Charles Martin Crandall
| Charles Martin Crandall | |
|---|---|
| Born |
May 30, 1833 Montrose, Pennsylvania |
| Died | June 25, 1905 (aged 72) Waverly, New York |
| Burial place | Montrose, Pennsylvania |
| Occupation | Inventor and toy-maker |
| Spouse(s) | Susan Elizabeth Kress |
| Children | Fred, Benjamin, Jesse, Fanny Crandall |
| Parent(s) | Asa Crandall Matilda Saunders |
| Relatives | Jesse Armour Crandall |
Charles Martin Crandall (May 30, 1833 – Jun 25, 1905) was an American inventor and toy-maker. He was best known for various toy blocks, "Crandall's Acrobats", "Noah's Dominoes", "Illuminated Pictorial Alphabet", "District School", "Menagerie", "Pigs in Clover" game and numerous other games and wooden toys such as wooden trains with interconnecting cars. Crandall began working in his father's woodworking and furniture factory in Covington, Pennsylvania and at the age of twelve began inventing toys. When his father died in 1849, Crandall took over the factory at age sixteen.
By 1866 Crandall moved the company to Montrose, Pennsylvania and was into the manufacturing of croquet sets. He experimented with fastening the corners of boxes by using grooves and tongues instead of nailing. As his sons were convalesing from scarlet fever, he took some pieces home and his children built various structures such as a house, bridge and fence from them. His children's physician saw the blocks and ordered some. As Crandall would later say, this "was the first sale of the famous Crandall's Building Blocks." In order to sell the blocks, rather than go to jobbers or dealers, Crandall went to P.T. Barnum. Mr. Barnum was so impressed that he gave them a place in his museum for several weeks. Sales of that product amounted to about $10,000 ($171 thousand today). The following year sales tripled. Later Crandall entered into a contract with Orange Judd and Company naming them sales agents for his blocks.
Other block designs included:
By adopting from his interlocking blocks, Crandall hit upon the idea of joining body parts such as arms and legs and fitting them onto horses or trapezes. The American Agriculturist (owned by Orange Judd and Co.) in its November 1874 issue advertised "The manufacturers are now making and selling 1500 boxes a day". By 1875, Crandall's factory building had grown to three stories. Crandall's Menagarie toy had a similar concept which incorporated a zebra, camel, giraffe, toucan and monkey holding a US flag all atop an elephant.
In 1885, financed by industrialist Moses Lyman, Crandall moved to Waverly, New York and started the Waverly Toy Works. The factory in Montrose then was managed by Fred W. Crandall, one of Charles' sons. The factory burned in August 1886 and was relocated in January 1887 to Elkland, Pennsylvania where it was reported to have a staff from between sixty and seven-five employees. Although Lyman was listed as proprietor and Crandall as general manager of the Waverly firm, Crandall was the genius behind its success as was soon to be seen.
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