The Inner Workings of See 'n Say

Almost every child in the U.S. has enjoyed the fun of a See 'n Say. These classic toys produce various sounds by pulling a string or, in newer versions, a lever.

Gallery of Toy Images

For example, when you aim the dial at the cow and pull the string, the toy announces, "The cow says Moo." See 'n Says have been a timeless favorite; they operate without batteries and are incredibly durable. I’ve witnessed these toys survive bathtub dunks, stair tumbles, and concrete drops—still functioning perfectly afterward!

Have you ever been curious about how these toys function? How do they produce sound without batteries, and how are 26 distinct phrases stored within? In this article, we’ll uncover the secrets behind the See 'n Say!

History

Thomas Edison is recognized for inventing the first device capable of recording and playing back sounds in 1877. His method employed a straightforward mechanism to mechanically store analog waves. In Edison’s original phonograph, a diaphragm directly manipulated a needle, which etched an analog signal onto a tinfoil cylinder.

To record, you spoke into Edison’s device while rotating the cylinder, and the needle etched your words onto the tin. As the diaphragm vibrated, so did the needle, imprinting those vibrations into the tin. For playback, the needle traced the groove created during recording. The vibrations embedded in the tin caused the needle to vibrate, making the diaphragm vibrate and reproduce the sound.

Emil Berliner enhanced this system in 1887, leading to the creation of the gramophone, another purely mechanical device utilizing a needle and diaphragm. The gramophone’s key advancement was the introduction of flat records with spiral grooves, simplifying the mass production of records.

Remarkably, the See 'n Say employs this very same gramophone technology, over a century later!

Inside a See 'n Say

At the core of a See 'n Say lies a plastic disk, resembling a gramophone record. This disk features embossed tracks, each containing the sound wave for one of the toy’s phrases. A standard See 'n Say stores between 10 and 26 sounds, all arranged in concentric tracks.

The edge of the disk reveals the starting points for each of these concentric tracks.

The process of sound reproduction is remarkably straightforward. A metal needle moves along one of the grooves, transferring the vibrations etched into the groove directly to a plastic cone speaker.

The needle is fixed within a T-shaped plastic piece. It captures the vibration patterns from the plastic disk and transfers them to the T-shaped piece, which then sends the vibrations to the cone via the red plastic tip. What you hear when the See 'n Say speaks is simply the mechanical vibrations of the plastic cone!

Pulling the cord lifts the needle and returns it to the disk's outer edge. This action also winds the brass spring, and the energy stored in the spring powers the disk's rotation to produce the sounds.

Another key component inside the See 'n Say is a finely crafted governor, which regulates the disk's rotation speed. In this image, you can observe a band wrapped around both the disk and the governor's shaft.

The governor consists of two spring-loaded weights, as illustrated in the following images:

If the disk spins too fast, the weights move outward, pressing against the cylinder's interior to slow the disk down. In a balanced state, the governor ensures the disk rotates at the perfect speed!

That’s all there is to it! A See 'n Say is incredibly simple: an embossed disk, a metal needle, and a plastic cone speaker combine to create sounds. The string winds the spring, the spring rotates the disk, and the governor prevents the disk from spinning too fast. This explains why the See 'n Say continues to function even after a bath.

Modern trends favor battery-powered toys with microprocessors for sound production (like the singing fish). Yet, the classic See 'n Say remains iconic, using 19th-century technology to create a nearly indestructible toy!