Colourful covers of Meccano literature

The very early Meccano parts were 'monochrome' in nickel and brass, the literature did come with colourful covers. The instruction books with models, but certainly the magazine covers of the late twenties come with colourful illustrations of the mechanical wonders of the age. 

Included in the instruction book are already a few pages with general engineering mechanisms. Instruction book is actually a bit of a misnomer; these booklets are rather a collection of pictures of models without any instruction on how to build them. Finding out how to construct these models is explicitly left to the ingenuity of the builder, to foster and promote his mechanical prowess.

Included in the larger outfits and also available separately was a booklet containing 'standard mechanisms'. A booklet complete with a wide variety of mechanical functions and how these may be achieved with Meccano parts. Explicitly advertising it as proper mechanical engineering in miniature.

These more complex mechanisms in this booklet fortunately do have descriptions of their workings and some hints on how to construct these.

To offer more inspiration and provide a steady stream of mechanical engineering input, the Meccano company published a monthly magazine. This copy of the March '25 issue has a report on the assembling of a large floating crane, also shown on the front cover.

And e.g. an article on copper. This does have me wondering how riveting this would have been to the intended readership, even then...

Today old issues of the Meccano Magazine are offered for sale online fairly regularly, if wanting to browse an actual paper magazine. To browse and get a feel for the content (with period advertisements); all copies of the Meccano Magazine are available at The Archive. All scanned at very high resolution and freely readable or downloadable as a PDF document.

Just for viewing the colourful covers - well worth a browse :-)

Manufacturing firm footing for Meccano models

The tinkering with the small screws of the Meccano has grown a bit - so has the collection of parts. Even though there is a wide variety of parts to build many different types of models and mechanisms, there was one part lacking that I would have expected. Maybe it is an expectation from working with the older typewriters; the Meccano system did not have rubber feet.

All nice and well when building on a workbench, but having rubber feet would be nice to prevent a small model from marring a tabletop. And as with typewriters, prevent models from skidding all over the table. A pulley fitted with a rubber tire could be used of course, but wanted something more compact - like a collar or bushing.

So we got some made.

With the easy availability of 3D modelling software and easy access to very affordable 3D printing in rubber, getting custom feet manufactured is not only doable - it's probably even less hassle than finding the right part in the hardware store. A quick design was made in Sketchup for a half-inch round by a quarter-inch high foot and a set of these printed locally via 3DHubs in black Ninjaflex at 100 micron layer-height.

These simple rubber feet can be bolted onto a plate or to the angle bracket that Meccano often show as 'foot' of a machine model. Using a longer bolt, adjustable feet are possible too.

The model, trivial as it is, can be downloaded from Thingiverse here.

(The barrier to replacing broken or missing rubber feet on machines is getting lower and lower :-)

Monochrome Meccano

Before there was colour, there was monochrome. Same with Meccano. Before 1926 or '27 the parts were not painted, but nickel-plated.

Clean and shiny, these date to around 1920 and would have come with this instruction book.

Localised in Dutch, also sold separately - quite expensive too at Hfl. 1,25. (An English-language version of the 1919 edition of this manual can be found here at the very extensive site of the New Zealand Meccano Club.)

The Meccano system was seriously protected by patents, both utility and design patents. Unlike English, Dutch has evolved quite a bit over the past decades and this manual really illustrates this. Its phrasing and spelling looks very quaint to modern eyes ('ye olde'). Notably odd spelling of Britain in the title page.

Before being published as a separate book of standard mechanisms, the instruction book included a section with some basic standard mechanisms. (Also some odd printing errors in the text; printed in England, a Dutch-speaking printer would have caught word-contractions and similar mistakes.)

The range of parts was already extensive (and about to expand a lot more during the twenties and thirties). Some parts were only available as separate spare-parts and not included in any outfit. The given prices again illustrate this was not cheap.

Despite the high price, or perhaps because of it, the reader is cautioned against considering buying anything that is not the genuine article. On the back cover of the booklet is explained that Meccano is more than a mere toy! It is true mechanical engineering in miniature. Any imitation is not following sound engineering principles and thus would be bad for the development of the child. (Oh dear.)

To be fair it actually was the technology of its day in miniature, arguably the Arduino of its time.

Still it is an enjoyable toy, still :-)

Sightings of beige machines

Sightings from a very small 'safari'; a browse at the jumble sale of a local church. Had been wondering if there'd be any shellac records or gramophones or other interesting vintage technology. There actually were two typewriters, however these were of a fairly recent vintage - the 'beige period'.

The Olympia manual typewriter could have done with a wipe from a damp cloth to clean it a bit, otherwise probably fine. Regular keyboard, but with the 'ij' key.

The one other machine was equally beige and, as an electric, edging even closer to the impending PC-age.

This Torpedo Electronic 700 typewriter has a fairly extensive keyboard with a neat assortment of mathematics or engineering symbols.

Even though the asking prices at the event overall were very modest, passed on both. 

(Instead from the tools-section picked up an old screwdriver and folding rule :-)

Der Schreibmaschine - ein Gerät der Feinwerktechnik

Leafing through this book about designing for precision manufacturing.

The introduction of course explains all the ways precision manufacture matters.

And there it gets the essence typewriters in a single line. Roughly translated; "With the typewriter there is provided a precision-manufactured machine that can capture and keep human thought through time."

In a nutshell :-)

The book by the way is filled with examples of mechanical design solutions. Those precision-manufactured mechanical details that typewriters are full of...

Art and Pleasure

Become member of the society "Art and Pleasure". 

Was playing some records from a stack of early thirties' records and came across this advert on a record sleeve.

Not a bad offer for getting continued variety in records, though still significant money. This record-club was run by the record and gramophone shop of Kiekens in Harlem, then located on number 24 Breestraat (Broadway). Probably long defunct (as will be the society "Art and Pleasure").

(Broadway in old Harlem is actually anything but broad - rather a narrow street by today's standards :)

Corona Four serial number H311516

The carrying case was cleaned earlier. The typewriter itself is now mostly clean also with the keys polished and the ribbon-spool-covers newly painted.

This is a British machine with the there common wondrous wealth of fractions on the keyboard. Mention of the Corona Typewriter Company address in London at Aldwych House, WC2. Patents still pending according to the label.

All this makes it likely it is an English typewriter that was sold in Britain, typewriters for the Dutch market would have had a 'Dutch' international keyboard. That it's British is a bit unusual, as the original owner was said by the seller to be Dutch. Then again not impossible for him to have been in England in the twenties. Though it was suggested by the seller he'd kept this machine with him during his imprisonment, that strikes me as unlikely.

History.

Back to the typewriter: Some detail views of the carriage. It is very similar to the Corona 3 carriage - not very 'tight' in its rails, but light-running and comfortable in use.

The serial number in the machine frame H311516. From the information in The Database, the machine was made sometime in the summer of 1925.

As per standard Corona practice, the serial number is also scratched by hand in the carriage.

The typeface with the opportunity to keep an account precise to eighths of a penny.

The rubber of the machine still needs seeing to - it is rock solid and makes for a very loud machine. Other than that it is fully functional and ready for use!