How did Technic get started? We have been fortunate to talk to Jan Ryaa, one of the founding fathers of Technic back in the 1970s, where he worked with another designer, Erik Bach. At some point, these two stopped treating a brick as simply a brick, and they went to work with no more than their tool kit and some good ideas, and changed a few things.
When the LEGO Group released the first ‘Technical Set’ in 1977, new elements were added to reproduce realistic technical functions. The beams and plates, gears, axles, connectors and special parts, wheels and tyres that were part of Technic were all new in 1977, and all were a result of the approach to model building taken by Jan Ryaa and Erik Bach.
From the initial attempts to create the model machines and mechanical toys central to the Technic idea to where LEGO Technic is today has been quite a journey. This is a fascinating story, highlighting how the Technic concept grew as ideas matured, new techniques were tried, and how kids and adults continually challenged this new way of building.
In the early 1970s, Jan Ryaa was one of the very first LEGO designers to play with the idea of building cars, using large square LEGO Mobil bricks in yellow, red and blue with white cross-axles and cogwheels. These were used for showroom models and were not planned as production models, nor intended for sale.
At some point, Jan got creative and began to cut the bricks, from a proportion of 4x4 to 4x2. This made it possible to make smaller models. Then he met another LEGO designer, Erik Bach, who was trying to go the other way. Erik wanted to build things bigger and make the models more sturdy and stable. Stability is a big problem as scale increases; houses are easy to build big, but model cars (for example) quickly bend under their own weight.
Initially, Jan and Erik tried extending the pegs on the bricks, but that didn’t work. Then they tried snap-bearings, and this proved to be the start of something new. Slowly but surely, they began to build with the new elements, and they started with cars, as these were always popular. Erik Bach was very interested in farming equipment, so it was obvious that they had to build a tractor as well.
In this way, the early days at Technic were a real journey of discovery. Jan and Erik worked together, bouncing ideas back and forth. Jan built a bit, Erik built some more, and projects were allowed to run their course until they could take their inventiveness no further. At some point, decisions were made and the first Technic models chosen, built as mini-models: The car and the tractor, and a year later, a helicopter joined the range.
Driven by their own initiative, the major challenge in almost all their attempts to build a car (or tractor) was to find a way to make the models sturdy and stable. Because they worked from the Mobil products on the market at the time, whatever they came up with was readily accepted and they could continue inventing and playing.
As the seventies progressed, Jan’s and Erik’s ways separated, as they took on different tasks. Erik continued developing elements, and Jan concentrated on building models. One of the first results from this new division of labor in the Technic team was the small go-kart from 1978.
Source: www.lego.com
The set itself is sophisticated for a first release and pretty complete.
Main model
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Steering |
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The front wheels can be steered using a wheel at the driver's position. As can be seen in the computer generated image, the wheel drives an axle connected to an 8 tooth pinion gear via a pair of universal joints. The pinion drives an identical pinion to reverse the direction of rotation so that the wheels will turn the direction of the steering wheel. The second axle and pinion drive a rack. The rack uses links to attach to the control arms of the steering mechanism. The steering mechanism itself uses 6 traditional 2x2 swivels with 2 pair allowing rotation of the wheels about the vertical axis and another pair acting as control arms attached to the rack gear. Simple axles allow the wheels to rotate freely. |
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Engine and Transmission |
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The engine uses the offset axle holes of the 24 tooth gears to make a crankshaft. Connectors placed end to end and clocked 90 degrees form rods which connect to 4 specialized 2x2 square pistons. The "cylinders" are actually square. A 40 tooth gear on the front of the engine acts like a harmonic balancer, and the upper "timing gear" actually has no function. The engine also has a number of aesthetic features such as cooling fins (suggesting this engine is air cooled) and an exhaust manifold. The manifold doesn't connect to any pipes, so this engine would be really loud! Behind the engine is a 2 speed gearbox / transmission (see computer image). The central axle and 8 tooth pinion gear translate forward and aft. This pinion gear is driven by the rear wheels through the drive shaft by a 24 tooth gear. When the shifter is forward, as shown, it drives the lower 8 tooth gear which feeds the crankshaft directly. This results in a 3:1 ratio between the wheels and the engine. The upper axle simply goes along for the ride. When the shifter is moved back, it drives the upper 8 tooth gear, adding an extra level of gear reduction. This results in a 9:1 ratio between the wheels and the engine. The gearbox is not synchronized in any way, so it is difficult to shift gears since they tend not to be aligned. The slight vibration in the animation was probably caused by the thump of the bass in the killer sound system. |
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Rear end |
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The right rear wheel of the tractor drives a PTO (Power Take Off) via a bevel set using an 8 tooth pinion and a 24 tooth crown gear. This gives the PTO a gear ratio of 3:1. The left rear wheel is not connected to this mechanism. The implement for the primary model is a thresher. The PTO drives a 40 tooth spur gear on the thresher which, in turn, drives an 8 tooth spur gear. This final set of gear reduction drives a trio of 40 tooth gears acting as cutting wheels. Yellow bricks are inserted into some of the stud holes in the gear to act as cutters. The final gear reduction at the cutters is 9:1 with respect to the rear wheels, so these turn very quickly when engaged (see animation). They turn so quickly that this creates a lot of drag on the tire and tends to make it slip. |
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Seats |
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The thresher can be raised and lowered via a lever at the driver's position on the right side. The lever pivots about the frame and drives a push-pull link made from connectors. This link pushes a four bar linkage which raises the implement, keeping it (almost) parallel to the ground during motion. The reason it is not quite parallel is that the vertical distance between the upper and lower links is not equal at the front and the back, so the links are not quite parallel. As long as the model is right side up, the push-pull linkage is always in compression so it tends to stay together. If the model is inverted, this is in tension and can pop apart. If the thresher is lowered too far, the 40 tooth gear will fall under the PTO and jam. There are wheels on the thresher to make it level and prevent this from happening. The original mechanism (pictured) had a weak spot at the aft end of the connector link. Only the friction on the studs kept this together, so it tended to come apart often. In 1978, LEGO® changed the design to have a vertical 1x4 beam at this location to hold things together. This resulted in a slightly different parts list and count for this set. |
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Wheels and Tires |
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This set contains 4 sets of wheels and tires of type:
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