History Of Lego

In 1932, Ole Kirk Christiansen, a Danish furniture craftsman, developed Lego in his carpentry studio. He started making little replicas of his items during the Great Depression, which led him to create toys. The corporation was given the name "LEGO" in 1934. This term is a shortened version of the Danish word "leg Godt," which translates to "play well."

Christiansen purchased an injection molding equipment for the firm to manufacture toys in 1947, following World War II, when injection molding was first introduced in Denmark. In the same year, he and his son acquired samples of plastic, interlocking Kiddicraft bricks, which served as the inspiration for the first Lego block, which was built in 1936. In 1958, a patent was granted for the Lego bricks in their current shape, which include hollow tubes on the bottom to improve their capacity to connect. The Lego system has been changed throughout the years, with new molds and colors being introduced and withdrawn.

Lego is a successful brand today that sells building kits and other goods and services, such as Lego board games, retail locations, video games, movies, theme parks, and consulting services. Lego has had a big effect on many sectors of popular culture, even though the corporation has grown and is still privately owned.

The Lego Group was established in Billund, Denmark, in the carpentry studio of Ole Kirk Christiansen. Christiansen bought a woodworking shop in Billund in 1916. The factory had been operating since 1895. The business, which had a modest crew of apprentices, mostly assisted with the construction of homes and furnishings. A fire broke out in 1924 when some wood shavings caught fire, and the workshop burnt down.

Christiansen built a bigger workshop and made efforts to grow the firm even further. He had to concentrate on lesser projects and had fewer clients when the Great Depression began. He started making little copies of his items to help with the design process. He was inspired to start making toys by these little miniatures of ironing boards and stepladders.

Christiansen's shop began producing wooden toys, including piggy banks, pull toys, cars and trucks, and homes, on August 10, 1932. However, due to the situation of the economy, the company was not lucrative. Farmers in the neighborhood often swapped food for his toys. To keep his company running, Christiansen continued to make utilitarian furniture in addition to toys.

He had a short period of heightened activity in the middle of the 1930s when the yo-yo toy became popular, but it quickly lost its appeal. He repurposed the surplus yo-yo bits as wheels for toy trucks in order to decrease waste.Godtfred, his son, started working with him and became involved in the firm.In 1934, Christiansen launched a contest among his employees to come up with a name for the firm. The winner received a bottle of homemade wine.

Christiansen was thinking of two names: "Legio," which suggests a "Legion of toys," and "Lego," which is a contraction he created from the Danish term leg godt, meaning "play well." Later on, the Lego Group found out that "Lego" might be translated from Latin as "I put together" or "I assemble."

Lego was chosen by Christiansen, and the firm started incorporating it into its goods.After the Second World War, Denmark began to have access to plastics. In 1947, Lego bought a plastic injection molding equipment.A vehicle that could be taken apart and put back together again was one of the first modular toys to be manufactured. In 1947, Ole Kirk and Godtfred acquired samples of interlocking plastic bricks that were manufactured by the business Kiddicraft.

These "Kiddicraft Self-Locking Building Bricks" were created by Hilary Fisher Page.In 1939, Page registered for a patent for hollow plastic cubes with four studs on top (British Patent No. 529,580). These cubes could be stacked on top of one other without moving sideways.

In 1944, Page registered for a patent for "Improvement to Toy Building Blocks." This invention was an extension to the previous one, in which he described a building system that was based on rectangular hollow blocks with 2X4 studs on top. This method allowed for the creation of walls with staggered rows and window apertures. British Patent No. 587,206 was issued in 1947, granting permission for the addition.

The Lego Group started making bricks that were comparable to these in 1949, and they called them "Automatic Binding Bricks." Lego bricks were originally made from cellulose acetate and were designed to be piled on top of each other like conventional wooden blocks, but they could also be "locked" together. They featured a hollow rectangular bottom and many circular "studs" on top. They would stay close, but not so tightly that they could not be separated from one another. The bricks were renamed Lego Mursten, which means "Lego Bricks," in 1953.

The LEGO Group began to enter international markets in the 1950s. The Nordic nations were the first emphasis. In 1953, licensed manufacture began in Norway in collaboration with Svein Strømberg, Oslo, under the business name Norske LEGIO A/S. Godtfred Kirk Christiansen was appointed junior managing director of the Lego Group in 1954. His discussion with a customer from another country led to the notion of a toy "system," which would consist of a series of toys that are all tied to one another.

He looked at the items they had and decided that the plastic bricks were the greatest option for this kind of system. In 1955, it was Sweden's time, and that same year, a partnership was formed in Iceland. At first, buyers did not like plastic items; they preferred toys made of wood or metal. Due to weak sales, a large number of Lego's shipments were sent back. In 1955, Lego introduced the "Town Plan," which was built with plastic Lego building pieces.

The construction bricks were welcomed with mild enthusiasm, but they had several technical issues: they had a limited capacity to "lock" and were not very adaptable. In 1959, the bricks were enhanced by adding hollow tubes to the bottom of each brick.This update provided support in the base, which improved locking ability and increased adaptability. The corporation patented the new design, along with a number of similar designs, in order to prevent competition. That same year, Ole Kirk Christiansen passed away, and Godtfred took over as the head of the firm.