Tim's Amazing Magnets

Welcome to the Corona Virus Chronicles... Tim is now self-isolating, and presenting his videos directly from his apartment, via a web link.

Back in about 1990, when Tim attended the British Toy Fair, he met a couple who were selling an unusual magnet toy. Called Oscillating Magnets, from a small company called Maxnet, you got 5 magnets in a small container. Although they looked like regular bar magnets, in fact they had been magnetised so that one long surface was the north pole, and the facing surface was the south pole. This unusual way of being magnetised allows some strange tricks to be performed. One trick involves placing one magnet on a non slip surface, and then placing the other four magnets around the central one, at such a distance that each of the four magnets has one end suspended in the air. If you then tap one of the magnets, not only will it oscillate up and down, it will link to the other three magnets as well, so all four magnets will oscillate. Another arrangement involves one magnet lying flat on the table, and the other four magnets arranged in a line, each with one end magnetically suspended in the air. As before, if you tap one of the magnets to make it oscillate up and down, it causes all the magnets to move!

The second magnetic toy is called the Radiaculum. Made by a German company, Tim has a couple in his collection. However the company also had a one off giant version of the Radiaculum. Some years later, the company offered it to Tim. He could fit the metal base in his suitcase, but he decided he could manage the magnetic spiral - so Tim has the only one in the world!

Finally, a Japanese toy from 1990. It is a fortune telling toy. When you move your hands near, the motor inside springs to life, and the little dice inside jumps about. Once it stops, you look at the sign on the top, and then you pick the appropriate card, and read off your fortune. However all the text is in Japanese, so Tim's future remains clouded in mystery!!