Here in New Haven Connecticut, A.C. Gilbert is a home-town hero. Before he invented the Erector Set, he was a gold medal high jumper (1908 Olympics), a Yale graduate, and a maker of magic sets. The Eli Whitney Museum has several exhibits devoted to Gilbert.
I wrote a personal essay involving Erector sets, called "Be an Erector Engineer". It is here.
It is said that, in the 1920's, Gilbert wanted to motorize his Erector Sets and so worked on miniaturizing the electric motor. The design evolved and became an integral part of the sets. Gilbert then realized these miniature electric motors might have practical applications, and he invented, among other things, the electric blender, the electric vacuum, the electric washing machine, and the electric vibrator.
The Eli Whitney museum has a display of those early motorized applicances. The vibrator looks particularly dangerous, a metal pistol handle with a frayed electric cord coming out one end and with a spindle rod tipped by a rubber cup. They show early advertising for the vibrator. The copy promises health benefits, but the picture shows a young couple running hand in hand out of the surf...a hint that even then they knew what the vibrator was for.
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Here in New Haven Connecticut, A.C. Gilbert is a home-town hero. Before he invented the Erector Set, he was a gold medal high jumper (1908 Olympics), a Yale graduate, and a maker of magic sets. The Eli Whitney Museum has several exhibits devoted to Gilbert.
I wrote a personal essay involving Erector sets, called "Be an Erector Engineer". It is here.
It is said that, in the 1920's, Gilbert wanted to motorize his Erector Sets and so worked on miniaturizing the electric motor. The design evolved and became an integral part of the sets. Gilbert then realized these miniature electric motors might have practical applications, and he invented, among other things, the electric blender, the electric vacuum, the electric washing machine, and the electric vibrator.
The Eli Whitney museum has a display of those early motorized applicances. The vibrator looks particularly dangerous, a metal pistol handle with a frayed electric cord coming out one end and with a spindle rod tipped by a rubber cup. They show early advertising for the vibrator. The copy promises health benefits, but the picture shows a young couple running hand in hand out of the surf...a hint that even then they knew what the vibrator was for.