Arpe Gladys Indjian may have invented the closest thing yet to the goose that lays the golden egg.

The invention is a toy chicken that lays eggs — not literally golden ones but the jelly-bean type.

Yet Mrs. Indjian— her friends call her Arpe or just plain Arp — is open-minded enough to hope that someone will buy the rights to the recently patented creation and it will end up as sort of an Eastertime hula hoop, the craze of kiddies the world over.

Right now, though, Mrs. Indjian insists she’s not counting any eggs before they hatch.

She received the patent May 9, nearly three years after she applied for it. Now she’s waiting for a buyer before putting any stock in visions of wealth.

There hasn’t been a prototype build of the egg-laying fowl, so its appearance is really undefined. “It could be cheap and plastic, or large with all sorts of soft feathers,” the 25 Arlington St. inventor says.

The concept and inner design of the prolific chicken is more definitely determined. A mere pull by the child owner on the hen’s tail, and a hidden trap door would slide open and reward the youngster with a dropped egg.

To display her pride in motherhood, the fowl would be equipped with a voice box and, while delivering the egg, would let out an appropriate cackle.

Mrs. Indjian, lover of children and a traditionalist about the paschal season, envisions the toy as a creative plaything:

“Many of the toy animals now on the market are of the passive type, since they usually do not have any action associated therewith,” she wrote to the patent people.

She says the egg-laying hen would “aid in teaching the child coordination” and “aid the child’s learning process.”

Mrs. Indjian, a Springfield native who has lived here since the age of 4, can’t really explain how the idea of the toy came to her.

“Sometimes when I can’t sleep I think of all sorts of inventions,” she says. “I have what you call a photographic mind, and I get a complete mental picture.”

She says she’s currently working on something that’s even better than the mother hen, but she’s not ready to divulge the secret.

This Story in History is selected from the archives by Jeannie Maschino, The Berkshire Eagle.

Jeannie Maschino is community news editor and librarian for The Berkshire Eagle. She has worked for the newspaper in various capacities since 1982 and joined the newsroom in 1989.

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