The Extraordinary Life of Alfred Carlton Gilbert: Olympian, Magician,

On July 8, 1913, Alfred Carlton Gilbert's patent for the Erector Set was issued. It became one of the most popular toys of all time. He was a magician, Olympic gold medal winner, inventor, and businessman. An extraordinary man to say the least! An excerpt from the article:

"Alfred Carlton Gilbert (1884 — 1961) was an incredible man of many talents. Although he was a record setting Olympic athlete, professional magician, industrious toymaker and successful entrepreneur, today he is most widely known as the inventor of the popular Erector construction sets. Born in Oregon, Gilbert was an athletic kid with a bit of wild streak who once impulsively joined a minstrel show, “to become the ‘Champion Boy Bag Puncher of the World.’”

Eventually, the young man attended Tualatin Academy (now Pacific University), where he excelled in sports and earned more than 100 hundred awards. In 1904, Gilbert transferred to Connecticut’s Yale University, where he completed his degree in sports medicine. While there, “he competed in the 1908 Olympics in London, breaking the world record and winning a gold medal in pole vaulting.” He also married Mary Thompson, who he’d met while attending Tualatin Academy, together they’d go on to have three children.

Throughout his college experiences, which included breaking a total of three world records in two different sports and inventing the pole vault box, Gilbert supported himself by performing magic shows. During senior year, in 1909, he partnered with his friend John Petrie to start the Mysto Manufacturing Company, which sold boxed magic sets. Just two years later, Gilbert would get the inspiration he needed to create one of the world’s most popular toys, which he “based on steel building girders he observed while on a train ride.”

Rumor has it that Mary Thompson helped her husband develop cardboard prototypes of the invention, to ensure they got the right dimensions and patterns. The Erector Set was officially released in 1913 and presented at the New York Toy Fair. It was the only construction toy on the market to feature a motor. By this point, Gilbert bought out his partner, anticipating the company’s impending success, with his toy propelling it forward. By 1915, Gilbert’s invention received a Gold Medal at the Panama Pacific Exposition in San Francisco."