Erector Set (trademark styled as "ERECTOR") was a brand of metal toy construction sets which were originally patented by Alfred Carlton Gilbert and first sold by his company, the Mysto Manufacturing Company of New Haven , Connecticut , in 1913. In 1916, the company was reorganized as the A. C. Gilbert Company . The brand continued its independent existence under various corporate ownerships until 1990, when Meccano bought the Erector brand and consolidated its worldwide marketing with its own brand. The coverage here focuses on the historical legacy of the classic Erector Set; for current developments under the " Erector by Meccano " brand name, see the Meccano article.
38-419: Basic Erector parts included various metal beams with regularly spaced holes for assembly using nuts and bolts. A frequently promoted patented feature was the ability to fabricate a strong but lightweight hollow structural girder from four long flat pieces of stamped sheet steel, held together by bolts and nuts (US Patent 1,066,809). Flat or curved pieces of sheet metal in various shapes and colors could be added to
76-404: A block and tackle . A block and tackle is assembled so one block is attached to the fixed mounting point and the other is attached to the moving load. The ideal mechanical advantage of the block and tackle is equal to the number of sections of the rope that support the moving block. In the diagram on the right, the ideal mechanical advantage of each of the block and tackle assemblies shown
114-732: A large number of the trees from the east that were planted throughout the city. Ferris left Nevada in 1875 to attend the California Military Academy in Oakland , where he graduated in 1876. He graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, in the class of 1881 with a degree in Civil Engineering. At RPI he was a charter member of the local chapter of the Chi Phi Fraternity and
152-680: A member of the Rensselaer Society of Engineers . He was made a member of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Alumni Hall of Fame in 1998. Ferris began his career in the railroad industry and was interested in bridge building. He founded a company, G.W.G. Ferris & Co. in Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania , to test and inspect metals for railroads and bridge builders. Ferris House , his home at 1318 Arch Street, Central Northside ,
190-409: A pulley system can be analysed using free body diagrams which balance the tension force in the rope with the force of gravity on the load. In an ideal system, the massless and frictionless pulleys do not dissipate energy and allow for a change of direction of a rope that does not stretch or wear. In this case, a force balance on a free body that includes the load, W , and n supporting sections of
228-433: A rope with tension T , yields: The ratio of the load to the input tension force is the mechanical advantage MA of the pulley system, Thus, the mechanical advantage of the system is equal to the number of sections of rope supporting the load. A belt and pulley system is characterized by two or more pulleys in common to a belt . This allows for mechanical power , torque , and speed to be transmitted across axles. If
266-594: A savings measure due to the oil crisis. Sales were slow, and by the 1980s the trademark Erector was acquired by Ideal Toys and then Tyco Toys. In 1990, Meccano bought the Erector brand. The two brands are now sold under the Meccano brand name, with the Erector Set being marketed as "Erector by Meccano", having the same parts as Meccano. In 2002, a movie based on A.C. Gilbert's life called The Man Who Saved Christmas
304-411: A scene where Archimedes proved the effectiveness of compound pulleys and the block-and-tackle system by using one to pull a fully laden ship towards him as if it was gliding through water. A block is a set of pulleys (wheels) assembled so that each pulley rotates independently from every other pulley. Two blocks with a rope attached to one of the blocks and threaded through the two sets of pulleys form
342-418: A total capacity of 2,160. When the fair opened, it carried some 38,000 passengers daily, taking 20 minutes to complete two revolutions—the first involving six stops to allow passengers to enter and exit, and the second a nine-minute non-stop rotation, for which the ticket holder paid 50 cents. It carried 2.5 million passengers before it was finally demolished in 1906. After the fair closed, Ferris claimed that
380-584: A variety of devices, including: In 1990, Meccano S.A. built a giant Ferris wheel in France. It was modelled after the original 1893 Ferris Wheel built by George Washington Gale Ferris Jr. at the World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago and was shipped to the United States to promote "Erector by Meccano" after Meccano S.A. had bought out the Erector brand name and began selling Erector by Meccano sets in
418-481: A wheel from which visitors could view the entire exhibition, a wheel that would "out-Eiffel Eiffel". Ferris returned in a few weeks with several respectable endorsements from established engineers, and the committee agreed to allow construction to begin. Most convincingly, he had recruited several local investors to cover the $ 400,000 cost of construction. The Ferris Wheel had 36 cars, each fitted with 40 revolving chairs and able to accommodate up to 60 people, giving
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#1732780345535456-486: Is a pulley using an axle supported by a frame or shell ( block ) to guide a cable or exert force. A pulley may have a groove or grooves between flanges around its circumference to locate the cable or belt. The drive element of a pulley system can be a rope , cable , belt, or chain . The earliest evidence of pulleys dates back to Ancient Egypt in the Twelfth Dynasty (1991–1802 BC) and Mesopotamia in
