The Museum of Interesting Things is crammed into every inch of the ninth-floor New York City apartment of Denny Daniel, the sprite-like curator of an eclectic collection of inventions, toys, and gadgets.
Daniel had a magician-like patter for each item he showed me: the cylindrical Edison phonograph, the mutoscope, and the hidden camera inside a silver pocketwatch that was used by boxing reporters to take forbidden ringside photos. These inventions were the predecessors of devices and toys we use today, and Daniel wants the current generation to see that inventions don’t come out of the blue.
On a table in his living room sat open a large red Erector Set, a construction toy I remember getting in the 1960s. Daniel’s set was older and well worn. The manual said the Erector Set was “Developed at the Gilbert Hall of Science.” I realized how little I knew about this toy from my childhood.
A 1950 Erector Set: “The World’s Greatest Toy.”
Located in midtown Manhattan, the Gilbert Hall of Science was a multi-story museum created in 1941 by the Erector Set’s inventor, A.C. Gilbert, to showcase educational toys. Gilbert was born in Salem, Ore., and went East to get a Yale medical degree that he never used. He said he was interested in three things: "athletics, sleight-of-hand, and scientific experiments" and those interests would define him. He won the pole vault in the 1908 Olympics, having invented the box that catches the pole on the ground (before then, it had a spike at the end).
Gilbert’s first business was making Mysto Magic kits. It was barely profitable, but while making train trips from New Haven, Conn., to New York, he was inspired by the steel-girder construction of bridges and skyscrapers to create a new kind of educational toy. He produced the first Erector Set in 1913, the year the classic The Boy Mechanic books debuted from Popular Mechanics. It was an immediate success, the right product at the right time.
Each Erector Set box was filled with steel girders, wheels, pulleys, and in larger sets, a battery-powered motor that brought the models to life. Different sets, numbered from 0 to 8, provided the parts for making specific models such as a train bridge or Ferris wheel. In the 1920s, the #8 Erector Set cost $70 and weighed a staggering 150 pounds; it included all the parts for building a 5-foot zeppelin.
Gilbert saw the Erector Set as an ideal toy for the ideal boy, which he defined as competitive, clever, and curious, like himself. His biographer Bruce Watson argues that Gilbert didn’t just invent educational toys, he transformed the popular image of the American boy from problem child to problem solver, from delinquent to constructive contributor.
Perhaps the first to create advertising that spoke directly to young people, Gilbert’s ads opened with his characteristic “Hello Boys.” His slogans for the Erector Set included “Young Boy’s Paradise,” “1000 Toys in 1,” and "The World’s Greatest Toy."
Gilbert believed children will educate themselves if you give them the right tools — an idea shared more recently by technologists like Seymour Papert of MIT. In an age when most learning was rote memorization, Gilbert saw the importance of creative play and exploration. He made learning fun.
From 1913 to 1966, 30 million Erector Sets were sold. The toy’s popularity spanned the technological era from the Model T and electrification to the age of aerospace, and it evolved to keep pace with these developments. It reflected the can-do spirit of the American Century, a society that was rapidly gaining new abilities to solve problems and do ambitious projects thanks to science and technology. The Erector Set was an invitation for any boy to participate in that future.
Erector’s decline followed Gilbert’s death in 1961, and the A.C. Gilbert company went bankrupt in 1967. The brand was bought by Meccano, an English company whose comparable construction kits grew in parallel to Erector. Lego became the educational construction toy for the video game generation, and today, Gilbert’s image of the American boy seems almost corny, like a Normal Rockwell painting. Still, we recognize him in ourselves and in our kids.
What will be the Erector Set of the 21st century? What construction systems will reflect the methods and personalities of a more diverse group of builders that includes girls and a more global perspective?
Maybe we’re already seeing key components in Arduino, MakerBot, and Kinect, all of which represent new ideas about how to build things and interact with them. Perhaps a new generation will build custom construction sets, as does architect Marc Fornes, designing and cutting pieces to order. I see Maker Faire and MAKE as successors to the Gilbert Hall of Science, inviting kids to build a future for themselves.
-Dale DoughertyConstruction Sets for the American Century
The Erector Set, Tinkertoys, and Lincoln Logs were all introduced in the 1910s, creating a triad of constructions sets that would become dominant toys for many American generations. Meccano, an English-made construction set of metal parts, was developed around 1901 and was introduced into America in 1903 (Meccano owns the Erector product line today). LEGO from Denmark was developed around 1949, initiating a wave of sets made from plastic components that came to dominate the latter half of the 20th Century.
