Konkoly’s Nurse
by Simon Johnson
All good cartoonists are able to suggest character with a few well placed lines – a prominent nose, receding hairline or characteristic stance. Andreas Konkoly did this in many of his ‘humanoid’ models and none better than in this most oddball of his creations.
Looked at clinically, all we have is a body like a shuttlecock topped off with a 1” Pulley without Boss for the head. However the bell shaped body suggests an old fashioned nurse’s cape and the 1” Pulley capped with a tightly wound hank of Cord and small Flanged Wheel a sensible bun and nurse’s hat. Hitched to a pram, she becomes the quintessential nanny taking little Piers or Amanda for a turn around Hyde Park. But it is the nurse’s – er – chest which provides the finishing touch. All nannies have a motherly bosom and if you are sketching a cartoon nanny with the minimum of detail, the bun and bust are obligatory. Konkoly realised this and delivered the goods on both accounts.
I’d never been interested in novelty models. There were quite a few in the manuals of smaller outfits when I was a boy and they always seemed vaguely pointless. Some – like the model 0.76 Coastguard illustrated were excellent examples of cartooning in Meccano but I was drawn to the Steam Engine powered by a Magic Motor.
It was Konkoly’s lively description of his creation which sucked me in. ”As the walking mechanism of the nurse is based on the mechanism of woman’s walk she is walking with tripping, short steps....” And further down the page: “The besoms are No. 6a, two No. 23d and two 147b parts.” Besoms? A couple of sentences later all is revealed: “According to Photo D we cover the breasts with a bent No. 5 part.”
Something peculiar was going on here. First we provide the lady with a pair of half inch Pulleys (with Boss) then cover them up leaving only the heads of two Pivot Bolts to suggest their presence.
Hell, it wouldn’t take long to build. A few days over Christmas.
Some modellers like Konkoly’s model plans. I’m in two minds, - the photos are fine, but the instructions require an encyclopaedic knowledge of Meccano part numbers to follow clearly:
“First we encircle with four No. 215 the No. 46. Figuring on Photo G, fixing to it the No. 2a parts of the sides and the No. 3 parts of the abdomen.”
Luckily the model is easy enough to build from the photographs alone. However, a few points should be made.
Once the nurse’s body is complete, it is impossible to thread the Sprocket Chain around the 11/2“ Sprocket Wheel which drives her legs. Fit the Chain beforehand tying the loose ends in such a way that it stays in place while the rest of the model is being assembled.
The nurse’s hands (Cranks) are attached to the pram handles (Handrail Couplings) by 1” Rods. It doesn’t take much for this arrangement to slip, loosening the drive Chain. I added a 2” Slotted Strip as a brace. The slot provides useful Chain adjustment.
Initially I used eraser rubber for the feet. These broke too easily. I replaced them with shoes cut from a heavy rubber strip bought at Para Rubber.
Konkoly claims the nurse will take eighty steps at one winding. Even with the mechanism running perfectly this isn’t possible. Perhaps Konkoly’s No. 1 Clockwork Motor had been fitted with a chime spring from a mantel clock. The problem lies in the fact that with every forward step the nurse takes, she lifts not only her body but part of the weight of the pram and clockwork motor. This is because the pram rides on a pivoted undercarriage so that the pivot becomes a fulcrum. Any weight on the nurse’s side of this point has to be lifted with each step. This situation can be improved by adding weight to the front of the pram. A ‘U’ section 21/2“ x 21/2“ Plate makes a suitable cover for a lead sinker. With the weight installed, the nurse walks much more freely, taking an extra fifteen steps before running out of puff.
I considered replacing the clockwork motor with one of Meccparts little geared electric motors but decided that it went against the spirit of the model. Virtually all of Konkoly’s models were clockwork powered. Perhaps he had trouble laying his hands on an E15R in pre-glasnost Hungary but I suspect that there was more to it than that. There’s a quirky light-heartedness in his Walking Coolie., Santa Claus, Joe Black the Porter which suggests the clockwork novelties made early last century by German toy makers. Lehmann made a coolie very much like Konkoly’s; nowadays they are worth a small fortune among collectors.
I learned that Andreas Konkoly died recently. Perhaps his spirit marches on in the models of another European, Bernard Perier. Perier’s intergalactic rabbits and pedalling manikins remind us – like Konkoly’s nurse – that while fiendishly complicated excavators and radio controlled tanks leave us speechless with envy, it is the novelties that make us laugh.