Antikythera Mechanism

[M. Demetrius]

No, they still make a version of it, I think (my use of banned is a bit of an over reaction), but the originals had lots of brass pulleys and gears with setscrews, spindles, axles, tiny nuts, bolts and washers (along with a small screwdriver and wrench), rods of several sizes, and different lengths of building girders, swivels, bushings, etc. There was not a speck of plastic in the whole box. But someone somewhere decided that children could swallow many of the smaller parts, and might choke on the medium sized ones, so they changed things around to be safe. I guess kids in the old days were smart enough to figure out, "Hmm. This is metal. It's not food. Where's the cookies?" Now we must all be protected, so we forgot how to think.