Lectron

Lectron was a modular electronic experimentation kit designed to introduce youth to basic electronic circuits and theory.

The Lectron kit consisted of electronic components installed within individual "building blocks" with a clear plastic base, an opaque white top with the component's schematic symbol and permanent magnets attached to the leads of the enclosed components. Each building block was magnetically attached to a metal plate serving both as a work surface and ground, eliminating the need for soldering, spring terminals or a breadboard. This gave the benefit of safety as well as the ability to rearrange the blocks to determine the effect on the circuit.

The instruction manual gave instruction on the proper arrangement of the blocks as well as the function of each individual component's contribution to the final circuit. Experiments began with simple circuits such as a basic electric lamp circuit with switch and worked its way to a three-transistor radio with loudspeaker.

The Raytheon models have not been officially sold in the US since 1969. The Lectron product is still being manufactured in Frankfurt, Germany and is available for sale with shipping world wide. However, all the manuals are in German, with no plans for translation into English or any other language.

The Lectron electronic blocks system and product was the exclusive and unique invention of Georg Greger in the early 1960s. He applied for a patent of his Electronik-baukasten (electronic building blocks) on May 7, 1965. He was issued a German patent #1228081 on May 18, 1967, and the American patent #3,447,249 was issued on June 3, 1969. The American patent filing of May 5, 1966 is particularly interesting because it includes additional drawings (e.g. the speaker and deluxe base plate) which the German patent did not have. There is also quite a bit more detail on how everything works.

The Lectron was introduced in the German market by model train manufacturer Egger-Bahn. In 1967 Egger Bahn dissolved, and the Lectron product was moved to Deutsche Lectron GmbH, which became the sole manufacturer until 1972. Deutsche Lectron GmbH licensed the system worldwide to Braun, except for North America. In the United States, the Macalaster Scientific subsidiary of Raytheon became the licensee.

...
Wikipedia