Ahh, Nostalgia!

My company sells and designs a lot of truss for trade shows.  We’ve designed all sorts of interesting truss configurations. One year for example we even designed a mock up ambulance interior using small truss for Texas A&M.  They needed something for a training program of some type.  Another time, we designed a huge octagonal shape enclosure for Taylor Made (golf club manufacturer) so they could attach cameras for high speed photography of golf club swings.  I’ve always found truss and lighting truss fascinating because this beautiful architectural component is so versatile with so many varied uses.  Outside of the trade show and display industry it is used for construction of bridges, homes, buildings airplane hangers, etc.  The truss design actually dates back to the ancient Greeks, so truss has been a big part of western civilization for hundreds of years. 

When I was a kid, my parents got my older brother an Erector Set.  It was made up of truss-like girders, wheels, pulleys, nuts and bolts that allowed you to use your imagination to build all sorts of things from buildings and bridges to weird contraptions that nobody understood but an 8 year old boy.  My brother and I were also fans of comic books, so we even tried to build an Iron Man just like Tony Stark.   Eventually, the Erector Set was closeted and lost over the years as we grew up, but I can’t help imagine how many engineers, architects and builders (not to mention exhibit designers) got their interests molded by this simple toy that did so much.  The Erector Set dates back to 1913 when A.C. Gilbert developed the first kit.  Over the years it became more and more popular.  I don’t think you see very many of the classic sets past the early 1960s which is probably when my brother got his.  This toy was a great developmental tool for young children at the time and served to broaden the imagination and focus the idea into something concrete, whether it was a giant Farris wheel or a robot with a funny looking head.  It also helped kids to think three dimensionally, pre-visualize and plan a design.

Most of the time though, we simply started screwing parts together to see what it looked like.  This yielded unique shapes that we would dismantle and use the parts for something else. 

There have been a few times during the designing of some idea that used display truss where the client actually asked me if I played with erector sets when I was a kid.  I always smiled in the affirmative and still wonder how we could have made Iron Man work.