| Who hasn't heard the old saying....back when | | | | In 1911, on one of his many train trips from |
| I was young? Times have changed and so have | | | | New Haven (his home) to New York City, he |
| the toys our children play with. Video games | | | | watched out the window as workers positioned |
| now dot the landscape with violence and | | | | and riveted the steel beams of an electrical |
| virtual worlds for our children to "enjoy". | | | | power line tower. He decided to create a |
| | | | children's construction kit, with evenly |
| But something else has changed with this new | | | | spaced holes for bolts to pass through and he |
| age, the availability of classic toys. With | | | | included nuts, pulleys, gears and eventually |
| the Internet, it is now possible to find the | | | | engines. Although a British company called |
| toys your grandfather or your father grew up | | | | Meccano was selling a similar toy, Gilbert |
| playing with. These toys never go out of | | | | thought his "erector set" would be more |
| style. Let's take a look at the history of | | | | realistic. His set had more technical |
| one of these toys: The Erector Set | | | | advantages, especially steel beams that were |
| | | | not flat, but were bent lengthwise to produce |
| A. C. Gilbert was a brilliant man. At the | | | | a ninety degree angle, thus, four of them |
| time of his death in 1962, he was credited | | | | joined together side-to-side, formed a |
| with 150 patents for the inventions that went | | | | sturdy, square support beam. |
| into his products. In fact, as a boy he was a | | | | |
| talented magician and it was that talent that | | | | Backed by the first major American |
| helped him pay his tuition to Yale Medical | | | | advertising campaign for a toy, Gilbert |
| School. While going to school and performing | | | | started selling the "Mysto Erector Structural |
| as a magician, he formed Mysto Manufacturing, | | | | Steel Builder" in 1913, (later to be called, |
| a company that sold magic kits to children. | | | | simply the "erector set") and the toy became |
| | | | one of the most popular construction toys of |
| Gilbert ultimately finished Yale Medical | | | | all time. It was not unusual for living rooms |
| School, but decided to enter the toy business | | | | across the country to be crowded with small |
| rather than practice medicine. He was a | | | | skyscrapers and buildings that young minds |
| gifted inventor and chose to entertain and | | | | had carefully crafted. It is estimated that |
| educate children. His most popular invention? | | | | the A. C. Gilbert Company has sold more than |
| The vintage construction toy-the erector set. | | | | 30 million sets. |
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