What are those things that have a series of peaks and troughs moulded into plastic that when rubbed ...?

Question

against a diaphram will produce the sound that those peaks and troughs represent? A linear version of a vinyl record basically

yes, that's what I was thinking of beau nidle...

Answer 1

We used to have those when I was a kid. They looked like a long piece of thin plastic - much like a Ty-Wrap cable tie - with serrated plastic teeth all the way down. When you ran your thumb nail down the entire thing you could hear whatever was 'recorded' onto it quite clearly. The used to be given away free in cereal boxes back in the 70's. We had Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Action Man ones. They used a kind of pulse width modulation, the 'peaks' were always the same height but spaced at varying distances. They were quite common for a while but I haven't seen one for a long time. I think they were called "Talking .... somethings", sorry can't be more helpfull.

Answer 2

Don't know, but I do remember a birthday card that opened out to form a box with a piece of plastic tape hanging out of it and when you ran the tape through your fingers with your nail touching the tape , it said quite clearly"Happy Birthday to You" And this was in the olden days before tape recorders. Is that the sort of thing you have in mind?

Answer 3

a plastic prick of some sort??

Answer 4

is it the new version of the madonna bra??????