Image: Eli Whitney Museum
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Before video games and robotics competitions, toys were much simpler: girls got dolls; boys got model trains and bicycles. Toys that promoted learning and experimentation were rare until one inventor, Alfred Carlton (“A. C.”) Gilbert, started making toys that taught children about science and engineering. His most famous, the Erector set, became one of the best -selling toys of its day and inspired children across the country to build everything from bridges to robots.
Gilbert was a man of many talents. He financed his medical degree from Yale University by working as a magician, invented the pole-vaulting box and won a gold medal in the sport in 1908, and broke the world record for consecutive chin-ups—39 in a row. In 1918 he became "the man who saved Christmas" by convincing Congress not to ban toy production during the war.
But he is most famous for his toys. Gilbert founded the A. C. Gilbert Company and went on to invent and sell all kinds of classic science toys from chemistry sets to robots to microscopes. Gilbert's real innovation was to provide kids with a way to experiment with real-life tools and parts, says William Brown, director of the Eli Whitney Museum in Hamden, Conn., where a large collection of Gilbert toys is on display. "They had that feel of being not symbolic but part of the real world," he says. "You were working with a motor for your Erector set that could actually move heavy things."
And that real-life appeal did not just apply to kids. In 1949 doctors at the Yale School of Medicine used an Erector set to build a precursor to the modern artificial heart.
At the time of Gilbert's death in 1961, he had patented more than 150 toys. But his company was faltering and, by 1967, it went out of business. There was a new generation of entertainment, Brown says: television. Gilbert's toys were a product of the radio generation. "You could listen to the radio and spend all 19 hours that it takes to build the Ferris wheel" from the Erector set, Brown says. Once television sets made it into people's homes, that time went away.
Today those toys remind us of the power of creativity and of how important it is to let kids play and learn. "The way to teach kids about tools is not to tell them what to be afraid of," Brown says, "but how to use them, and that's what Gilbert did."
Here, Scientific American takes a look at some of the classic A. C. Gilbert toys.
» View a slide show of classic Gilbert toys.
(Thanks to the Eli Whitney Museum for providing the classic toy ads.)
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11 Comments
Add CommentWow, make *me* feel old, willya? As a kid I had three of his chemistry sets, many Erector sets, an American Flyer train set, microscope, and even the Atomic Energy lab as a hand-me-down from an uncle. Sadly, by the time I got the lab the included isotopes had lost much of their activity.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI had the (bad?) habit of mixing and matching bits from multiple sets; I tried to build an atomic-powered model train but the holes on the Erector set girders wouldn't line up and I wasn't allowed to drill extra holes...
Yeah, this is a different world; mechanical toys have given way to electronics, and schools are closing "shop" classes due to insurance costs, but multiple-purpose teaching toys aimed at today's tech aren't quite dead. For instance there's "Twine":
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/supermechanical/twine-listen-to-your-world-talk-to-the-internet
It isn't designed as a toy, strictly speaking but if it takes off big time I can see it in classrooms, teaching logic and cause-and-effect by hands-on example just as Gilbert's toys did for my generation.
The instructiions on the chemistry set: 'don't heat the test tube with the cork on'.. what 12 year-old isn't then wondering 'why not?' Kaboom.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe broken glass from the test tube is all over the room...my brother steps on a piece and while he's running around crying while I'm trying to get a drop of his blood on a microscope slide.
Thanks Mr Gilbert. Never realized how much you were part of our best childhood memories.
Much too young to have owned those pieces of kit, but when my generation got old enough to fiddle around with stuff was about the time when 8-bit home computing became affordable (I was born in '71). So while I haven't blown up test tubes or erected ferris wheels while listening to the radio I've spent quite a few hours of my childhood in front of the family TV, programming utility software and games. In the process I've learned about binary and hexadecimal and a plethora of other subjects, and it certainly motivated me to read a lot of English language literature since Danish literature on the subject was limited and sometimes hard to come by.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI'm sure the brighter ones among the kids of today will find ways to feed their brains. The golden age of home experimenting might be over, but where there's a will there's a way.
It's hard, but not impossible, to find such things today. I'm old enough to remember what little we could afford back in the 70s (insulation and plumbing were luxuries of the rich to us). Toy tractors made from wood, a Radio Shack electronics kit, later learning Morse code from my older brother the HAM, building a telescope tube from an old Edmund Scientific publication, then being too poor to get the mirrors and lenses....
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWait a minute. A much higher percentage of kids today are over weight, and suffer with ADD and ADHD. The landscape of TV and video games versus active learning activities has a lot to do with that. I won't even go into the differences in physical activity pass times.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisall five sets of grandkids has an erector set, the $99 one. One came from, Scientificonline.com which is Edmonds Scientific as well as the $150 house from Germany that explains energy. the other four came from A.C. Moore with 50% off coupons. Did you see Barnes & Noble book stores for Christmas? Shelves full of the various sets that Edmonds sells in their catalogue were available off the shelf. Chemistry for girls with the perfume set among other kits. All sorts of building sets are available, Lego has a robot set which is called Mindstorm for about $250. There is another one that is connected to your computer and ones you can control with the Wi Fi on your phone. These can move motors. Oh was I tempted to buy the fish that flys for the kids. Stop complaining and do the Santa thing for your relatives and the neighborhood rather than whine. Light that candle and spread learning - I do science, math and history books for Halloween rather than candy.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisForgot to add, not rich, just don't buy new clothes but every five or so years at Goodwill and cut my own hair. The car is used very sparingly and the week after Christmas is my black Friday as is July when the discount stores buy last years products from big stores like FAO (sp?) Schwartz.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAfew years ago there was a device that you added to your computer that acted like a microscope it put magnified pictures on the computer screen ... haven't seen one for quite a while .. are they still around ??
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe IntelPlay QX3? Yeah, you can still find them on certain auction websites. I'm not letting loose of mine under any circumstances. I may will it to one of my grandkids though... ;>)
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this10. Percival.......Thanks
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhy in the world does one caption say, "fly wings®"?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHow could "fly wings" be a Registered mark? The phrase is a description of something from nature. So how could it be protected?
Growing up in the '50s I had an Erector Set and a Gilbert #6 Chemistry Set. I also received a very nice metal microscope with three lenses but don't believe that was a Gilbert product. I also had several Heathkit projects to build, too.
Thank God I had parents who believed in science and math as well as music and the arts. I have built hundreds of custom-designed computers for individuals and clients. Since 1955 have been a photographer. So as the old saying goes, "As you sew, so shall you reap."
Terry Thomas
Atlanta, Georgia USA