Slashdot Mirror
German Inventor, Innovator and Businessman Artur Fischer Dies At Age of 96
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?
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.
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
Doesn't everybody want whirled peas?
-- Karl --
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.
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.
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.