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 On page 511 of the Sears 1969 Christmas
Wish Book are a few Erector Sets. This was probably the year (±a couple) that
I got my first Erector Set. This was a step up from the
Tinkertoy sets I previously owned. While not the largest set
made, it had quite a lot of parts, including a motor. Although I already had a natural
interest in assembling and - to my parents' dismay - disassembling stuff, it was
gifts like this that really helped nurture what would become a life-long pursuit
of things mechanical and electrical, eventually leading to my earning an electrical
engineering degree. I remember getting a pretty good finger pinch by one of the
motorize contraptions I built. Show above is Erector Set #3, similar to the one
I received for Christmas in 1969. This one I bought on eBay since, as with most
things I owned, the original did not survive my handling.
  To the left is my son, Philip, with a helicopter
that we built from an Erector Set given to him for Christmas back around 1990.
Use the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics'
inflation calculator to see
what items cost in today's dollars. That $16.99 Erector Set would cost $101.25 in
2010 money.
See the Gilbert Erector Set advertisement in the December 1935 issue of
Boys' Life magazine.
Erector Sets from the 1969 Sears Christmas Wish Book --->>>
 Having been a typical kid in the 1960s and
'70s, I had an Erector Set.
It was Set 3 per my memory, based on remembering the box lid picture. You might
recall a set or two of your own. Alfred Carlton Gilbert founded the A.C. Gilbert
company in 1909 in Westville, Connecticut, and produced many varieties of Erector
Sets, as well as other educational hobby items like chemistry sets (I had one of
those, too). The
A.C. Gilbert Engineering Society website has a really nice history on the company
and lots of photos - including likely one of the Erector Set your parents gave you ...
Posted November 20, 2010
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