| Otto und Gustav Lilienthal
1905
Anchor Building Blocks
Basic design 1877
Proteinoplast, multi-colored
5 x 35.5 x 22.5 cm
Manufacturer: F. A. Richter & Cie., A. G., Rudolstadt
Originally made of wood, the building set, made up of blocks of various shapes was immensely popular for some 50 years towards the end of the 19th century. The brothers Otto and Gustav Lilienthal, otherwise known as pioneers of flying, are credited with inventing the building blocks in 1877. Much to his regret in 1880 Gustav Lilienthal sold the method for producing the building blocks and the idea for the shapes to one Adolf Richter, a businessman who then made a fortune with them, but who refused to let the two brothers have any share of it. The production method itself was extremely simple: linseed oil was added to a blend of sand and chalk with corresponding color additives. The moist substance was then pressed and dried at a temperature of between 100°C and 150°c (patent no. 13770). In 1888, in the course of legal proceedings between Lilienthal and Richter, it emerged that the procedure was in fact much older, but even this was unable to halt the triumphal march of "Anchor Building Blocks", which, superbly marketed, remained a "must-have" with regard to modular building systems through to the 1920s. |
