Meccano
.jpg){kind=logo} |
|
| Type | Construction set |
|---|---|
| Inventor | Frank Hornby |
| Company | Spin Master |
| Country | Canada, France, United Kingdom |
| Availability | 1901–present |
| Official website | |
Meccano is a model construction system created in Liverpool, United Kingdom, by Frank Hornby. The brand now maintains a manufacturing facility in Calais, France. Meccano consists of reusable metal strips, plates, angle girders, wheels, axles and gears, and high quality plastic parts that are connected together using nuts, bolts and set screws (also known as grub screws). It enables the building of working models and mechanical devices. Although Meccano has always been seen as an engaging education toy, today the brand focuses on promoting engineering and robotics through fun play to support STEM learning.
The ideas for Meccano were first conceived by Hornby in 1898 and he developed and patented the construction kit as "Mechanics Made Easy" in 1901. The name was later changed to "Meccano" and manufactured by the British company, Meccano Ltd, between 1908 and 1980. It is now manufactured in France and China by Meccano S.N. of France, part of the Canadian Spin Master toy company. In the United States, a competitive toy with a similar play pattern was launched in 1913 under the Erector Set brand. Erector was purchased by the Meccano company in 2000 and continued to be sold under Erector Sets in the US through early 2015. After August 2015, the Erector brand was relaunched under the global brand name Meccano.
In 1901 Frank Hornby, a clerk from Liverpool, England, invented and patented a new toy called "Mechanics Made Easy" that was based on the principles of mechanical engineering. It was a model construction kit consisting of perforated metal strips, plates and girders, with wheels, pulleys, gears, shaft collars and axles for mechanisms and motion, and nuts and bolts and set screws to connect the pieces. The perforations were at a standard ½ inch (12.7 mm) spacing, the axles were 8-gauge, and the nuts and bolts used 5/32 inch BSW threads. The only tools required to assemble models were a screwdriver and spanners (wrenches). It was more than just a toy: it was educational, teaching basic mechanical principles like levers and gearing.
...
Wikipedia