The Lack of Meccano

One of the best Christmas presents I ever had as a child was a Meccano set (Erector Set, USA), it was the only gift that lasted for several years and actually grew as I requested expansion kits and accessories for it from Santa. By age eleven I had a steam engine, an electric motor and a good selection of gears, I could make real machines with my Meccano. It was at that time that my lifelong interest in science really started, I wanted to get more power from my electric motor and so I had to learn about electricity to achieve my goal. In a short time I understood how transformers worked and realised that I was hooked on this new "magic" of electricity and electronics, I avidly read everything I could on the subject, often late at night under the blankets with a torch because I wasn't allowed the light on.

Eventually my interest in electronics drew me away from Meccano and I played with it less and less but it had "started me out" so to speak, and I still have a fondness for it to this day. Sadly, the company that made Meccano has been out of business for many years; I believe that part of reason that many children today display poor dexterity skills and mechanical ineptitude may well be due to the lack of Meccano. Only a week ago in a DIY store, I overheard two boys discussing how a nut went onto a bolt, when I was their age you would never have heard that, everybody knew how a nut went on a bolt.

Parental encouragement also seems to be in decline these days and may be related to the overall "dumbing down" of children. Every child expects their parents to be able to answer any question and of course this is unrealistic, but parents today seem unable to say "I don't know", they would rather fob the child off or even tell it not to ask silly questions etc. My own father had a slight problem in this area, he always tried to answer my questions but I never heard him say "I don't know". I have a vivid recollection of asking him what electricity was, he should have said he didn't know but replied that nobody knew. A few years later I told him to ask me the question; he wasn't too pleased when I told him exactly what electricity is.

Come back Meccano, we need you badly!