| Toy | Year | Materials | Inventor | Trivia | Status |
| Erector Set | 1911-13 | All metal parts, except during WWII when they were made of wood because of a wartime ban on use of metals. | A. C. Gilbert, creator of magic kits, made them in the Erector Factory in New Haven CT. | The sets were numbered from 0 to 8, with the higher number indicating more parts. | In 1967, the company went bankrupt. The brand is owned by Meccano. |
| Tinkertoy | 1914 | Inspired by wooden spools, The Tinkertoy Construction Set contained all wood parts until 1992. | A stonemason, Charles H. Pajeau, made the first sets in his garage in Evanston, Illinois. | The original sets, which sold for 60 cents, came in a cardboard tube that was suitable for shipping. | Hasbro owns the product line today, making classic and plastic versions. |
| Lincoln Logs | 1916-18 | Made of wood until the 1970’s when the product made an ill-advised switch to plastic. | John L. Wright, son of architect Frank Lloyd Wright. | Lincoln Logs were named after the inventor’s father, whose given middle name was Lincoln, which he dropped as an adult in favor of Lloyd. | Sold by the Knex company. Lincoln Log homes are popular in rural America. |
The packaged kits are great and a great place to start but manipulating and repurposing found objects and materials is an important follow on. Which is what makes MAKE work so well.
I appreciate that you took the time to contemplate the future. While reading, I couldn’t help but contemplate what today’s modern day Erector Set equivalent would. I agree that Arduino and MakerBot have made programming, mechanical design, and creativity accessible. Perhaps a bit more work on making these products more accessible to the everyday family could create a new surge in motivating American ingenuity. Sadly however, a cultural adaptation to realizing the importance and fun in these products needs to occur before.
P.S. I’ll admit it. Being of the video game generation, I still buy Legos!
Erector is not dead! Just bought my son’s first Erector Set at TARGET of all places, a cool one (though a metal case would be so much cooler than plastic): http://www.amazon.com/Erector-Motorized-Racing-Car-More/dp/B000GOF5S2
So many options, 25 builds for $75 instead of 1 Lego build for $150.
WoW. Memories. When my dad gave me his big number erector set in metal box, I was about 12yrs old I went crazy building things. In 1973, toys were not the same as ones from 1950. It was special. My first piece was assembling the two big flat plates. I filled each hole with a bolt, took a long time and probably 48 bolts. When I proudly displayed my accomplishment to him, which weighed about a half pound with the brass bolts, Dad said you could’ve got the job done with two bolts. OMG, the building lessons took off from there. It beats SimCity, especially combined with Hotwheels, LEGOs, and wood blocks. Fun stuff!
Having had all three, Erector sets, Tinker Toys and Lincoln Logs, I never new there was so much history behind the toys. I was a playing with mine in the early sixties but who knew these were toys my grandfather could have played with. Erectors were great, but the nuts and bolts ended up everywhere, Tinker Toys were often hard to assemble or disassemble, and Lincoln Logs, you never seemed to have the right part. However, I could waste away a day playing with them! (Then and now!)
These truly were toys to bring out the future engineer in all of us and the experience has been shared by myself and my six boys.We too have moved on to the more technical mysteries of computers, programming and other high end toys, but in the end, are we still not tinkering with the toys and imaginations born years ago?
It doesn’t beat Meccano, invented in 1901 in England by Frank Hornby! See Wikepedia for full details. The current “Erector Sets” are re-badged Meccano.
Yes, we have one of these sets here and it does indeed say Meccano on it.
The part designs are identical to the original Meccano sets of my childhood.
Interesting article. I heard a doctor lecture on IQ and quoted a study that showed that manipulating real world 3-D objects correlates with higher IQ’s. Makes sense to me. When you have parts and ways to join them together, your brain says, “what can I do with these?”
And let’s not forget the old Fisher Technic construction sets which were imported into the US from Germany in the late 60′s to early 70′s. Those were plastic versions of the erector set. I think my sets are still somewhere in my folk’s basement.
Capsela kits are way better.
I had an electric motor Erector Set and loved it!
Guess that’s part of the problem of current day kids – no challange!
I was always a big fan of Kenner’s Girders and Panel sets. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girder_and_Panel_building_sets
But my favorite was the Kenner Mold Master. A toy that taught you about injection molding with melted plastic. And recycling. After you scuffed up or broke the toys you made (in my case army men, tanks, trucks, and rockets), you tossed them back into the Mold Master to be remelted and remolded into new toys.
Yeah, the Girder and Panel sets were awesome. The girder pieces were good projectile weapons too.
He didn’t invent this, it’s just a copy of Meccano… oh and by the way Edison didn’t invent the light bulb either!
In age of 8 I got a set of Tecno Meccano and my father used an evening to build the prescripted portal crane – it was boring! Next day I dismantled it and started my own constructions. Last use (age 16-25) I was using the parts together with the roller from a typewriter and a kitchen ventilator to drive a ball mill for black powder and ceramic colors. My sons shows not much interest – and we all 3 get butter on bread by IT / Chemical Engineer DK age 66.
hi!!!