From The Brighton Toy and Model Index
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| {{Toymaker}}
| | #REDIRECT:[[:Category:Frank Hornby]] |
| '''Frank Hornby (1863-1936)''' has the distinction of being responsible for originating not just one, but ''three'' of the biggest British toy brands.
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| ===Meccano===
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| First came [[Meccano]], a construction toy that started out as "Mechanics Made Simple", and which evolved into a smoother more stylised form that we now recognise as the classic Meccano shapes.
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| ===Hornby Trains/ Hornby Railways / Hornby Dublo===
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| Next came [[Hornby Trains]] / [[Hornby railways]]. Since Hornby was already making toys that used all-metal wheels and parts, metal locomotives and carriages were an obvious development that, due to their small parts, couldn't easily be made at small scales using Meccano. Hornby used Meccano to prototype methods of making track points, and specifically, ways of constructing two-rail track with points systems that that kept the two rails electrically isolated. After [[Bing]] and [[Bassett-Lowke]] had brought out their "[[table railway]]" [[00-gauge]] format trains, Hornby recognised that the smaller size and reduced material costs opened up the model railway format to a range of potential customers who couldn't afford the price or the space needed for a [[gauge 0]] layout, and produced [[Hornby Dublo]].
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| ===Dinky Toys===
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| To supplement their [[gauge 0]] railways, Hornby started producing a range of matching [[1:43|1/43]]-scale trackside accessories such as signal boxes and stations, and if a customer had a model railway layout with level crossings and bridges and houses and roads, what they needed to complete the set was a matching range of 1/43-scale cars, which Hornby then obligingly produced. Since these could also be sold to people who didn't actually own a train set, Hornby gave them a separate brandname: "[[Dinky Toys]]".
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| ==Books==
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| * ''Anthony McReavy'' '''The Toy Story: The Life and Times of Inventor Frank Hornby''' (Ebury Press, 2002) ISBN 009188117X
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| * ''M.P. Gould'' '''Frank Hornby: The Boy Who Made $1,000,000 with a Toy''' -- a small-format book written for the American market, with the help of FH. The reprinted book is a curiosity to modern eyes, with its Victorian-sounding commentary out-Baden-Powelling Baden-Powell. Also available online (see below)
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| {{links}}
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| * [http://www.totalpolitics.com/print/373/they-were-also-mps-frank-hornby.thtml They Were Also MPs: Frank Hornby (totalpolitics.com)]
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| * [http://www.eliwhitney.org/new/sites/default/files/minisites/hornby/preface.htm ''M.P. Gould'' '''Frank Hornby: The Boy Who Made $1,000,000 with a Toy''' (1915) (eliwhitney.og)]
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| [[Category:Hornby]]
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Latest revision as of 22:03, 3 August 2013
