01-29 01:39 · Score: 0

Hitler singing...
A little piece of Poland.
A little piece of France.
A....
Mel Brooks - now that's funny!
Ah yes, Fischer Technik by hackertourist · 2016-01-29 02:03 · Score: 3, Interesting

The stuff that made Lego look cheap. I still coveted it though; a friend of mine had a Fischer kit that included a light sensor, which was an astonishing bit of hardware around 1980.
1. Re:Ah yes, Fischer Technik by Anonymous Coward · 2016-01-29 02:51 · Score: 0
  
  A light sensor was barely astonishing for 1880, what the hell are you babbling about?
2. Re:Ah yes, Fischer Technik by onepoint · 2016-01-29 03:09 · Score: 2
  
  That was pretty cool back then
  
  --
  if you see me, smile and say hello.
3. Re:Ah yes, Fischer Technik by Ihlosi · 2016-01-29 03:47 · Score: 1
  
  A light sensor was barely astonishing for 1880, what the hell are you babbling about?
  He's talking about a sensor, a lamp and some electronics that allowed someone who's just starting with electronics and who doesn't use a soldering iron to set up a working light barrier and begin experimenting with it in a few minutes.
4. Re:Ah yes, Fischer Technik by Anonymous Coward · 2016-01-29 04:04 · Score: 0
  
  ...and that was "astonishing" in 1980? Um, what? Maybe in North Korea? Maybe it was "astonishing" TO HIM at whatever age he was in 1980? But *for* 1980? Come on!
5. Re:Ah yes, Fischer Technik by tibit · 2016-01-29 04:41 · Score: 1
  
  I have the robotics kit, but the interface board was for a PC. These days all you need for an "interface" is an Arduino and a motor driver shield, and you can probably buy it locally in a store catering to hobbyists.
  
  --
  A successful API design takes a mixture of software design and pedagogy.
Cool stuff by Alwin+Henseler · 2016-01-29 02:33 · Score: 5, Informative

Didn't RTA, but even the only thing this mr. Fischer ever did in his life was design the cool stuff known as Fischer Technik, then imho he would have earned a nice life & retirement.
Owned a set of those construction boxes myself, and it was among the best stuff I had to play with. Not in the least because the same parts can be recombined in an endless number of ways. And more so than -for example- common Lego blocks, making stronger connections, moveable/rotating parts, shovels, cranes, you name it. Right up there with Meccano, which was more before my time. Just wish all those electronics / pneumatics parts would have been on offer back in the day... (and more pocket money to get it :-). I had to 'make do' with blocks, plates, strips, hinges, belts, wheels, chains, axles, gears and one or 2 motors.
For parents reading this: don't shy away from giving construction sets like this to your daughter(s) ! Might be exactly what she needs to get interested in the tech side of things. And certainly not as boring as many of today's single-use-throw-away-toys.
1. Re:Cool stuff by SerpentMage · 2016-01-29 02:39 · Score: 2
  
  No his Duebel are quite important as well. Seriously they made things mucho easier when fasting anything to concrete.
  
  --
  
  "You can't make a race horse of a pig"
  "No," said Samuel, "but you can make very fast pig"
2. Re:Cool stuff by JaredOfEuropa · 2016-01-29 04:04 · Score: 2
  
  I never realised it was the same guy. That only makes him more awesome.
  
  --
  If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
3. Re:Cool stuff by Xolotl · 2016-01-29 04:32 · Score: 2
  
  The reason expanding wall plugs are called 'rawlplugs' is because they were invented by John Joseph Rawlings in ... 1911. Fischer's development was making them from plastic, in 1957.
4. Re: Cool stuff by adolf · 2016-01-29 05:27 · Score: 1
  
  I prefer the concrete anchors that look like http://img.weiku.com/waterpict... (I would href that, but I don't feel like doing so on my phone)
  It goes like this:
  Drill appropriate hole
  Hammer anchor into hole
  Trim excess (if any)
  Drive appropriate fastener in
  The last step is both magic and hard work. Even with power tools. The interface is very tight. Driving the fastener generates a good bit of heat from the friction, and the fastener itself provides compression. Thus, the heat-softened anchor deforms and is forced into every nook and void in both the concrete and the fastener.
  It then cools/hardens quickly because the fastener acts as a heatsink, and is ready for some relatively ridiculous tensile force.
  Made in Holland, IIRC, and I can't remember the name of the company. I buy them from the local Ace Hardware store for way more money than they initially seem like they are worth.
  
  --
  Kid-proof tablet..
5. Re: Cool stuff by Xolotl · 2016-01-29 06:58 · Score: 1
  
  It seems to have href-ed itself by magic.
  Anyway, thanks for those, I'd been wondering (off the back of hanging stuff off a concrete wall) if something deformable like that existed.
Slashdot Top Deals by wonkey_monkey · 2016-01-29 02:38 · Score: 1

I've got ads disabled and yet - and this is the first time I've noticed it - there's a box under the story listing 6 "Slashdot Top Deals."
Is this new? Good start, new corporate overlords...
(and yes, I've got uBlock installed)

--
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
1. Re:Slashdot Top Deals by ledow · 2016-01-29 03:09 · Score: 1
  
  Been there since DICE takeover - I have the same, and the Disable Advertising donation apparently means nothing to them.
2. Re:Slashdot Top Deals by onepoint · 2016-01-29 03:11 · Score: 1
  
  I have ad's disabled and no real blocker to speak about.
  I don't have ad's
  on Crome
  
  --
  if you see me, smile and say hello.
Long-time Fischertechnik fan here ... by Ihlosi · 2016-01-29 03:42 · Score: 2

... long enough to still know the "old" electronics kit (which had a relay instead of transistor-based amplifiers), but sadly not old enough to know the logic blocks.
However, I managed to get my kids to like Fischertechnik. Unfortunately, the new kits are are somewhat casualized (pneumatics, for example, lacks mechanical valves, but at least they're shipping it with a small compressor now), but they're still far more technical than any of the tool-free alternatives. However, I'd really love to see a return of things like FT magnets, the notoriously fragile reed contact, the electromagnet (what better way to show kids the relationship betwen electricity and magnetism than a magnet that you can switch on and off), etc.
Rest in piece... by Longjmp · 2016-01-29 04:38 · Score: 1

Thanks for the laugh, Timmy!
Not because of the bad pun itself (it is mildly funny), but because of my somehow related comment from yesterday.,
especially this line:

Thinking of a clever remark to add to the quotes and fail: 5 hours
;-)

--
There are fewer illiterates than people who can't read.