Many of the engineering works of the nineteenth century, especially bridges and large arches of station buildings involved a translation or transformation from a zoomorphic to a mechanical format, they were man-made forms inspired by animal bodies. The impressive spans of iron bridges and railway stations above all exemplified the visibility of natural laws in the structure of buildings. At the same time, new and spectacular constructions could be a source of fear. In promotional material for construction sets, producers would not explicitly mention negative or fearful aspects of technology, but would rather emphasise how children would benefit from playing with these toys. They could thus address the conscious or subconscious anxieties of parents and pacify them in an indirect way. By buying these toys, parents would feel that they were doing the right thing for their children. Manufacturers’ practices included taking advantage of major disasters for developing and marketing relevant construction sets. The collapse of the Tay Bridge in Scotland in December 1879 was a shocking event that deeply undermined faith in technology. It brought instead anxiety and doubt, and led to widespread changes in the practices of design and engineering. The construction of the nearby Firth of Forth Bridge of 1890 may be seen in the light of the preceding catastrophe. The Firth of Forth Bridge was hailed as a feat of engineering and design and was subsequently glorified in many ways, including metal construction sets by Meccano. Such sets and related publications celebrated the strength and stability of the bridge, thus attempting to restore the public’s trust and confidence in technology. When building bridges with Meccano, children were experimenting on a small scale with robust but potentially dangerous technology and were learning to master it for the benefit of society. Toys of a technical nature offered a small-scale and safe environment for testing out practices and mentalities related to the tensions and contradictions of modernity.
