Figure 1.--This American boy appears quite pleased with his creation. He looks to be about 13-14 years old. The photograph was undated, but was probably taken about 1915.
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Figure 1.--This American boy appears quite pleased with his creation. He looks to be about 13-14 years old. The photograph was undated, but was probably taken about 1915. |
I'm not sure just when the first Erector Sets and chemistry sets appeared, but it was probably sometime after the turn of the century. Almost always the child involved will be a boy. Erector Sets were the serious child architect's version of tinkertoys. They contained metal girders, nuts, bolts, belts and pulleys... and even an electric motor to run the ferris wheel model! They were also popular in Britain where they were called Meccano Sets. Meccano was made in Liverpool by Frank Hornby, who also made clockwork, and later electric, model trains. Meccano consisted of perforated metal parts, which you could bolt together along with gear wheels, pulleys, and cranks, to make engineering models. There can't be a British man over 40 who didn't assemble a crane out of Meccano... and then immediately wonder what to do with it. We notice them in the British domninions as well. An Australian reader tells us, "I got a nice Meccano set for Christmas in 1973 and I absolutely adored it too."
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