MECCANO

The Meccano Company of America Inc.

Frank Hornby first introduced his famous engineering toys in 1901, and founded a company in England to produce them under the name “Meccano” in 1907. In 1929, Alfred Carlton Gilbert, the owner of a company making a similar toy known as the “Erector Structural Steel Builder” in New York bought the American company that was making the British Meccano and changed the name to “American Meccano”. Gilbert began making microscope kits in 1934. These toy microscopes were produced during the 1930s, usually as kits with samples of different sorts. There were at least 2 different versions.

During World War II the company produced equipment for military aircraft, but returned to scientific toy making after the war. The company struggled after the death of its founder in 1961, and went out of business in 1967.