Collectors’ Corner

Why does a small gear make a large one turn more slowly? This Dutch Meccano manual sets out the answer with actual parts a child could bolt together. The opening spread of “Drijfwerk-Uitrusting A” explains gears, pinions and worm drives. One example pairs a 19-tooth pinion with a 57-tooth wheel: three turns of the small gear produce one turn of the large one. The text then reverses the arrangement to…

The tinplate lorries in our museum show one part of Distler’s output. The Nuremberg company also made an unusually elaborate battery car: the Electro Matic 7500 FS, based on a Porsche 356 cabriolet. A study of the example in the Lower Austrian state collections describes a working ignition key and a flexible remote-control shaft. The shaft fitted over the steering wheel and gear lever, allowing the operator to steer and…

Joustra’s name comes from Jouets de Strasbourg. The company was founded in the Neudorf district in 1934 by the Kosmann brothers, according to the Musée du Kochersberg’s account of its Joustra exhibition. The museum arranged the toys partly by the ways they moved: a display traced materials and mechanisms from 1934 to 1982, while another grouped inexpensive friction-driven figures. Aircraft and helicopters hung above the cases. One particularly curious pairing…