Deborah is delighted to have been asked to give the inaugural lecture to the new South Yorkshire Branch of the Newcomen Society, at Kelham Island Museum in Sheffield on 23 January 2017. The lecture will be Frank Hornby & Mechanical Toys – Britain, Germany & the USA. She will also give the lecture to the North East Branch on 21 March and in  London  on 12 April, 2017.

The entrepreneurial Frank Hornby was the inventor of Meccano, The Hornby Railway and Dinky Cars. This lecture looks at the origins of his designs, the manufacturing processes involved,  the images of modernity within the toys and how Hornby achieved his aims to enable  children to learn mechanic; all within the context of the toy industries in Germany, Britain and the USA. This is based on Deborah’s research for The History of Toys. Further information here