For most people today, including myself, the erector set might look like a miniature medieval torture device. The first thing that struck me when I looked at the Greenbelt set was just how many parts their were. It seemed extremely complicated. However, "half the fun of playing with erectors was figuring out what everything was. "I remember when I got my set I laid out each piece to see just what I had to play with"7.
The items in the sets varied from set to set but I will concentrate on the 7 1/2" model, the one displayed in the Greenbelt Museum. This model was the second most advanced in the A.C. Gilbert's line so it contained a great deal of things. The centerpiece to these erector sets were the metal girders or for the laymen, metal sheets with holes in them. It was from these sheets that you would connect the rest of the objects to. These metal sheets in this model also included some curved ones so that you could create more realistic models.
The sets came with a great deal of hardware to construct your unique model. There were the normal nuts, bolts and screws and according to my father "there were never enough". This seems amazing to me considering how many of these there were. This set had everything long, short, wide or skinny screws, anything you would need. The picture below shows just one box of screws that was not even half full. Furthermore, the set came with ball bearings, pulleys, brackets, tires and gears. This would certainly keep a boy busy for many hours. Starting with the 5 1/2" model, motors were included and to me that would only add to the confusion. The 7 1/2" model was revolutionary in that the motor could go forward or reverse1. To tighten all of these objects you were given tiny screwdrivers and wrenches that according to Richard Lebow "were never used because they would break in a day". Today collectors of the erector sets value these little wrenches a great deal because they have become hard to find.
Richard Lebow said that the hardest part of playing with erectors was to keep all the parts straight and not lose any of them8. The owner of the erector set in the Greenbelt museum cleverly got rid of the clumsy cardboard boxes the parts came in and put them in small orange juice cans. Just in case on the back of the manual to the erector set was a order form for spare parts that people misplaced.
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