The Iron Constructer
Von Leistner & Co.,
The Iron Constructer Model Building Blocks. New York: Patented by Von Leistner & Co., 1895.
Metal and wood. The set of fine metal braces and fasteners is accompanied by seven construction sheets (with model examples) and an instructional pamphlet. One assembled cross-braced model accompanied the set. The sheets show a variety of complex bridges, including a suspension bridge that can be constructed.
Marketed as the "Best educational toy...," the Iron Constructer was sold at the end of the nineteenth century in 6 different sizes, each with differing numbers of parts. This is Box C, containing over 200 parts.
As retired Professor of Architecture Tom Peters observed, the survival of this artifact is unprecedented. It is the earliest such educational toy ever documented. Peters said, "Historians make much of Meccano-Erector Set (the first 1906 in England and the latter the same thing renamed about 1912 in the US)... but the one [Lehigh has] is earlier and more important from a pedagogical standpoint. It documents how technology percolated into the awareness of young boys and inspired them. It is a premier artifact in the development of system thinking in technological thought. The image on the box shows C.C. Schneider's Niagara River Bridge of 1884 with John Roebling's 1855 suspension bridge in the background.