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Author Topic: Hacker unusual starter 1936  (Read 1054 times)

ta0

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Hacker unusual starter 1936
« on: June 14, 2020, 06:22:08 PM »
The ultimate hacker top! Well, at least made by W. Hacker Manufacturing  :P :



It's rare that I find a top with a starting mechanism that is new to me, so when I saw this one on Lassanske's auctions I got very interested. I thought I was going to get it for the opening bid of $8 but ended up paying $22 as somebody else got the same idea. The launcher says Patent Pending so I looked for one. It took some searching but finally I got lucky and found US Pat. 1,034,293 by Wilhelm Hacker, issued March 17, 1936:



Here is a video of the top in action:



It can probably spin longer but I'm afraid of breaking the wooden stem if I press too hard.
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Jeremy McCreary

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Re: Hacker unusual starter 1936
« Reply #1 on: June 14, 2020, 08:28:08 PM »
Very cool! I love starters almost as much as tops. And I feel a LEGO knock-off coming on.
« Last Edit: June 14, 2020, 09:09:24 PM by Jeremy McCreary »
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Art is how we decorate space, music is how we decorate time ... and with spinning tops, we decorate both.
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Texture

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Re: Hacker unusual starter 1936
« Reply #2 on: June 14, 2020, 09:47:53 PM »
Nice! I saw a few of those somewhere, and I wondered how they work. I feel like you could get a really nice long spin from that mechanism.
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the Earl of Whirl

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Re: Hacker unusual starter 1936
« Reply #3 on: June 14, 2020, 10:27:27 PM »
Very interesting.  I did not think you were going to start it the way you did.  I thought it would spin around bars first.
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Happiness runs in a circular motion!!!

JODA9395

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Re: Hacker unusual starter 1936
« Reply #4 on: June 15, 2020, 02:09:31 AM »
Quote from: Jeremy McCreary on June 14, 2020, 08:28:08 PM
Very cool! I love starters almost as much as tops. And I feel a LEGO knock-off coming on.

Yes please! :D
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Texture

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Re: Hacker unusual starter 1936
« Reply #5 on: June 15, 2020, 08:22:30 AM »
 I just realized this is looks very similar to this:
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ta0

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Re: Hacker unusual starter 1936
« Reply #6 on: June 15, 2020, 10:02:16 AM »
Quote from: Texture on June 15, 2020, 08:22:30 AM
I just realized this is looks very similar to this:
That's why The Earl thought I was going to run it on the wire. Buy they work completely differently. We used to have a forum member who had invented like a hundred tricks in which he had the wheel jump out of the rail and do true spintop tricks, but unfortunately he seems to have deleted all the videos.

Quote from: Texture on June 14, 2020, 09:47:53 PM
Nice! I saw a few of those somewhere, and I wondered how they work. I feel like you could get a really nice long spin from that mechanism.
That's interesting. The only way these could have survived 85 years is as never sold stock. It would be a little miracle if such a top and launcher would have survived and kept together in a home all these years, even more so with the instructions sheet.
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JODA9395

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Re: Hacker unusual starter 1936
« Reply #7 on: June 15, 2020, 02:04:06 PM »
Let it rip! Haha ;D
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