Interesting interlocking building toy, first manufactured by ‘The Irisch Toy Industry’, Belfast, Ierland started in 1915~1927(??).
The second manufacturer was ‘The Improved Solidate Co Ltd’, London, UK. Manufacturing period of these composite blocks are unknown to me.
In total there are 3 incompatible types of Dometo interlocking construction sets: 2 wooden and one composite.
If you know more about these boxes or willing to send some pictures and scans of manuals, that would be amazing. Also happy to buy some more boxes.
Patents Dometo
The interlocking building block is first issued in December 1914, by William Geoerge Anderson, Belfast, Ireland and granted in 1915. The patent is also granted in US.
Dometo: 3 incompatible types…
All 3 types having simular part colors & manual front covers. The two wooden versions using tongues and grooves, while the third composition material uses studs instead.
They all have real glass windows and all systems are able to open/close the doors.
1st manufacturer:
The Irisch Toy Industry, Belfast, Ireland
Boxes & manuals:
Boxes are labeled from A to L(?). Plus there are apparently also supplementary boxes, like “Box A1”.
Left-over manuals found sofar, boxes: C & D.
If you have better scans, we would appriciate some scans!
Funny detail, that ‘Six-Inch Rule’ could be bought, found also one sold on ebay, which is manufactured in USA. That raises the question, if Dometo as toy is also manufactured in USA?
Type 1: Wooden parts – tongues and groves
With the first series the walls are 1 inch thick, instead of both other systems. This series has also many more complex shaped pieces. These parts are all numbered, which is not done with the other systems.
The nice thing about both wooden systems, is the ground floor tongues & grooves are vertical placed, so it’s way more easy to move a building around.
Type 2: Wooden parts – tongues and groves
Types 2 & 3 uses 3/4 inch width walls and both having less complex parts (at least for the ‘standard’ boxes).
2nd manufacturer:
The Improved Solidite Co LTD, London.
Type 3: Composite parts – studs & holes:
Maybe one of the first Lego like systems, using studs for placing bricks on top of each other. The composite bricks are also having a very nice look and feel.
Series, boxes & manuals:
So there are 4 different series, with each their own box numbers. On top of that some supplementary boxes, accessories and seprate parts.
The only manual I’ve seen sofar:
If you have copies of series B, C & D, we would appriciate a scan of the manuals!
Would also be great, to know content of other boxes, so it’s possible to create a complete Dometo library!
Content Series A – Box 4:
This series A, consits of 27 unique bricks. The largest brick is 1×4. The windows having glass pieces inside. It’s also possible to use wooden bars, adding stone bricks on top, making an overhang possible. One of the nicest features might even be the roof construction.
Roof construction:
For the roof system, you need to mount some beveled bars from the lower gutters up to the top. Then full & half tiles are placed against these wooden bars and the brick side wall.
Other boxes / series
We still miss a lot of details about this amazing building system.
Please let’s us know, if you have more information.
Concact details:
Part production:
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System characteristics & LeoCAD implementation…
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