Spirograph is a toy device used to draw geometric shapes like hypotrochoids and epitrochoids that had its origins in business applications. In 1827, English architect and engineer Peter Hubert Desvignes developed the Speiragraph to produce fancy spiral artwork. Later while working in Vienna, he created a machine to prevent banknote forgeries by creating complex roulette patterns to make forgeries difficult.

His work was followed by that of mathematician Bruno Abakanowicz who invented a spirograph for calculating the area delimited by curves. Its usage as a toy was introduced in 1908 as the Marvelous Wondergraph.

British engineer Denys Fisher developed the Spirograph toy in the early ’60s by making drawing machines with Meccano pieces. He exhibited the toy at the Nuremberg International Toy Fair in ’65, began producing it under his company, and Kenner started distributing it in the US in ’66.

The original US version consisted of two different sized plastic rings with gear teeth on the inside and outside circumferences and several gearwheels. Shapes were made when the rings were held in place and a ballpoint pen was used to spin the gearwheels to create geometric shapes. In subsequent toy releases, the Super-Spirograph had new rings, triangles, and bars. Sets also included multicolored pens, giving the variety of designs even more pazazz.

The Spirograph was a regular production for years, then it was relaunched by Kahootz Toys in 2013.