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Subject:	Re: 8 millimeters or 5/16 inches? (was Re: Scales (Was: New Lego page!)
Newsgroups:	lugnet.general, lugnet.faq
Date:	Thu, 22 Jul 1999 08:54:19 GMT
Viewed:	2626 times

A whilo ago it struck me that the base unit of LEGO probably was defined in inches not in mm. 1/16 inch is far more an obvious unit than 1.6 mm. This is an interesting fact, because it reveals the British heritage of the LEGO brick. So while TLG goes to great lengths to hush this heritage (and stubbornly claims to be the only original [1]), it says so in the dimension of every single part of the system. I planned to write an article on this for my website, called 'The public secret of LEGO' :-) [1] Did you realize, the famousTLG brick patent concerned only *the tube connectors* under the brick as an *improvement* to the existing brick, not changing the brick idea, the studs or the dimensions. Eric Brok -------- Visit LEGO ON MY MIND: http://homepages.svc.fcj.hvu.nl/brok/legomind NEW: Submit your own link: http://homepages.svc.fcj.hvu.nl/brok/legomind/links Dutch section: http://homepages.svc.fcj.hvu.nl/brok/legomind/nl

Message has 2 Replies:

		Re: 8 millimeters or 5/16 inches? (was Re: Scales (Was: New Lego page!)
(...) Does this imply that someone else patented the _original_ brick design, without the tubes? If so, who did? Fredrik (25 years ago, 22-Jul-99, to lugnet.general, lugnet.faq)

		dimensions in patents (was Re: 8 millimeters or 5/16 inches?)
(...) Although this is primarily only of interest in the United States, I want to point out that the United States patents held by TLG do not seem to include any dimensions. In fact, I believe this is common for all mechanical patents in the United (...) (25 years ago, 22-Jul-99, to lugnet.general)

Message is in Reply To:

		8 millimeters or 5/16 inches? (was Re: Scales (Was: New Lego page!)
I've been looking for the discussions you alluded to but haven't found any yet. The FAQ entry for this question is here: (URL) it doesn't actually answer the question asked (it gives ratios only, not actual dimensions). Neither do the message (...) (25 years ago, 21-Jul-99, to lugnet.general, lugnet.faq)

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