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Charles Martin Crandall (May 30, 1833 – Jun 25, 1905) was an American inventor and toy-maker. He was best known for various toy blocks, "Crandall's Acrobats", "Noah's Dominoes", "Illuminated Pictorial Alphabet", "District School", "Menagerie", "Pigs in Clover" game and numerous other games and wooden toys such as wooden trains with interconnecting cars. Crandall began working in his father's woodworking and furniture factory in Covington, Pennsylvania and at the age of twelve began inventing toys.〔McClintock, Inez and Marshall, ''Toys in America'', Public Affairs Press, Washington, D. C. 1961, p. 156〕 When his father died in 1849, Crandall took over the factory at age sixteen. ==Crandall's Blocks== By 1866 Crandall moved the company to Montrose, Pennsylvania and was into the manufacturing of croquet sets. He experimented with fastening the corners of boxes by using grooves and tongues instead of nailing. As his sons were convalesing from scarlet fever, he took some pieces home and his children built various structures such as a house, bridge and fence from them. His children's physician saw the blocks and ordered some. As Crandall would later say, this "was the first sale of the famous Crandall's Building Blocks."〔''Toys in America'', p. 157.〕 In order to sell the blocks, rather than go to jobbers or dealers, Crandall went to P.T. Barnum. Mr. Barnum was so impressed that he gave them a place in his museum for several weeks.〔Blackman, Emily C. ''History of Susquehanna County...'' Philadelphia : Claxton, Remsen, & Haffelfinger, 1873, p. 331〕 Sales of that product amounted to about $10,000 ($ today).〔''Toys in America'', p. 157〕 The following year sales tripled. Later Crandall entered into a contract with Orange Judd and Company naming them sales agents for his blocks. Other block designs included: *Masquerade Blocks, which advertised 300 different pictures *Expression Blocks, decades later to be known as "Changeable Charlie" ability to alter expressions by turning one or more blocks over *Sectional Blocks, each block containing a part of a letter and all blocks would display the alphabet when completed *Illuminated Pictorial Alphabet, touted as waterproof, non-toxic and durable *Noah's Dominoes, domino markings on one side with half an animal printed on paper and pasted on the other side 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Charles Martin Crandall」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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