"Every boy & girl a scientist" instruments for children in interwar Britain

ISIS

Volumn 98, Issue 2, 2007, Pages 266-289

  Keene, Melanie ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ARTICLE; CHILD; EDUCATION; FEMALE; HISTORY; HUMAN; MALE; OPTICS; SCIENCE; UNITED KINGDOM;

CHILD; FEMALE; GREAT BRITAIN; HISTORY, 20TH CENTURY; HUMANS; MALE; OPTICS; SCIENCE;

EID: 34548159548     PISSN: 00211753     EISSN: 15456994     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1086/518188     Document Type: Article

References (156)

1. Edward Blackwell, The Unfolding Years: Memoirs of a Bourgeois Childhood (London: Athena, 2003), p. 135. Although it is unclear whether Blackwell received his set for Christmas, given the importance of the festive market to Construments' advertising strategy it does not seem too great a conjecture to make. Blackwell's autobiography details his Midlands youth, during the Depression and ends with his acceptance to Oxford University to read Natural Science. Apparently he wished to become a biochemist, but in the end he spent his later life as an accountant and businessman.
2. For work that explicitly discusses these objects see Gerard Turner's survey "Presidential Address: Scientific Toys," British Journal for the History of Science, 1987, 20:377-398;
3. Brian Gee, "Amusement Chests and Portable Laboratories: Practical Alternatives to the Regular Laboratory," in The Development of the Laboratory: Essays on the Place of Experiment in Industrial Civilization, ed. Frank A. J. L. James (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1989), pp. 37-59 (an investigation of nineteenth-century chemistry sets);
4. Carroll W. Pursell, Jr., "Toys, Technology, and Sex Roles in America, 1920-1940," in Dynamos and Virgins Revisited: Women and Technological Change in History: An Anthology, ed. Martha Moore Trescott (Metuchen, N.J./London: Scarecrow, 1979), pp. 252-267;
5. and Deborah J. Warner, "Commodities for the Classroom: Apparatus for Science and Education in Antebellum America," Annals of Science, 1988, 45:387-397 (a consideration of school equipment).
6. Work on this topic includes Aileen Fyfe, "Young Readers and the Sciences," in Books and the Sciences in History, ed. Marina Frasca-Spada and Nicholas Jardine (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2000), pp. 276-290;
7. the series of nineteenth-century reprints in Fyfe, ed., Science for Children (Bristol: Thoemmes, 2003);
8. Greg Myers, "Science for Women and Children: The Dialogue of Popular Science in the Nineteenth Century," in Nature Transfigured: Science and Literature, 1700-1900, ed. John Christie and Sally Shuttleworth (Manchester: Manchester Univ. Press, 1989), pp. 171-200;
9. James A. Secord, "Newton in the Nursery: Tom Telescope and the Philosophy of Tops and Balls, 1761-1838," History of Science, 1985, 23:127-151;
10. and Jonathan R. Topham, "Periodicals and the Making of Reading Audiences for Science in Early Nineteenth-Century Britain: The Youth's Magazine, 1828-37," in Culture and Science in the Nineteenth-Century Media, ed. Louise Henson et al (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004), pp. 57-70.
11. David Layton, Science for the People: The Origins of the School Science Curriculum in England (London: Allen & Unwin, 1973);
12. Edgar William Jenkins, From Armstrong to Nuffield: Studies in Twentieth-Century Science Education in England and Wales (London: Murray, 1979);
13. Gary McCullough, Jenkins, and Layton, Technical Revolution? The Politics of School Science and Technology in England and Wales since the Second World War (London: Falmer, 1984);
14. Jenkins and B. J. Swinnerton, Junior School Science Education in England and Wales since 1900: From Steps to Stages (London: Woburn, 1998)
15. (Jenkins has also edited a collection entitled School Science and Technology: Some Issues and Perspectives [Leeds: Centre for Studies in Science and Mathematics Education, 1993]);
16. and John Rudolph, "Turning Science to Account: Chicago and the General Science Movement in Secondary Education, 1905-1920," Isis, 2005, 96:353-389.
17. Gerard Turner, "Presidential Address: Scientific Toys" (cit. n. 2);
18. Albert Van Helden and Thomas L. Hankins, "Introduction: Instruments in the History of Science," Osiris, 1994, 9:1-6;
19. Deborah J. Warner, "What Is a Scientific Instrument, When Did It Become One, and Why?" Brit. J. Hist. Sci., 1990, 25:83-93;
20. Hankins and Robert J. Silverman, Instruments and the Imagination (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton Univ. Press, 1995);
21. and Karin Calvert, Children in the House: The Material Culture of Early Childhood, 1600-1900 (Boston: Northeastern Univ. Press, 1992).
