I'm not really up on the Mecanno details but a mate is as he has played with it for years and still does and is involved in the society AFAIK. He's made things like 6 speed synchro boxes with high low range in Mecanno, he likes big truck stuff. The horological reference was to some of the seemingly odd gear teeth choices in Mecanno which apparently allow quite precise approximation to things like the lunar cycle IIRC.
My grand father worked on something that had to do with cable. Might have been the trans atlantic phone. He cut off part of a finger, on the table saw. As a result, my Dad is spooky about table saw. Don't think he's ever let me use it.
Now days, that copper would be disappeared in seconds, due to brass rats.
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The erector set was fun, but what I really wanted was to be allowed to use the table saw. It was really difficult to make a planked model boat hull without a saw to rip the planks. My homemade toys either flew or floated, for which wood is better than steel. I pestered the folks until Dad checked me out on the saw and Mom on the sewing machine, to make sails.
The copper foil to plate the hulls was rejected coax wrapping from the
1955 transatlantic telephone cable, made where Dad worked. For years bad lots of the insulated center wire, copper wrapping and steel armor wire could be found all around the NH seacoast area. They assembled trial sections and measured the electrical impedance, and scrapped whatever didn't give the correct value. We kids had more of it than we could ever use. jsw
I got a set in '59 or '60 with the heavy AC motor. It disappeared a few pieces at a time over the next decade. The only thing I had left was the motor.
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