Stable (construction kit)

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Stable construction kit No. 51 from 1929

Stabil and Stabil-Baukasten were brand names for a metal construction kit from the former Berlin company Walther & Co. These metal construction kits were so common in Germany in the 1920s and 1930s that the name Stabil-Baukasten became a generic name for all metal construction kits.

The spelling and the order of the words for the name of the original Stabil construction kit from Walther & Co discussed here is not uniform. The designation Walther's STABIL metal construction kit is likely to have been used most frequently .

The stable construction kit from Walther probably appeared on the market in August 1911. Production stopped in 1970. The company premises were sold.

properties

The stable construction kit contains - like the other metal construction kits - the following components:

  • Flat iron that are evenly spaced
  • Axles and wheels for building moving models
  • Screws and nuts as fastening material
  • an instruction booklet with which you can make your own toys from the parts in the box.

The original Stabil construction kit from Walther differs from the other metal construction kits in the following properties:

  • The flat irons are nickel-plated and have a hole spacing of 12.5 mm.
  • The screws and nuts conform to the British standard BSW 5/32 ".
  • Grub screws are preferred as axes .
  • The small boxes already contain gears made of molded sheet metal, later made of duroplast . The gears have integral gear ratios to one another.
  • The language in the instruction booklets is technically oriented, and care was taken to use the correct technical names for the components as they are in reality .
  • The numbering of the basic sets is between 46 and 55. The higher the number, the larger the set. The unusual numbers can be explained historically, because in addition to Stabil, the Walther company also produced a whole range of other construction sets, such as wooden construction sets to which the lower numbers were assigned.

In the period from 1927 to 1943, the Stabil system also differed fundamentally from the metal construction kits from other manufacturers in the following features:

  • In particular inventor kits are ball bearings , hollow axles and gears included with any number of teeth. The larger wheels from the Stabil construction kit are designed to fit these hollow axles.
  • The Stabil spring motors were developments that clearly surpassed similar products from other manufacturers in terms of energy and endurance.

The history of the stable construction kit

By 1911 at the latest, Walther's new engineering construction game, Stabil, came onto the market. The further development of the earlier metal construction kit Walther's Ingenieur Bauspiel , which appeared as early as 1904 and is thus the first German metal construction kit with evenly perforated flat iron and wheels, is stable . That is why the first Stabil construction kits still contained many wooden parts that were taken over from the older system.
Obviously, there was some confusion among customers when it came to the names for the old and the new system. This is how the new set was called Walther's new construction game STABIL as early as 1912 .

The demand for the new kits exceeded all expectations as early as 1913. New parts and new boxes were brought out. Several special sets for the construction of railway wagons appeared until 1914. The template booklets contained more and more new models. The system was continuously developed. From 1916 the system was called Walther's new metal construction game STABIL . The first engines appeared in 1920.

In 1921 a new period of the Stabil system began. Only now have the names Stabil and Stabil-Baukasten been legally protected as trademarks. The system is now officially called Walther's Metallbaukasten Stabil .

A lot of new parts were released in 1921. In addition, the contents of the boxes have been revised and enlarged. Developments among competitors were responsible for these efforts. As early as 1912 there was a German agency for the English metal construction kit manufacturer Meccano . In the course of World War I, however, the assets and rights of the Meccano company were confiscated as enemy assets. The Märklin company acquired the Meccano rights from the German government in 1917, and after the end of the war the company started its own production with new parts developed by Märklin itself. The reaction of the Walther company led to the fact that the new Stabil range from 1921 surpassed the products of the competitors for a short time, both in terms of the number of parts and the equipment of the boxes.

In 1925 the Stabil inventor kits appeared, a system of additional kits that had to be combined with the normal Stabil kits. The boxes contained parts that were rarely found in other metal construction systems of this type.

In 1927 the patent gears were brought out, an assortment of gears with exact gear ratios 1: 2, 1: 3, 1: 4. The template booklets have been revised so that the new parts have already been used in many models. Most of the wheels are now made of sheet brass, overall the quality of all parts has been significantly improved.

After the death of Franz Walther (1931) the company was continued by his son Walter Walther. In the period from 1932 to 1943, hardly any changes were made to the construction sets themselves. By 1936, only a few Stabil small sets appeared. In 1943 the factory was destroyed in a bomb attack.

From 1950, after the Berlin blockade, Walther was able to sell the Stabil construction kit again in West Germany. The former East German markets were lost, however. The fact that Walther did not sell toy trains now turned out to be a disadvantage, because the dealers preferred manufacturers who supplied model trains and metal construction kits together. Now only the stable construction kit was produced. All of the company's other kits were no longer manufactured. In the context of the economic miracle, sales initially rose in the 1950s, but in the 1960s, as with other competitors, they fell significantly. In 1970 production had to be stopped.

Garbage truck

Model from Stabil as an example

This model shows a garbage truck from around 1930. Back then, in the 1930s, the garbage cans still had to be lifted and hung on the filling flaps. Then the lower part of the rubbish bin had to be lifted to empty it - all without hydraulic support. The picture shows the rear of the car with the drum up and the emptying flap open.

The model consists of nickel-plated parts. At Stabil, colored parts have always been avoided. The Walther company justified this:
Against a brightly colored metal it can be said that it is still technically impossible to apply a brightly colored paint to metal in a durable manner. In the case of colored metal parts, the paint will wear off at screwing and turning points after a short period of use and the components will then appear unsightly and unsightly.


Stabil inventor kit 56 from 1934
Water wheel with stone saw

Stable inventor kits

In 1925 the stable inventor kits appeared . They formed a system of additional sets that had to be combined with the normal stable construction sets. The boxes contain parts that are not found in other metal construction kit systems of this type.
The boxes were not an economically significant success. That is why they are rarely found today. They were not reprinted in 1950.