22. For sociological treatments of scientific technologies see David Gooding, Trevor Pinch, and Simon Schaffer, eds., The Uses of Experiment: Studies in the Natural Sciences (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1989).
23. Johan Huizinga, Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play Element in Culture (1949; London: Temple Smith, 1970);
24. Iona Opie and Peter Opie, Children's Games with Things (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1997);
25. and Marina Warner, curator, Only Make-Believe: Ways of Playing (Compton Verney, 2005).
26. Jeffrey H. Goldstein, ed., Toys, Play, and Child Development (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1994), gives rather general and contemporary, but still useful, analyses.
27. For more on the use of the "instructive and amusing" category see Fyfe, "Young Readers" (cit. n. 3), p. 276.
28. London Times, 21 Nov. 1932, p. 9
29. (see Other Systems Newsletters, [19997], 79, p. 554, for corroboration of this date). The directors' names are taken from Construments Ltd. headed notepaper: Tony Knowles, personal communication, 21 Jan. 2005. The description of the instruments is from the lid of a Construments "10" outfit (see Figure 2).
30. See Turner, "Presidential Address: Scientific Toys" (cit. n. 2), pp. 389-393 (on the older tradition);
31. Hankins and Silverman, Instruments and the Imagination (cit. n. 5), p. 149 (stereoscope slogan);
32. Jennifer Tucker, "Photography as Witness, Detective, and Impostor: Visual Representation in Victorian Science," in Victorian Science in Context, ed. Bernard Lightman (Chicago/London: Univ. Chicago Press, 1997), pp. 378-408, on p. 394;
33. Ellison Hawks, The Book of Electrical Wonders (London: Harrap, 1929);
34. and Hawks, The Book of Natural Wonders (London: Harrap, 1932).
35. Construmag, Feb. 1933, p. 28;
36. and Construments promotional leaflet, pp. 5-6 (quotation).
37. Construmag, Feb. 1933, p. 28.
38. Construments promotional leaflet, p. 2;
39. and London Times, 22 Dec. 1933, p. 7.
40. On the matter of "economy" in science see Jenkins, From Armstrong to Nuffield (cit. n. 4), p. 75;
41. for the effects of the Depression on the British toy industry see Kenneth D. Brown, The British Toy Business: A History since 1700 (London: Hambledon, 1996), pp. 125-128.
42. C. W. Hansel, "Preface," in J. Harold Getliffe, Construments Manual of Experimental Science (Bedford: Rush & Warwick, 1934), p. iv;
43. Hansel, "Suggestions Relating to Reform in the Teaching of Geometrical Optics," Proceedings of the Physics Society, 1928, 47:270-273, on p. 271;
44. and London Times, 22 Dec. 1933, p. 7.
45. For a recent twist on these ideas see F. Quercioli, B. Tiribilli, A. Mannoni, and S. Acciai, "Play Optics with LEGO™," Proceedings of the Fifth International Topical Meeting on Education and Training in Optics (1997), pp. 233-242, online at http://www.spie.org/communityServices/ StudentsAndEducators/etop/1997/233_1.pdf.
46. Like Hansel, these authors claim that "in a laboratory setup for educational purposes (or even for research) low cost, reduced weight and compact size are all desirable characteristics. Versatility, quickness and ease of assembly are also extremely valuable" (p. 233).
47. Frank Hanby, quoted in Other Systems Newsletter, [1992?], 5, p. 79.
48. Construmag, Feb. 1933, p. 28.
49. On Hamleys see http://www.hamleys.com/web/about/ (accessed 6 June 2005).
50. London Times, 22 Dec. 1933, p. 7;
51. Construmag, Feb. 1933, p. ii;
52. and Allan Ferguson, "Lecture and Instructional Apparatus," Journal of Scientific Instruments, 1932, 9:55-58, on pp. 57-58.
53. Construments promotional leaflet, pp. 1, 2;
54. see also Other Systems Newsletter, [1992?], 7.9, p. 554.
55. On BTH see http://www.marconi.com/Home/about_us/Our%20History/ GEC%20Heritage/British%20Thomson-Houston%20History (accessed 6 June 2005).
