Retro Gadget: The Spitz Junior Planetarium: Galactic Emporium

Gadget lovers live by the credo “the only difference between a man and a boy is the price of his toy.” The guy with a Porsche or Lamborghini in the garage probably grew up in a bedroom filled with Matchbox and Hot Wheels. Proud parents still hope a home fingerprint kit under the Christmas tree will lead to a stable career in C.S.I. Baby boomers arguably had even better options in growing up fast playthings before political correctness made outlaws of toy tommy gun buyers and the CPSC put the kibosh on kiddie chemistry sets.

A favorite from my own upbringing was The Spitz Junior Planetarium that first appeared in 1954. The Spitz name referred not to the ’72 Olympic swim champ, but Armand N. Spitz, a Philadelphia native famous for the invention of the Spitz Model A planetarium, which significantly lowered the cost of projecting stars on the ceiling. At a demonstration of his new Model B planetarium, Mr. Spitz was approached by Tom Liversidge of the Harmonic Reed company, then in the toy musical instrument business. Tom pitched Armand on his idea for a toy version and the Spitz Jr. Planetarium was born.

The design was fairly simple: a light bulb inside a black ball dotted with holes mounted on a rod and base stand. The lamp had a rheostat dimmer control and the ball assembly could tilt and rotate for a more accurate projection. The difficulty was in the manufacturing process; finding a method to punch 300+ holes in a plastic (Tenite, to be precise) hemisphere. Eventually, the bugs were worked out and Harmonic Reed produced more than one million units over a twenty year period at the 1954 price tag of $14.95, over $100 in today’s money.

The original base stand was molded to resemble the exterior of a typical dome observatory. Later models modified the shape to include a detachable light wand powered through an auxiliary cable to use as a pointer for living room lectures. The wand could also be fitted with slides of constellations, planets, and eclipses to project with the stars. All versions came complete with a handy companion book written by Spitz and a really cool box as well.

Harmonic Reed later produced a series of other amateur astronomy products and toys. The Sky Zoo projected silhouettes of 35 mythological creatures on the ceiling and the No. 1 Astronomy Set, basically the constellation projector wand as a stand-alone toy. The company also produced a small number of Nova III planetarium projectors for high school and college level classes at a cost of $600. A Nova 100 model for grade schools existed in prototype only.

Harmonic Reed is no longer in business, but Spitz Inc is today a leader in the field with more than 1,200 planetarium installations worldwide. There are a number of other astronomy toys on the market, but none as simple ands cool as the original Spitz Jr. valued on eBay for around $50 if you can find it listed. The true value of this amazing toy can be truly found in the words of Mr. Spitz commenting on his legacy:

I never expected to make any substantial contribution to astronomy or science, but what greater satisfaction can I have than to have one very famous astronomer tell me that he gained his first interest in astronomy through viewing a Spitz planetarium when he was a small boy. I can only hope that in whatever celestial book-keeping there is I will be given indirect credit for helping along the knowledge of the heavens.

Posted by Mark DeCew