Subject:
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Relative and Absolute Measurement of the Lego Brick
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.general
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Date:
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Fri, 9 Feb 2001 03:52:21 GMT
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Viewed:
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978 times
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Relative and Absolute Measurement of the Lego Brick
Part I -- Inferring the size of the 2 x 4 brick from Filed Patents and
Trial Testomony
RELATIVE DIMENSIONS
STUD PITCH
A standard Lego brick is a rectangle consisting of a number of
projections, or studs, on the top face and a number of hollow
tubes on the bottom face.
The distance from the center of a stud to the center of an
adjacent stud is the *stud pitch*, which is the atomic dimension
of all Lego elements. Most Lego elements are integer multiples of
the stud pitch.
The height of a brick is considered to be 1 and the length and width
is the sum of their respective stud pitches. Dimensions are usually
written as:
length x width x height
or, if height = 1, then simply length x width.
ASPECT RATIO
A 1 x 1 brick is not a perfect cube but a rectangle that is taller than it
is wide
(it is a parallelopiped!! (8))
The aspect ratio of brick height to stud pitch is 6:5, and the ratio of a
Lego plate is 2:5.
Therefore 3 stacked plates are the same height as a brick.
This can be demonstrated easily by building and comparing walls of Lego bricks.
Lego, in a 1998 Canadian trademark defense case (1)
suggest that several Canadian patents(2-4) show a retationship between the
stud height,
stud diameter and stud pitch of approximately 2:5:8. Adjusting all of these
relative dimensions to the same scale gives:
brick height = 6
plate height = 2
stud pitch = 5
stud diameter = 3.125
stud height = 1.25
According to a 1973 Australian patent infringement case (5) The diameter of
the tube is
and width of the lower hollow cavity is supposedly given in an early
Australian patent (6),
but I have been unable to review the document to determine if it is a
relative or
absolute measurement.
ABSOLUTE DIMENSIONS
Determining the measured distance of the stud pitch and brick height has
proven to be somewhat problematic. Lego has never published a complete set
of dimensions for the standard brick, although on occasion a single measured
dimension has been referenced. Lego's 1966 US patent for the flexible towbar
gives the measurement of the 4x4 plate as 16mm x 16mm x 1mm (7). Therefore
the stud pitch
is 8mm. And by extrapolation:
brick height = 9.6 mm
plate height = 3.2 mm
stud pitch = 8.0 mm
stud diameter = 5.0 mm
stud height = 2.0 mm
Which agrees pretty well with most peoples metric measurements by micrometer or
other means.
REFERENCES
(1) Kirkbi AG v. Ritvik Holdings Inc., (1998-02-25) FC T-2799-96
http://www.fja.gc.ca/en/cf/2000/orig/html/2000fca27658.o.en.html
http://www.9netwave.com/trademarkcases/Kirkbi%20AG%20et%20al.%20v.%20Ritvik%20Holdings%20Inc.%20et%20al%201998.htm
Note the line wrap on the second URL!!
(2) Canadian Patent 443,019, TOY BUILDING BLOCK, July 22, 1947, Harry
Fischer Page.
The infamous Kiddicraft patent. Page never patented the brick in the US.
(3) Canadian Patent 629,732, TOY BUILDING SETS AND BUILDING BLOCKS, Oct. 24,
1961, GKC
(4) Canadian Patent 880,418, Toy Building Block Sept 7, 1971, GKC
This patent, according to Ritvik lawyers gives the mathematical formulae to
determine
the 2:5:8 ratio
(5) INTERLEGO A.G. v. TOLTOYS PTY. LTD. (1973) 130 CLR 461
http://www.austlii.edu.au//au/cases/cth/high_ct/130clr461.html
(6)Australian Letters Patent No. 229,550 Improvements in and relating to toy
building sets and
building blocks, GKC, 1958
(7) US Patent 3,242,610. Flexible Connector for Toy Construction Sets. Mar
29, 1966.
The tow bar is made of nylon, hence it flexibleness.
(8) US Patent 3,005,282. Toy Building Brick. GKC, Oct 24, 1961
The original US 2x4 brick patent
--Jim
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Message has 3 Replies:
 | | Re: Relative and Absolute Measurement of the Lego Brick
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| Umm ... How does this fit into lugnet.general? -- Cheers ... Geoffrey Hyde "Jim Hughes" <hughesJ@one.net> wrote in message news:G8H1F9.ErE@lugnet.com... (...) bricks. (...) these (...) of (...) measured (...) towbar (...) micrometer or (...) (URL) (...) (24 years ago, 9-Feb-01, to lugnet.general)
| | | Re: Relative and Absolute Measurement of the Lego Brick
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| (...) The stud diameter above doesn't seem to match reality. That would imply that the space between two studs is 1.75 units, which is significantly different from the apparent measurement of 2 (recall that you can stand a plate on edge between two (...) (24 years ago, 9-Feb-01, to lugnet.general)
| | | Re: Relative and Absolute Measurement of the Lego Brick
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| Hi all, In lugnet.general, Jim Hughes writes: <snip> (...) What kit does this flexible towbar come from? I had one, but do not have all the old boxes, and instructions from when I was a kid. I'd like to get a list of all the kits I had all those (...) (24 years ago, 9-Feb-01, to lugnet.general)
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