Google Earth Community: The amazing life of AC Gilbert

"Never work at anything that isn't fun."

Physician, magician, Olympic gold medallist, radio pioneer, discoverer of Paradise, the man who saved Christmas, breeder of champion German shepherds, the guy who gave the world an Erector (and built an electric dildo for the ladies!), the perpetual boy – AC Gilbert, 1884-1961, has been called "one of the most multi-talented inventors of all time", and as well as millions of kids still playing with his toys, there are tributes to this little-remembered man all around the United States.

From Erector Square in New Haven, Connecticut, to Discovery Village in Salem, Oregon, the spirit of Alfred Carlton Gilbert lives on in the Erector set and the millions who fondly recall playing with it as children, not least the generations of scientists, engineers and architects who can trace their careers back to that wooden box of nuts, bolts and girders.
There was a 2002 TV movie about Gilbert, "The Man Who Saved Christmas", but short and rotund Jason Alexander portraying the tall and athletic Gilbert was only one way it stretched the imagination. The truth is far more interesting.

Gilbert put enormous toil into everything he did, and at the end of his life held 150 patents, but as wealthy as he became, he wasn't a money-oriented man. He had a motto of sorts: "Never work at anything that isn't fun."

FURTHER READING
The AC Gilbert Heritage Society requires registration but can be useful for collectors. AC Gilbert's Discovery Village in Salem is the highlight at ACGilbert.org. Tributes to Gilbert can be found at the American Flyer and ErectorSet.net websites. Wikipedia has a solid write-up, but Everything2.com perhaps has the best online biography of all.
RFG, which makes parts for American Flyer trains, has loads of images and a history of company at its website.
Two books worth hunting down are Bruce Watson's "The Man Who Changed How Toys and Boys Were Made" from 2002 and AC Gilbert's 1954 autobiography, "The Man Who Lives in Paradise".
You can also read on my blog about how I survived being the owner of Gilbert's nuclear toys for kids. Drop by here.

FEBRUARY 2008 UPDATE: A visitor to my blog, Dorseyland, grew up three blocks from AC Gilbert's home in North Haven, Connecticut, and was able to tell me how to find it on Google Earth, and the Paradise nature reserve in nearby Hamden as well. Both of these have been added to the tour.

Edited by Dorseyland (02/23/08 08:11 AM)

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