Meccano

The educational toy that started life as a patent

Patents can reach into almost every aspect of life – even toys and Meccano® is a case in point. In the late 1890s Frank Hornby, a Liverpool bookkeeper with three children enjoyed making toys for them but every toy had to be made from scratch even though they often shared common features. Travelling on a train he saw a small crane and realised he would be able to make a model crane simply by using steel strips – the idea behind Meccano was born. By 1901 he had made his construction kit and realised it would allow children to construct their own models and applied for a patent for it – he even had to borrow £5 to pay the application fee. That is how GB190100587, the patent that lies behind Meccano came into being. Below are some of the figures from the patent – some readers may recognise the crane shown as one of the earliest models described in the instructions with older Meccano kits.

Meccano has carried on as a success toy and business until the present day, and Frank Hornby later went on to introduce the popular Hornby® model trains and Dinky® model cars. He died in 1936.

®Meccano is the registered trade mark of Meccano Group SN.
®Hornby is the registered trade mark of Hornby Hobbies Limited.
®Dinky is a registered trade mark of Mattel Inc