Refrigerator Magnet Information

A refrigerator magnet is an ornament, often whimsical, attached to a small magnet which is used to post items such as shopping lists or report cards on a refrigerator, or which simply serves as decoration. Refrigerator magnets come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes, including but not limited to images die-cut to a specific shape or tiny plastic sculptures of fruits. Refrigerator magnets are a relatively popular object of collectors.

Fridge magnets can be used to hold reminders, or be a reminder in themselves. Fridge magnets are often used as a collectors item.

The first refrigerator magnet patent was obtained by William Zimmerman of St. Louis, Missouri, in the early 1970s.^{[citation needed]} Zimmerman patented the idea of small, colored, cartoon magnets to be used for decorative display and convenience.

Manufacture

A paramagnetic compound (usually ferric oxide) is mixed with a plastic binder and then extruded into a sheet. It passes on a conveyor belt over a line of high-permeability cylindrical permanent magnets. These magnets are arranged in an alternating (<><><><>...) stack on a freely rotating shaft. This impresses the low-permeability plastic sheet with the magnetic poles in an alternating line format. Note that no electromagnetism is used. The pole-pole distance is on the order of 5mm, but varies with manufacturer. A refrigerator magnet will be neutralized ("erased") by passing it over a strong magnet (such as from a hard drive).

Magnetic polarization

Unlike most conventional magnets that have distinct north and south poles, flat refrigerator magnets made from composite materials are often constructed with alternating north and south poles on the same surface of the plane; this can be felt by taking two similar (or identical) refrigerator magnets and sliding them against each other with the "magnetic" sides facing each other: the magnets will alternately repel and attract as they are moved a few millimeters. This construction gives twice the magnetism on one side and is thus more effective at keeping the large planar magnet uniformly stuck onto the steel refrigerator than a uniformly-polarized magnet would be. It is also responsible for making the front of the magnet (the picture side) nearly non-magnetic. The technical term for this arrangement is Halbach array.

Impact of refrigerator magnets

The impact of fridge magnets is widespread throughout the world. More than 80% of all households in developed nations have magnets on their fridge, for both utility and purely decorative purposes. A refrigerator magnet's lifespan is typically between 5–10 years. The number of times a refrigerator door is viewed in an average household per day is 40, meaning that each magnet makes approximately 14,600 impressions per year.^[1]

Special purpose refrigerator magnets

Sets containing magnets in the shape of the letters of the alphabet have been manufactured since at least the 1960s, and marketed as an educational production for young children. In the 1990s, sets of very small magnets printed with individual words became popular; these sets are used to create impromptu magnetic poetry. Relatively strong magnets with hooks are produced for the purpose of hanging oven mitts or keys. Magnets that serve as a picture frame are also fairly common. Magnets with notepads or dry erase boards are occasionally produced.

Collecting magnets as a hobby

Collecting magnets, such as city and county magnets from all around the world, became a popular hobby, as also collecting of many other memorabilia. Many people are bringing refrigerator magnets from cities, sights, places and countries they've been to, because such magnets are popular and inexpensive touristic souvenirs.

Though there is no official term (like numismatics) for collecting magnets, but with a growing interest to this subject there is some approach by collectors to find a proper term. For instance, a Russian collector proposes a term memomagnetics (Russian: мемомагнетика), derived from words memoriale (lat.) and magnetis (gr.)^[2] Then a collector of magnets would be called memomagnetist. These terms were accepted by the biggest Russian online community for magnet collectors.^[3]

World record

The largest collection of refrigerator magnets belongs to Louise J. Greenfarb also known as The Magnet Lady,^[4] from Henderson, Nevada (suburb of Las Vegas, USA). Her world record was included to the Guinness World Records with 19,300 items as of 1997.^[5] According to the British "Book of alternative records", it grew to 29,000 as of February 2002, and later up to over 30,000 items.^[6] Over 7,000 magnets from Greenfarb's collection are exhibited at the Guinness Museum in Las Vegas.^[7]

In January 1999, Tony Lloyd, a teacher in Cardiff, Wales, was interviewed by the Channel 4 Television programme Collector's Lot when it was ascertained that he had largest collection of fridge magnets in Europe at that time, over 2000.^[8] As of September 2010, he had a collection of over 3,600.

References

1. ^ Refrigerator Magnet Statistics
2. ^ Web site of collector Dmitry Balashov from Moscow, Russia
3. ^ Community of magnet collectors in LiveJournal (in Russian)
4. ^ Website of Louise Greenfarb
5. ^ Green Valley woman attracted to collecting refrigerator magnets, Las Vegas Review-Journal, 08.07.1997
6. ^ Refrigerator magnets - Current world record, alternativerecords.co.uk
7. ^ Interesting Refrigerator Facts
8. ^ Collectors' Lot UK Channel 4 Television - March 23, 1999

External links

• Refrigerator Magnets at the Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (University of Wisconsin-Madison) explains how refrigerator magnets stick by means of nanoscale properties of strontium ferrite in Hypalon.
• www.fridgemagnetscommunity.eu
• Magnetic Alphabet Letters Games to aid child development using magnetic letters and numbers.
• Fridge Magnets Photos Photos of refrigerator magnets from around the world.

Categories: Decorative arts | Types of magnets | Collecting

Related 'Refrigerator Magnet' Searches:

See Also:

• King Magnetic
• Magnetic
• Magnetic Resonance Imaging