494-449: Is as follows: A rope and pulley system—that is, a block and tackle —is characterised by the use of a single continuous rope to transmit a tension force around one or more pulleys to lift or move a load—the rope may be a light line or a strong cable. This system is included in the list of simple machines identified by Renaissance scientists. If the rope and pulley system does not dissipate or store energy, then its mechanical advantage
532-405: Is the number of parts of the rope that act on the load. This can be shown as follows. Consider the set of pulleys that form the moving block and the parts of the rope that support this block. If there are p of these parts of the rope supporting the load W, then a force balance on the moving block shows that the tension in each of the parts of the rope must be W/p. This means the input force on
570-467: Is the term used to describe the application of a coating, cover or wearing surface with various textured patterns which is sometimes applied to pulley shells. Lagging is often applied in order to extend the life of the shell by providing a replaceable wearing surface or to improve the friction between the belt and the pulley. Notably drive pulleys are often rubber lagged (coated with a rubber friction layer) for exactly this reason. Applying powdered rosin to
608-454: Is used to prototype new ideas and designs. Erector was first envisioned by Alfred Carlton Gilbert (A.C. Gilbert) in 1911, as he rode the train from New Haven to New York City. This section of track was being converted to electrical power, and Gilbert watched as steel girders were erected to carry the power lines, inspiring him to develop the toy. Gilbert was a skilled magician and manufactured magic tricks and magic sets with his existing company
646-614: The Sears–Ferris House at 311 W. Third, Carson City, Nevada . Originally built in about 1863 by Gregory A. Sears , a pioneer Carson City businessman, the house was added to the National Register of Historic Places for Carson City on February 9, 1979. Ferris Senior was an agriculturalist/horticulturalist, noteworthy in Carson City's development for much of the city's landscaping during the 1870s, and for importing
684-495: The block and tackle is said to be "rove to advantage." Diagram 3 shows that now three rope parts support the load W which means the tension in the rope is W/3 . Thus, the mechanical advantage is three. By adding a pulley to the fixed block of a gun tackle the direction of the pulling force is reversed though the mechanical advantage remains the same, Diagram 3a. This is an example of the Luff tackle. The mechanical advantage of
722-634: The "Mysto Manufacturing Company". The first Erector set was made there in 1913, called "The Erector / Structural Steel and Electro-Mechanical Builder", and labeled as "Educational, Instructive and Amusing". The toy was first introduced and sold to the public in 1913 at the Toy Fair held at the Broadway Central Hotel in New York City. Erector quickly became the most popular construction toy in the United States, most likely because it
760-443: The U.S. It went on display in New York City, after which it was purchased by Ripley's Believe It or Not! and put on display in their St. Augustine, Florida museum. The model, the largest in size at the time, is 6.5 metres (21 ft) high, weighs 544 kilograms (1,199 lb), was made from 19,507 pieces, 50,560 nuts and bolts, and took 1,239 hours to construct. At this mass and size, some deviation from Erector by Meccano-only parts
798-435: The ability to build a model, then take it apart and build something else, over and over again. Both AC-powered electric motors and battery-powered DC motors became available, usually equipped with gears to increase their torque and effective mechanical power. Later sets added miniature light bulbs and simple switches to control electrical power. Erector is a versatile constructional medium. In addition to building models, its
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#1732780345535836-480: The belt may increase the friction temporarily, but may shorten the life of the belt. George Washington Gale Ferris Jr. George Washington Gale Ferris Jr. (February 14, 1859 – November 22, 1896) was an American civil engineer . He is mostly known for creating the original Ferris Wheel for the 1893 Chicago World's Columbian Exposition . Ferris was born on February 14, 1859, in Galesburg, Illinois ,
874-487: The company went into decline, filing for bankruptcy in 1967. The product was redesigned, adding many plastic parts, but the "clunky" looking models failed to compete with the new, more-realistic scale plastic models coming onto the market. The Gabriel company of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, bought the Erector brand name and continued to market the recently redesigned system, though by the mid-1970s most plastic parts had been removed (or replaced by laminated fiberboard, for panels) as
912-436: The diameters of pulleys determine those same factors. Cone pulleys and step pulleys (which operate on the same principle, although the names tend to be applied to flat belt versions and V-belt versions, respectively) are a way to provide multiple drive ratios in a belt-and-pulley system that can be shifted as needed, just as a transmission provides this function with a gear train that can be shifted. V-belt step pulleys are
950-445: The early 1950s generally had a belt pulley for a flat belt (which is what Belt Pulley magazine was named after). It has been replaced by other mechanisms with more flexibility in methods of use, such as power take-off and hydraulics . Just as the diameters of gears (and, correspondingly, their number of teeth) determine a gear ratio and thus the speed increases or reductions and the mechanical advantage that they can deliver,
