Spinning Your Wheels To Make A Wheel

Two and a half years ago, I wrote a post about a bicycle wheel that looked as if it could have been drawn with a Spirograph set.

 

If you're of my generation, you might have had one.  It consisted of toothed wheels and bars used to draw various kinds of roulette curves.  The drawings that came out of it looked like some "dream catchers", wind chimes, stained-glass windows--and, yes, bicycle wheels--you've seen.

I don't remember whether I (or my brothers and I) got the Spirograph or the Etch-a-Sketch first.  But, for a time, we had both--that is, until the screen broke on the Etch-a-Sketch. (I still miss it sometimes!) I don't know what happened to the Spirograph set, but as I recall, we had it for a long time.  If memory serves, my brothers were still using it when I went away to college.

As I mentioned in my earlier post, not only some bicycles and wheels, but various accessories and art installations made from them, look like they could have been drawn with one of my favorite toys.

Here is another:

The Wheels Of Change

One Christmas, I (or one of my brothers--or my brothers and I) got a Spirograph set.

If you're of a certain age, you might remember it.

A set consisted of interlocking wheels, bars and gears and pens. Using them resulted in some interesting shapes, patterns and designs--if, at times, inintentionally.

One of us came up with a design that looked something like this:

For years, I thought the rose windows in the great cathedrals of Europe were drawn with a toy my brothers and I fought over.

We came up with other designs that looked like various wheeled vehicles:

I wonder whether any bicycle builders drew their inspiration from one of our favorite childhood toys.

P.S.  Last year, Hasbro, the company that made the original Spirograph, made a new drawing kit with the same name.  Sadly,that is about the only thing it and the original have in common.