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Rocking Horse
For 4,000 years, the domesticated horse has been a faithful servant to warriors, farmers, travelers, and freighters. Down through the centuries, the horse has inspired likenesses and toys of many forms for children's play. As wealthy Europeans began using horses for leisure activities in the 16th century, wooden rocking horses began appearing in the nurseries of their children.
Rocking horses aren't hard to make. They are only slightly more difficult to build than the stick horses-"hobby horses"-that older children hop along on during gleeful pantomime. The first wooden rocking horses looked like cradles, adapting a cradle's form so that toddlers could begin to entertain themselves. Fathers and grandfathers with spare time and carpentry skills sawed and joined two upright, solid boards (the curved base of each formed the rocker) with a horizontal seat topped by a horse's head. By the 18th century, the solid rockers gave way to lighter products as elegantly carved legs attached to long, narrow bows. In the next century, mass production made sleek rocking horses available to a growing number of middle-class children. By Victorian times, the rocking horse we know today became a fixture of childhood. The new materials of the 20th century and safety concerns changed the appearance of the rocking horse. But nothing has changed children's appreciation for the hypnotic motion, the illusion of speed, and the fantasy of conquering worlds one can feel only on top a noble steed.
Roller Skates
The first roller skates had a big problem: they were impossible to turn. In 1863, however, New York businessman James Plimpton developed skates with four wheels that turned easily. Skating took off in all directions. Numerous companies developed clamp-on skates to fit on almost any pair of shoes. By the late 1870s, most towns boasted skating rinks with hard wooden floors. For a small admission price, men, women, and children raced, played games, and even danced on skates. In the early 20th century, massive skating rinks that accommodated thousands of visitors at a time opened in Chicago and New York. In the 1950s, the baby boom generation made roller-skating a popular suburban pastime. Twenty years later, disco music fueled the second great wave of roller-skating mania, as thousands of roller-discos opened across the country. In 1979, skates themselves underwent a hallmark design transformation. Scott Olsen, a hockey player by trade, lined up the skate wheels under a hard boot and called it a Rollerblade. An intense demonstration and promotional campaign transformed skating overnight, as the new, fast, agile, and comfortable skates quickly dominated the industry.
Scrabble®
During the Great Depression, architect Alfred M. Butts had time on his hands and play on his mind. He devised a game of 100 lettered tiles used to form words on a square grid that looked like a crossword puzzle. Each letter carried a numerical value, and players scored points by tallying up the values of the letters in the words they laid down.
Butts was a better game creator than marketer. He called his game Lexiko, then Criss-Cross Words; but the names did little for sales. By 1948, Butts sold rights to James Brunot who refined the rules, changed the design, and offered another new name: Scrabble. Early sales were slow, but word of mouth created devotees. By 1954, when Selchow & Righter took over production, sales topped 4.5 million. The game's popularity hasn't flagged: present owner Hasbro, Inc. sells 2 million copies annually in the United States, millions more internationally.
Sales figures tell one story, but Scrabble's value doubles and triples when players rack their brains and stretch their vocabularies. Scrabble, little changed from its original form, proves that the best games let players play pleasantly, learn unconsciously, and socialize easily.