56. On the company's similar role in Cavendish physics see T. E. Allibone, "Metropolitan-Vickers Electrical Company and die Cavendish Laboratory," in Cambridge Physics in the Thirties, ed. John Hendry (Bristol: Hilger, 1984), pp. 150-173;
57. and Jeff Hughes, "Plasticine and Valves: Industry, Instrumentation, and the Emergence of Nuclear Physics," in The Invisible Industrialist: Manufactures and the Production of Knowledge, ed. J.-P. Gaudillière and I. Löwy (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1998), pp. 58-101, esp. pp. 69-70.
58. Construments promotional leaflet, p. 5;
59. and Hansel, "Suggestions Relating to Reform in the Teaching of Geometrical Optics" (cit. n. 12), p. 271.
60. See also John Hendry, introduction to "Part 3: Underlying Themes," in Cambridge Physics in the Thirties, ed. Hendry, pp. 103-124, esp. p. 120;
61. Hughes, "Plasticine and Valves," p. 60;
62. and Guy Hartcup and T. E. Allibone, Cockcroft and the Atom (Bristol: Hilger, 1984), pp. 28-58.
63. Hansel, "Suggestions Relating to Reform in the Teaching of Geometrical Optics," p. 271.
64. See David Follett, The Rise of the Science Museum under Henry Lyons (London: Science Museum, 1978), p. 113, for the Science Museum's 1929 acknowledgment that "boys and girls should make models themselves" but that the "Science Museum cannot do that work."
65. On Hansel see Hansel, "Preface," in Getliffe, Construments Manual of Experimental Science (cit. n. 12), p. iv.
66. For his writings on teaching physics see C. W. Hansel and P. Woodland, An Introductory Electricity and Magnetism (London: Heinemann, 1930);
67. and Hansel, Examples in Numerical Physics, Vols. 1-3 (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1937).
68. Though I have been unable to obtain further information about his life, Hansel appears to have continued to publish articles in this field. The prince's visit to Bedford School is described in Michael De-la-Noy, Bedford School: A History, 1552-2002 (Bedford: Bedford School, 1999), pp. 114-115;
69. Hansel's donation was reported by T. Taylor, Bedford School assistant archivist, personal communication, 12 Nov. 2003.
70. Ferguson, "Lecture and Instructional Apparatus" (cit. n. 15), pp. 57-58.
71. C. R. Darling, "Special Educational Apparatus," J. Sci. Inst., 1929, 5:79-80, on p. 79;
72. and Robert Willis, A System of Apparatus for the Use of Lecturers and Experimenters in Mechanical Philosophy (London: John Weale, 1851), p. 1. However, the instruments Willis describes may have been intended only for use as demonstration devices during lectures and not marketed as a consumer product.
73. Christoph Meinel, "Molecules and Croquet Balls," in Models: The Third Dimension of Science, ed. Soraya de Chadarevian and Nick Hopwood (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford Univ. Press, 2004), pp. 242-275, on p. 269;
74. Bert Love and Jim Gamble, The Meccano System and the Special Purpose Meccano Sets, 1901-1979 (London: New Cavendish Books, 1986), pp. 16, 126 ("Kemex" sets), 82, 162 (Hansel's work for Meccano);
75. and Darling, "Special Educational Apparatus," p. 79.
76. On the wider social setting see Harry Hendrick, Children, Childhood, and English Society, 1880-1990 (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1997), pp. 88-89.
77. Darling, "Special Educational Apparatus," p. 79.
78. William Hodson Brock, ed., H. E. Armstrong and the Teaching of Science, 1880-1930 (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1973), pp. 55-73, 111 (quotation);
79. and Jenkins and Swinnerton, Junior School Science Education (cit. n. 4), p. 25 (quoting Hadow Committee report). Sir Henry Hadow chaired six consultative committees between 1923 and 1933 that investigated various aspects of British education, from books to psychological tests to the curriculum, itself. The 1931 Hadow Committee report analyzed primary education;
80. it can be found online at Derek Gillard's Education in England page: http://www.dg.dial.pipex.com/documents/hadow/31.shtml. Alongside its recommendation of "activity and experience" was the claim that an ideal elementary school consisted of "a community of young and old, learning together."
81. See also P. Atkinson and S. Delamont, "Mock-ups and Cock-ups: The Stage-Management of Guided Discovery Instruction," in The Process of Schooling: A. Sociological Reader, ed. M. Hammersley and P. Woods (London: Open Univ. Press, 1976), pp. 133-142, esp. pp. 133-134.
