Artur Fischer was born in Tumlingen, Germany. He was the sun of the village tailor. Fischer’s mother, Pauline, ironed collars for extra money. She recognized Fischer’s mechanical aptitude and encouraged him as much as possible, by helping him set up a workbench at home and buying him the German equivalent of an Erector Set.
During World War II, Fischer worked as an aircraft mechanic and survived the Battle of Stalingrad, departing on the last plane. Later in the war, he was captured in Italy and sent to a POW camp in England. After returning to his hometown in 1946, Fischer found work as an assistant at an engineering company and began making lighters and loom switches out of military scrap. In 1948, Fischer founded his own company, the Fischer Group.
Fischer was challenged by his inability to take well-lit indoor photographs of his young daughter. He decided to synchronize an electronic flash with the camera shutter, inventing synchronized flash light photography in the process. His invention was purchased by the camera company Agfa.
Fischer also famously invented the grey expanding “S Plug” or Split-Wallplug made from polyamide to hold screws in wall material that is porous or brittle and that would otherwise not support the weight of the object attached with the screw, such as masonry walls. The Split Wallplug is a tapered tube that is inserted loosely into a drilled hole. As a screw is tightened into the center of the plug, the soft material of the plug expands, conforming tightly to the wall material. Fischer’s Wallplug was the first wallplug to be suitable for all wall types, and has become the most produced and sold wall plug worldwide.
Fischer also invented bone plugs for fixing bone fractures. More recently, he also invented a gadget to hold and cut the top off an egg of any size. A hotel owner complained to Fischer that his guests, on opening their boiled eggs for breakfast, always made a mess.
Fischer also invented the Fischertechnik kit, an electrical model set used by German children and hobbyists to create machines and robots. Fischer started giving the kits as Christmas gifts to clients in 1964, then brought them to market when they proved to be a hit.
All told, Fischer was granted over 1100 patents during his lifetime, surpassing Thomas Edison’s previous record of 1093 patents.
Fischer died in 2016, three years after his wife of almost 60 years. Together they had a son and a daughter.
“What Bill Gates was to the personal computer, Artur Fischer is to do-it-yourself home repair,” German magazine Der Spiegel said a year after Fischer won the prestigious European Inventor Award, a lifetime achievement prize from the European Patent Office.