Pulko Patent Baukasten – Pulkowski

Pulko was patented in 1919 by Erich Pulkowski from Dessau and manufactured in Lechenich (near Köln) by Holzbearbeitungswerk Lechenich, Michael Engels”. It was marketed by Carl Josef Bollig & Co., toy exporters from Mönchengladbach. The game exists in 4 languages: German, Englisch, Frence & Dutch.

It’s very briefly sold till 1923. The system then continous (somehow) into Mobaco.

Pulko is a wooden construction set, with a ground plate, columns, infill plates & floors.

More information: mobaco.nl/Pulko


Patented

DE319745, by Erich Pulkowski, prior art: March 1919.


Transition to producable version

It’s nice to see, how the system in the patent evolves into the final product. For example, the final base plates have closed holes, which are not mentioned in the patent. Also the ‘Bauhaus style’ windows and doors, are changed to more easy to produce parts. Most characteristic parts, are the horizontal floor strips (nr.3 in the patent). They look very similar like the France L’Edifice version, which was patented just 2 years before. But both Pulko & L’Edifice did change the design for these parts completely.

Column developments, according to the pictures and parts found:

  1. Square columns, with on two side chamfered tips. (See patent.)
  2. Retangular column with rounded edges, not additional tip shapes. (Left 2 column in picture blow)
  3. Wooden rods with grooves (fits baseplates very well) and 4 chamfered sides on top. (Right column in picture below.)

The ‘round’ columns are used for production.


Box cover, manual cover & buidlings

There are different boxes:

  • Box 1: Addo
  • Box 1a: AdBal 
  • Box 2: Baldo
  • Box 2a: Balcar
  • Box 3: Caro

So far only Addo, Adbal and Baldo have been found. The bridge parts (“Torbogen”) on the manual cover and 3 stories buildings could be build with box nr. 3 (Caro). See here a German example inside the Baldo manual:

Example for box nr 3: Caro.

Some system characteristics

Here a short list of some system characteristics and how it’s retrofitted into the virtual LeoCAD library:

Part types:Original:Virtual:
Base platesWood – spruce wood
15 [mm] thickness
Textured pieces
ColumnsWood – beech wood
Round ~11-12 [mm]
Textured pieces
All panel elementsWood – beech wood
3.5-4.0 [mm] thickness
Textured pieces
Bay size60 [mm](tbd)
Standard wall panel52.5 x 100 [mm](tbd)

Library information

Here you see an overview of parts in the library:

The Pulko category consists of these part types:

Part groups:Numer of parts:
Base plates2
Columns3
Horizontal pannels7
Vertical strips & pannels16
Total parts:28

Playing with LeoCad

Created some examples from the boxes & covers. There are 2 ways of building ceilings:

  • Using floor plates with holes
  • Using floor strips & floor plates.

The floor plates could be removed, while playing, so the interior of the building could also be used.


Re-makes

Reconstruction of Pulko patent version:

Pulko display at the Liepzig trade fair of 1922:

There are a lot of interesting parts found in this photograph. Most are re-used with Mobaco, except for the ‘prototype bridge’ & angled roofs.

The big ‘prototype bridge’ still exists today. It uses many unique parts:

The smaller arc, inbetween the bridge towes, is later also refered into the never released box ‘Carlo’.

On the left side, the Pulko Patent is shown. On the right side, the final ‘produced’ panels. Also some of the bridge parts are re-produced.

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