82. See Anna-Katherina Mayer, "Roots of the History of Science in Britain, 1916-1950" (Ph.D. diss., Univ. Cambridge, 2003), pp. 11-55;
83. Hansel, "Preface," in Getliffe, Construments Manual of Experimental Science (cit. n. 12), pp. iii-iv;
84. Henry Stanley Shelton, rev. of General Science, School Science Review, 1933, 14:459-460;
85. and Shelton, Thoughts of a Schoolmaster (or Common Sense in Education) (London: Hutchinson, 1934).
86. On contemporary trends regarding the teaching of science see Jenkins, From Armstrong to Nuffield (cit. n. 4), pp. 84-90.
87. Construmag, Feb. 1933, p. 1.
88. Construmag, Feb. 1933, p. 1;
89. Construments promotional leaflet, p. 8;
90. and Blackwell, Unfolding Years (cit. n. 1), p. 135.
91. Hansel, "Suggestions Relating to Reform in the Teaching of Geometrical Optics" (cit. n. 12), p. 271;
92. Construmag, Feb. 1933, p. 1;
93. Construments Instruction Book, p. 16;
94. and "'Ourselves': What We Are and What We Hope to Be" [editorial], Armchair Science, Apr. 1929, p. ii.
95. On the "neglect of science" debate see Mayer, "Roots of the History of Science in Britain" (cit. n. 25), pp. 18, 50.
96. Construments advertisement, Construmag, Nov. 1933, p. iii;
97. Construments promotional leaflet, p. 1;
98. and Love and Gamble, Meccano System (cit. n. 22), p. 16.
99. Construmag, Dec. 1933, p. 260;
100. and ibid., Nov. 1933, p. 231.
101. Ibid., Feb. 1934, p. 311.
102. Mayer, "Roots of the History of Science in Britain" (cit. n. 25), p. 28;
103. and Brock, Armstrong and the Teaching of Science (cit. n. 24), p. 73.
104. Atkinson and Delamont, "Mock-ups and Cock-ups" (cit. n. 24), p. 142.
105. Construments promotional leaflet, p. 3 ("New 'Craze'");
106. Construmag, Apr. 1934, p. 28 ("abnormally inquisitive");
107. Richmal Crompton, William - The Detective (1935; London: Armada, 1978);
108. and Brock, Armstrong and the Teaching of Science (cit. n. 24), p. 113.
109. See also Kirsten Drotner, English Children and Their Magazines, 1751-1945 (New Haven, Conn./London: Yale Univ. Press, 1988), pp. 206-207, 218-219.
110. William Hamilton Fyfe, "Science in Secondary Education," School Sci. Rev., 1935, 16:289-297, on pp. 291, 294.
111. Getliffe, Construments Manual of Experimental Science (cit. n. 12), p. v.
112. On bodily disciplining see Carolyn Marvin, When Old Technologies Were New: Thinking about Electronic Communication in the Late Nineteenth Century (Oxford/New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1988), pp. 109-113;
113. and Chris Jenks, ed., The Sociology of Childhood: Essential Readings, rpt. ed. (Aldershot: Gregg Revivals, 1997), pp. 203 (with regard to new electrical technologies), 76-86 (on building models).
114. Construments Instruction Book, p. 16.
115. Hansel, "Preface," in Getliffe, Construments Manual of Experimental Science (cit. n. 12), p. iv.
116. Frank Hanby, in Other Systems Newsletter, [19927], 5, p. 79;
117. Construmag, June 1933, p. 90;
118. and "10" Instruction Book, p. 6.
119. Brock, Armstrong and the Teaching of Science (cit. n. 24), p. Ill;
120. and Huizinga, Homo Ladens (cit. n. 6), p. 23.
121. See also Atkinson and Delamont, "Mock-ups and Cock-ups" (cit. n. 24), pp. 138, 136;
122. and Jenks, ed., Sociology of Childhood (cit. n. 36), pp. 80, 195.
123. Hendry, introduction to "Part 3: Underlying Themes" (cit. n. 17), p. 121;
124. and Hughes, "Plasticine and Valves" (cit. n. 16), pp. 61, 66, 67, 79.
125. Topham, "Periodicals and the Making of Reading Audiences for Science" (cit. n. 3), p. 57;
126. Drotner, English Children and Their Magazines (cit. n. 34), pp. 183, 188, 190 (comics);
127. and Joseph Manduco, The Meccano Magazine, 1916-1981 (London: New Cavendish Books, 1987), pp. 7 (circulation figures), 6 (on readers' complaints).
