Category:1900s Meccano

Originating as "Mechanics Made Easy", Frank Hornby's product became "Meccano" circa 1908, with Hornby creating a limited company, Meccano Ltd. This allowed outside investment, permitting Hornby to invest in a plot of land for a new factory at Binns Road, Liverpool, and to commission a properly distinctive logo. The new factory had proper machinery, and Hornby no longer had to commission small batches of parts from local engineering companies, or resort to making or finishing parts himself in his small garden shed workshop. After a short period of transitional double-branding (Meccano Mechanics Made Easy), the product became simply "Meccano".

The look and feel of the parts changed - strips became proper nicked-palated stamped steel, rather than the earlier tinplate with folded edges and sharp finger-lacerated ends. Wheel and pulley mountings for "MME" had involved a sawcut in the wheel centre that mated with a "feather" wedge. This central sawcut approach wasn't suitable for mass-production, and the feather/sawcut wheels transitioned to a "tongued wedge" design, with some older pieces updated and issued with both the earlier sawcut and the later wedge cutout.

The new sets were numbered, with converter sets also available that could covert a No.1set into a No.2, a No.2 into a No.3, and so on. This took a lot of the risk out of buying a Meccano set, as it meant that customers could simply buy whatever they could afford at the time, without risking "buyer's remorse" when they realised that they wanted a larger set.