MECHANICAL TOYS.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 401, 14 January 1904, Page 7

MECHANICAL TOYS.

ftffihDF all the toys which a veritable £/?■ world of workers is ever engaged in making to amuse and educate the little ones, there is none which find greater favour in juvenile eyes than the automatic figura—that queer little parcel of mechanism which, dressed in the garb of soldier, sailor, policeman, postman, or some other distinctive type, indulges in life-like, mirth-provoking antics and affords glee to its tiny owner. 'lt is cheap at a shilling/ thinks the fond father, hurrying- homewards on Christmas £v6; ' and it is sure to amuse Bobby/ So he nukes the purchase, and < the genuine delight it causes his growing offspring convinces him that the money was well spent. All goes well until the inevitable catastrophe happens. Bobby in his excitement permits the promenader to wander beyond the limit* of the table top, aad picks, him up from the floor, if

net a mangled eorpse, at least put <mt of action, by a broken arm or leg, or perhaps eonie internal disorder. Naturally, father volunteers to soon put natters *ight, assuring his tearful sen that he will mend the toy iaSa'jifty.' Bat when he comes to commence the work, laying bare the skeleton of tin beneath the well-fitting garments? to search for the damaged part, he qaieUy observes that it is not the easy, matter he had anticipated,and finds that to properly effect, the repair requires some tools he does riot possess. He is surprised to discover that ,the little tinman is a perfect fflMvel of mechanism and mechanical skill in construction, and wonders how it can possibly be made to soil for a shilling If he/>nly had tha curiosity to ; inquire still farther into, the matter his wonder would be still more increased, and certainly he would never understand how it was done until be has seen the toy factory in full swing. * , Hundreds of firms employ thousands of bauds year in year out iu the work of. automatic figure making, and there is one very large houae in Paris devoted eatirely : to the manufacture of the cheap clockwork stomached automatons, la this particular 'asine' scarcely any other kind of toy. is made, and here throughout the tweve months some two hundred workers are kept .busy satisfying the everincreasiag demand. The toys are turasd ont in their hand reds of thousands—not less than a million is the annual product -■■ and they find their way; in various guises across the seas to the uttermost ends of the earth. A trood many are sold in tbe land of their birth, but the toymakers* chief markets are Great Britain and the United States.

To follow the evolution of the petit I jouet automatique from plain sheets of l tia and slips of to the finished 'article for the market is both an interesting and educating sijjht Any one of these toys is composed of more separate pis"C3B of different sizes aad shapes than a seeing it would believe, and passes through many pairs of hands ere arriving at the fiaal state of fitn6Bs/in which it is placed before the purchaser. Some of the more complicated constructions contain as many as 120 separate pieceß, others fewer,-but very seldom less than fifty parts.

A favourite toy ia a model of the Brinish 'Bobby'—that is to say the policeman as viewed thr-ugh 'les lunettes franchises' —a most imposing and fascinating figure. He looks simple enough, albeit, smart en tout, but like a good many members of the noble force is not quite so simple as his outward appearance might incline one to believe, and this becomes apparent the Tiioment his dissection is begun. Pull hira to bits, and what is he made ofP Well, Egbert, is piecemeal, consists of no few<«r than 38 distinct and separate metal parts, while hia clothing, belt, and buttoas represent anothe*l4 items, giving a total of fifty-two. From th« manufacturar's point ef view he was a very good policeman—he sold well. When first introduced he became the rage of London. New York, and Patis, but of course each,country had its policeman clothed in local style. The making,, of the model is the first step in the creation of the toy. What particular type it is to represent the inventor.alone can decide, his judgment being influenced largely by current topics. Sometimes he finds it pays to build a figure for Bale in one country alone, thoughnaturally it is better for him if be can • ring the changes' so to speak, and supply another customer at the same time. As an example may be cited the khakiclad Tommy Atkins, brought into prominence by the South African war. He sold well for months. The khaki-ciad Boar found equal sympathy on the Continent The internal arrangements of both were the same; only the uniform differed a little.

M Martin, king of Parisian toy makers, member of the Legion of Honour, and president of the Toy Makers' Syndicatej acts as his own inventor and constructor. In his little den, close beside the big workshop, at a boaid crowded with weird skeletOHß in wire in various stages of progress—completed figures in the rough, and parts of figures, heads, arms, legshe sits with all the necessary tools and materials at hand, thinking out an€ building up the premier figure, the model. ■

How many types of individuals he has caricatured in these tin toys in his time it would be difficult to Bay. He himself has long since lost count, and his private museum contains specimens of only the moat popular of his creations. The making of the model is no easy matter Sometimes he spends weeks, and even months, in designing and perfecting a figure, and only when he feels convinced he can improve it no further does it go to the workshop, where machines and hands are set in motion to produce it in tens of thousands.

A blessing of the toy manufacturing industry is the scope it afiorcs for the employment of female laboar, and though it might be imagined women would be of email use in tae making of metal automatons, Jaßt the opposite is the truth; by far. tne' greater number of the employees ia l'usine Martin are Farisiennes. Most of the work is of light character, to which femals fingers are well adapted and anything but out cf place, and it is performed under conditions that a Biioish factory inspector would admire—in a workshop loity, airy, and light, with a glasa roof fitted with blinds to be drawn when the sun pours through too warmly.