“Every Boy & Girl a Scientist”

Abstract

Historians of science have identified toys as part of their subject's material culture, but there has been little exploration of the production and use of educational or playful objects. Moreover, academic writing on science for children has focused on the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This essay argues that our understanding of historical science education can be enhanced by exploring twentieth-century instruments. It uses the example of Construments sets, with which children could build a wide variety of optical instruments from a series of standardized parts. Invented by C. W. Hansel, a school science master, Construments were founded in and responded to contemporary educational practices and debates over "general science," as well as addressing characteristic interwar concerns about adaptability and economy and older ideals of rational entertainment. By exploring the company's instruments, promotional literature, and magazine, and by drawing on the memories of contemporary users, I reconstruct the contexts in which Construments were used, emphasizing the creation of heterogeneous communities vital for the transmission of skills and knowledge.

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