How Lego Becomes the World's Number One Toy
When Ole Kirk Kristiansen imported a new model tool called a plastic injection molding machine to Denmark in 1946, people thought he was crazy. Kirk Kristiansen is a professional carpenter who produces wooden toys under the Lego brand (abbreviated from .). leg godt, Danish for “play well”).
The machines account for nearly 7 percent of the company’s annual revenue, but Kirk Kristiansen estimates there’s no limit to what he can produce with the new technology. He could even redesign ancient building blocks so they wouldn’t collapse.
After making modest progress with interlocking grooves (a concept borrowed from another toy manufacturer), Ole’s son, Godtfred, began working on a mechanism for binding blocks.
After years of going through trial and error, he perfected the system stud-and-tube couplingwhich defines Lego to this day. This system requires the printing process to be accurate within 0.005 mm.
Godtfred filed the patent in the year Ole died. Countless variations on forms followed for decades from tiles to toys Star Wars, all clickable with bricks from the Eisenhower era. About 700 billion Lego pieces to date, the result is a toy that never ages.
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