A. C. Gilbert Co.

First known as the Mysto Manufacturing Company, the company was founded in 1909 in Westville, Connecticut, by Alfred Carlton Gilbert and John Petrie, to provide supplies for magic shows. In 1911, Gilbert invented the Erector construction toy concept, inspired by railroad girders used by the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad in its mainline electrification project. The Erector set was introduced in 1911, as the Mysto Erector Structural Steel Builder, at the New York City Toy Fair. In 1916, the name of the company was changed from the Mysto Manufacturing Company to the A. C. Gilbert Company. Beginning in 1922, A. C. Gilbert made chemistry sets, and In 1938, Gilbert purchased model railroad company American Flyer. The Gilbert company struggled after the death of its founder in 1961 and closed in 1967.