128. At this time, and despite a ban on editors appending personal names to articles, Hawks also used the Meccano Magazine to advertise his numerous literary productions, described as books "from the Editor" (ibid., p. 7). His works do not appear to be advertised in the Construmag, however.
129. Construmag, Mar.-Apr. 1933, p. 50;
130. Construments promotional leaflet, p. 6;
131. Blackwell, Unfolding Years (cit. n. 1), pp. 135, 136;
132. Robert Blyth, "An Interesting Social Survey of the Twentieth Century and an Entertaining Read" [rev. of Blackwell, Unfolding Years], Pharmaceutical Journal, 2004, 272:516;
133. and Construmag, Feb. 1933, p. 1.
134. See also Brian Sutton-Smith, "Does Play Prepare the Future?" in Toys, Play, and Child Development, ed. Goldstein (cit. n. 6), pp. 130-146, esp. p. 141.
135. Unlike Blackwell, Blyth did go on to have a scientific career after a youth spent playing with Construments sets, and he edited the Pharmaceutical Journal from 1961 to 1986.
136. A century earlier, the Youth's Magazine had "frequently represented social practices of conversation, family reading, and family recreation as being of great importance," not only to communicate its evangelical piety, but also as a means of education. See Topham, "Periodicals and the Making of Reading Audiences for Science" (cit. n. 3), p. 65.
137. Construmag, Mar. 1934, p. 28;
138. Robert Opie, Remember When: A Nostalgic Trip through the Consumer Era (London: Mitchell Beazley, 1999), pp. 38 (1908 Meccano set), 71 (later 1920s "Engineering for Boys" sets;
139. copy of the Meccano Magazine cover for Jan. 1924, subtitled "Published in the Interests of Boys");
140. and Pursell, "Toys, Technology, and Sex Roles in America, 1920-1940" (cit. n. 2). For nineteenth-century examples of the provision of gender-specific toys see Calvert, Children in the House (cit. n. 5), pp. 110-119.
141. Construments promotional leaflet, p. 2;
142. Drotner, English Children and Their Magazines (cit. n. 34), pp. 198-199 (nos. of scouts and guides);
143. and Hughes, "Plasticine and Valves" (cit. n. 16), p. 68 (wireless sets).
144. On the "League of Ovaltineys" see Hendrick, Children, Childhood, and English Society (cit. n. 22), p. 89;
145. and Opie, Remember When (cit. n. 45), p. 82.
146. On the "Frog Club" see Brown, British Toy Business (cit. n. 11), p. 133.
147. More generally, on the association of children's clubs with consumer products see S. G. Jones, Workers at Play: A Social and Economic History of Leisure, 1918-1939 (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1986), pp. 9, 34-61.
148. Hughes, "Plasticine and Valves" (cit. n. 16), p. 68;
149. and Blackwell, Unfolding Years (cit. n. 1), p. 135.
150. C. E. M. Hansel, personal communication, 7 June 2005.
151. Construments promotional leaflet, pp. 5-6.
152. In Kelly's London Directory, Construments Ltd. is listed from 1934 to 1937: J. Underwood, personal communication, 27 Oct. 2003;
153. Guildhall Library's "list of dissolved companies, 1930-49," indicates that Construments existed from 1932 to 1949. On the legislation prohibiting the manufacture of metal toys see Manduco, Meccano Magazine (cit. n. 42), p. 8;
154. regarding BTH's wartime output see http://www.marconi.com/Home/about_us/ Our%20History/GEC%20Heritage/British%20Thomson-Houston%20History (accessed 16Dec. 2005).
155. Robert Blyth, written response to a questionnaire, 2 Sept. 2004: "my early life was brought to an abrupt change by service in the Royal Artillery and the Royal Indians [sic] Artillery during the Second World War. But there again science entered the scene, as I became a Radar (or then, because of the high secrecy of the time, called Fire [gunfire] control) instructor. So, I was a technical instructor fire control, serving for a short time for the coast artillery school in Bombay. In the end, I was part of the forces being assembled on the East coast of India for the seaborne invasion of Malaya, which fortunately became unnecessary as a result of the atomic bombing of Japan. So I am still alive. Is or is not science wonderful? Incidentally, as well as Construmag, my periodicals as a teenager included Armchair Science & Discovery, which in its September 1939 edition forecast in a leading article, the atom bomb!"
156. London Times, 20 Feb. 1934, p. 8 (emphasis added).