National Semiconductor Quiz Kid Electronic Game
date: label: date made
content: 1975-1981
name: label: maker
content: National Semiconductor Corporation
notes: label: Description
content: This electronic game tests children on the basic operations of arithmetic. It has an off-white plastic case, and a paper sticker attached under the keyboard and display. The sticker is decorated with a drawing of an owl. The device has eighteen rectangular plastic keys. These include ten digit keys, a decimal point key, a clear key, four function keys, a total key and a question mark key. The on/off switch is at the center of the top row of keys. The display consists of two lights that serve as eyes for the owl, one green and the other red.
label: Description
content: Children playing the game entered both a problem and their answer to it. If the answer was correct, the green light flashed reinforcement. If not, the red eye lit up.
label: Description
content: A mark at the back of the sticker reads: National Semiconductor (/) Quiz Kid (/) Pat Pending. A socket for a power adapter is on the left side.
label: Description
content: The back has a compartment for a battery. Text at the bottom of the back reads: MADE IN HONG KONG.
label: Description
content: According to a trademark registration filed by National Semiconductor Corporation in September 1977 and registered August 14, 1979, the company first used the term Quiz Kid in commerce in April 1975. It was introduced at the Consumer Electronics Show held in Chicago in June 1975. The company sold a similar toy in its Novus line of calculators as the Novus Quiz Kid. An advertisement published in <I>The New York Times</I> just before Christmas in 1975 proclaimed “the Novus ‘Quiz Kid’ might just make a Whiz Kid out of Jr.” The toy sold for $15. An article from May 1976 indicated that by then roughly 600,000 of the toys had been shipped. Advertisements for the toy appeared at least as late as 1981.
label: Description
content: Compare the Little Professor made by Texas Instruments (see 1986.0988.197), as well as the Whiz Kid (1986.0988.307), the Quiz Kid Speller (1986.0988.235) and the Quiz Kid Racer (1988.0988.236).
label: Description
content: References:
label: Description
content: “Calculators Go to Grade School,” <I>Chicago Tribune</I>, June 7, 1975, p. N A7.
label: Description
content: [Advertisement], <I>New York Times</I>, December 23, 1975, p. 4.
label: Description
content: Nathaniel C. Nash, “Calculated Gadgetry,” <I>New York Times</I>, May 23, 1976, p. F3.
label: Description
content: [Advertisement], <I>Los Angeles Times</I>, August 8, 1980, p. P17. This sale advertised the toy as selling for $5.88 with a regular price of $8.99.
label: Description
content: [Advertisement], <I>Los Angeles Times</I>, July 29, 1981, p. A20. This ad gave a sale price of $4.97 and a regular price of $8.99.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: China: Hong Kong
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Computers
label: See more items in
content: Computers & Business Machines
label: See more items in
content: Handheld Electronic Calculators
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of John B. Priser
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1986.0988.237
label: catalog number
content: 1986.0988.237
label: accession number
content: 1986.0988
objectType: label: Object Name
content: electronic calculator
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: plastic (case; keys material)
label: Physical Description
content: metal (circuitry material)
label: Physical Description
content: paper (sticker material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 1 in x 2 3/4 in x 5 in; 2.54 cm x 6.985 cm x 12.7 cm