Figure 1.--This American boy appears quite pleased with his creation. He looks to be about 13-14 years old. The photograph was undated, but was probably taken about 1920.

We note the existence of construction toys in many counterspies. The first one appeared in Britain, but they seem especially popular in America. Construction toys beyond blocks are a specialized type of toy that probably appears in the 19th century. We only have details on the 20th century. The first set we know of is Meccano in Britain (1901), but they seem especially popular in America. Basic construction toys appear very early in childhood. Toy blocks are purchased at least babies 1 year old. We have no idea when the first toy blocks appeared. We see them in the 19th century, but they must have appeared much earlier. And even at that early age, there is a clear preference among boys. Research indicates that boys tend to show a stronger interest in and spend more time playing with toy blocks than girls, often beginning as early as age 1 year. Commenters in our modern age are always careful to point out that environmental factors like targeted marketing and social conditioning by parents may be involved. This may be the case, but we suspect that most parents of girl babies as well as boy babies purchase blocks. It is just that the boys are more interested in playing with them. Now there is not a lot you can do beyond piling some on top of them--essentially construction play. It takes a while before children are more capable of more elaborate construction play. We are not sure when the fist construction sets were designed. We suspect that there were wooden sets, but have no details, except for Tinker toys in America, but that was in the 20th century (1914). There were also Lincoln Logs (1916). They were invented by a son of famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright. We know more about metal sets. The first metal set was Meccano Sets in Britain (1901). Meccano was made in Liverpool by Frank Hornby, who also made clockwork, and later electric, model trains. Meccano consisted of perforated metal parts, which you could bolt together along with gear wheels, pulleys, and cranks, to make engineering models. There can't be a British man over 40 who didn't assemble a crane out of Meccano... and then immediately wonder what to do with it. We notice them in the British dominions as well. An Australian reader tells us, "I got a nice Meccano set for Christmas in 1973 and I absolutely adored it too." Meccano his was followed by Erector sets in America (1913). We do not know to what extent he copied Mecanno. Gilbert toys also did chemistry sets. Almost always the child involved with these construction se was a boy. Erector Sets were the serious child architect's version of Tinkertoys. They contained metal girders, nuts, bolts, belts and pulleys... and even an electric motor to run the Ferris wheel model! As far a we can tell, construction sets were more popular in America than any other country. Most of the images we have found are American images. A factor in World War II was the greater American familiarity with mechanics. But another factor here is economics. American wages since the late-19th century have exceed wages in other countries. Even after the European and Asian post-World War II Economic Miracles, American per capita GDP is substantially higher than European and Asian GDP. Which means that American parents tend to have more money to spend on expensive toys.

Created: October 9, 2002
Last updated: 8:52 PM 7/13/2026