The stable inventor kits combine several special individual systems:

  • a system for producing gears with any number of teeth.
    The teeth were individually inserted into suitable perforated strips. You could produce gears with 14 teeth or more. There was no upper limit.
    However, the teeth are too big for universal use.
  • a system of rolled shafts, i.e. hollow axles of 14 and 25 mm in diameter.
    Flat iron could either be pushed through directly or attached to it using hook straps. There were matching flanges for attaching wheels.
  • a system of ball bearings for normal axles and for the rolled shafts.
    With the ball bearings, smooth shafts were also introduced into the Stabil construction kits. The rolled shafts could only be installed rotatably in models with these ball bearings.
  • an assortment of L, T and bend pieces as well as rectangular and square frames.

The smallest inventor's kit, No. 56 , only contained ball bearing parts for threaded pins, smooth shafts and a small rolled shaft. In addition, it was well equipped with L- and T-pieces.
The larger box 57 also contained a second small rolled shaft with the additional ball bearings. Then there were parts to build two gears.
It was only in the largest inventor kit 58 that all parts were then included with which one could then exploit the possibilities of the system. Worth mentioning are the rolled shafts with a diameter of 25 mm with the corresponding ball bearings, then the gear parts even with a crown gear ring and finally the square and rectangular frames and various curved pieces.

The model shown, a water wheel with a stone saw , could be built with a basic set 53 and an inventor kit 58. It shows a gear with 64 teeth and a gear with 32 teeth. The large gear is mounted on a rolled shaft 25 mm in diameter; the smaller gear on a rolled shaft of 14 mm diameter.
The ball bearings of the two rolled shafts create the only discernible friction between the teeth of the two gears. Once lightly hit, the paddle wheel rotates many times until it swings out due to asymmetries that are always present.

The stable inventor kits are unique among all metal kit systems.

literature

  • Annette Noschka, Günter Knerr: Building blocks are amazed. 200 years of construction kit history. German Museum Munich, 1986.
  • H. Schwarz, A. Henze, M. Faber: Eisenzeit. The history of the metal construction kit. Nuremberg City Museums / Toy Museum. Nuremberg 1995.
  • Marion Faber: Steel and wool. In: Helmut Schwarz, Ansgar Henze, Marion Faber: Eisenzeit, p. 158ff, Nuremberg 1995.
  • Ulf Leinweber: Construction kits! , Technical toys from the Biedermeier period to the turn of the millennium. State Museums Kassel 1999.
  • Karl Debik: Walther's building games . In: Ulf Leinweber: Construction kits! , P. 82ff, Staatliche Museen Kassel 1999.
  • Walther publications:
    • Stabil and Record newspapers. Issues 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11. Berlin 1928–1932.
    • Template booklets for Stabil construction sets 49–52. Berlin 1911-1966.
    • Template booklets for Stabil construction sets 53–55. Berlin 1911-1940.
    • Template booklet for stable inventor kits. Berlin 1925–1943.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Stable flat iron . Walther's Stabil website, accessed October 27, 2019.
  2. ↑ The stable thread . Walther's Stabil website, accessed October 27, 2019.
  3. ↑ grub screws . Walther's Stabil website, accessed October 27, 2019.
  4. ↑ Template booklet 49–52 from 1925, page 2.
  5. ^ The numbers of the Walther products . Walther's Stabil website, accessed October 27, 2019.
  6. ↑ The big spring engines from 1927 to 1941 . Walther's Stabil website, accessed October 27, 2019.
  7. ^ Advertisement "Walther's technical activity games". In "Guide to the game, gallantry and haberdashery industry" July 30, 1911, issue 585, p. 8249; also booklet August 16, 1911, booklet 586, p. 8282; August 23, 1911, issue 587, p. 8364; September 6, 1911, issue 588, p. 8396.
  8. ^ The stable construction sets from 1913 to 1920: The first success . Walther's Stabil website, accessed October 27, 2019.
  9. ↑ From Hornby's Meccano in Germany to the beginning of the Märklin metal construction kit . In Metallbaukasten-Wiki , accessed on October 27, 2019.
  10. ↑ Solid construction sets from 1921 to 1926: The new sets . Walther's Stabil website, accessed October 27, 2019.
  11. ↑ Solid construction sets from 1927 to 1929: A new success . Walther's Stabil website, accessed October 27, 2019.
  12. ↑ Stable kits 1932-1943: The time of the retail boxes . Walther's Stabil website, accessed October 27, 2019.
  13. ↑ The stable house . Walther's Stabil website, accessed October 27, 2019.
  14. ↑ Solid construction kits from 1950: The new beginning . Walther's Stabil website, accessed October 27, 2019.
  15. ↑ Garbage truck . Walther's Stabil website, accessed October 27, 2019.
  16. ↑ Stabil and Record newspaper. Booklet 10, p. 10 below. Berlin 1931.
  17. ↑ Inventor kits . Walther's Stabil website, accessed October 27, 2019.
  18. ↑ Stable: Inventor kit parts for gears with any number of teeth . Walther's Stabil website, accessed October 27, 2019.
  19. ↑ Stable: Inventor kit parts for rolled shafts . Walther's Stabil website, accessed October 27, 2019.
  20. ↑ Stable: Inventor kit parts for ball bearings . Walther's Stabil website, accessed October 27, 2019.
  21. ↑ Stable: special flat parts of the inventor's kit . Walther's Stabil website, accessed October 27, 2019.
  22. ↑ Water wheel with stone saw . Walther's Stabil website, accessed October 27, 2019.