988-446: The early 2nd millennium BC. In Roman Egypt , Hero of Alexandria (c. 10–70 AD) identified the pulley as one of six simple machines used to lift weights. Pulleys are assembled to form a block and tackle in order to provide mechanical advantage to apply large forces. Pulleys are also assembled as part of belt and chain drives in order to transmit power from one rotating shaft to another. Plutarch 's Parallel Lives recounts
1026-442: The most common way that drill presses deliver a range of spindle speeds. With belts and pulleys, friction is one of the most important forces. Some uses for belts and pulleys involve peculiar angles (leading to bad belt tracking and possibly slipping the belt off the pulley) or low belt-tension environments, causing unnecessary slippage of the belt and hence extra wear to the belt. To solve this, pulleys are sometimes lagged. Lagging
1064-410: The pulleys are of differing diameters, a mechanical advantage is realized. A belt drive is analogous to that of a chain drive ; however, a belt sheave may be smooth (devoid of discrete interlocking members as would be found on a chain sprocket, spur gear , or timing belt) so that the mechanical advantage is approximately given by the ratio of the pitch diameter of the sheaves only, not fixed exactly by
1102-446: The ratio of teeth as with gears and sprockets. In the case of a drum-style pulley, without a groove or flanges, the pulley often is slightly convex to keep the flat belt centered. It is sometimes referred to as a crowned pulley. Though once widely used on factory line shafts , this type of pulley is still found driving the rotating brush in upright vacuum cleaners , in belt sanders and bandsaws . Agricultural tractors built up to
1140-408: The rope is T = W/p. Thus, the block and tackle reduces the input force by the factor p. The simplest theory of operation for a pulley system assumes that the pulleys and lines are weightless and that there is no energy loss due to friction. It is also assumed that the lines do not stretch. In equilibrium, the forces on the moving block must sum to zero. In addition the tension in the rope must be
1178-405: The same for each of its parts. This means that the two parts of the rope supporting the moving block must each support half the load. These are different types of pulley systems: The mechanical advantage of the gun tackle can be increased by interchanging the fixed and moving blocks so the rope is attached to the moving block and the rope is pulled in the direction of the lifted load. In this case
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1216-459: The structural skeleton. Hardened steel rods and screw clamps allowed the construction of hinges and the transmission of mechanical power via rotating parts such as pulleys , gears , wheels , and levers . Unlike some earlier wooden construction sets, Erector could be used both for static structures and for dynamic structures incorporating mechanical linkages and other moving components. Modular, standardized construction sets like Erector provided
1254-476: The town founded by his namesake, George Washington Gale . His parents were George Washington Gale Ferris Sr. and Martha Edgerton Hyde. He had an older brother named Frederick Hyde, born in 1843. In 1864 when Ferris was five years old, his family sold their dairy farm and moved to Nevada . For two years, they lived in Carson Valley. From 1868 to 1890, his father, George Washington Gale Ferris Sr., owned
1292-421: Was a necessity, to prevent it collapsing (mainly in the structural spokes). The largest model by mass would certainly be in contention, but some models have topped 600 kilograms (1,300 lb). Pulley A pulley is a wheel on an axle or shaft enabling a taut cable or belt passing over the wheel to move and change direction, or transfer power between itself and a shaft. A sheave or pulley wheel
1330-759: Was added to the list of City of Pittsburgh Designated Historic Structures on June 28, 2001. News of the World's Columbian Exposition to be held in 1893, in Chicago, Illinois, drew Ferris to the city. In 1891, the Exposition's directors issued a challenge to American engineers to conceive of a monument for the fair to surpass the Eiffel Tower , the great structure of the Paris International Exposition of 1889. The planners wanted something "original, daring and unique". Ferris proposed
1368-593: Was made for television. It focused on Gilbert's successful appeal to the Council of National Defense to reject a proposal to ban toy production in favor of wartime related materials during World War I. An extensive collection of A.C. Gilbert Company scientific and educational children's toys is housed at the Eli Whitney Museum, in Hamden, Connecticut. Over the years, Erector Sets have been used to prototype
1406-467: Was now called "The New Erector, The World’s Greatest Toy". Through 1932, Erector was sold in wooden boxes, but 1933 through 1962 the sets would be sold in colorful boxes made of painted steel. Early boxes were colored red, green, or blue; by the 1950s all set boxes were painted red. As the company grew, the area around the Gilbert factory became known as " Erector Square ". A.C. Gilbert died in 1961, and
1444-434: Was the only construction set at the time to contain a motor. In 1914, the name was changed to "The Mysto Erector, The Toy That Resembles Structural Steel". In 1916, the company was reorganized and became the A.C. Gilbert Company. The product was renamed "Gilbert Erector, The Toy Like Structural Steel". In 1924, more changes occurred, as the entire Erector system was completely overhauled to include over 70 types of parts. Erector
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