Here are links to scans of covers (and in some instances, other pages, too) from some US manuals. The reference numbers are from my listing of US Meccano Manuals (PDF). "Thank you" to Timothy Edwards and Clive Weston for their input.
Dating manuals can be difficult without some "inside" information. Early manuals often had a copyright date on the cover, making identification fairly simple. On those manuals which had a manual number (other than 56 or 56A, which was the part number), the number indicated the year. Starting about 1921, a "printing reference" was used. This is a number generally of the form C 052325, for example. The C may have referred to the printer, but this is not confirmed. The 0523 in this example indicates May (05) of 1923 (23), and the last 25 indicates the print quantity in thousands. Thus, the example manual was printed in May of 1923, with a press run of 25,000.
These images are large, so that the required detail is available. Each page is over 100 Kbytes. Please be patient while they load. If your browser window is less than 800 x 600 pixels, you will have to scroll sideways to see the entire image (sorry!).
| 1912 Manual Cover |
Here is the cover of the US 1912 manual. My copy is a bit tattered, but none of the important information is missing. |
1914 Manual Covers
1914 Manuals
pg 23
1914 Manuals
pg 130 |
Manuals reference 14.2 and 15.1 are both dated 1914. They both have the same models, the same parts lists, and many other similarities. However, the type faces used are different throughout the manuals. Page 130 has the most obvious differences. The 1914 manual shows the old high voltage motor (which was VERY expensive, and seems to be rare). The Reference 15.1 version shows the new low voltage (4 volts, either AC or DC) motor, and also lists (on other pages) the Inventor's outfit. Both of these were introduced in 1915, so I have assigned this manual to the year 1915 (hence the "15" in the reference number). I have included images of both manuals together so that comparisons may be made more easily; each of the links to the left shows the same page number from both manuals. |
| 14S Supplementary Manual Covers |
Manual reference 16.4 is a peculiar manual. The number, 14S, implies a 1914 date, but it is copyright 1916. It is bilingual (French and English), and the models are un-numbered. It is probably NOT a US manual, BUT I have included it here because it might have been used in the US. Clive Weston has found the US version, reference 16.5. You will see both covers through the link here. |
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