Citations › Citation ID: 84

C84. BOOK: Daniel Konstanski, The Secret Life of LEGO Bricks: The Inside Story of a Design Icon (Unbound, 2022), p. 173.

the normal method of stacking System bricks would make a sturdy build, but would require too many elements. ... Their idea was to introduce holes through the sides of bricks into which pins, later dubbed snaps, could be inserted. Then a second brick with holes could be mounted across the pins, securely joining the whole assembly. Their goal was not to create a whole new building system, but simply to modify existing bricks slightly in order to open up new possibilities.

Jan Ryaa and Eric Bach placed holes in between the studs of the bricks, making a similar decision to their predecessors, who created the modified 2x4 for those first independent axles. They didn’t know it at the time, but this was a foundational decision. System bricks are based on even numbers of studs, which means that placing a hole between each pair results in an odd number of penetrations. ... this would prove a fortuitous, if inadvertent, feature. In many mechanical constructs like drive trains, the ability to place the axle from the motor directly through the centre of an element is highly advantageous, since it allows all the moving parts to be mirrored on either side of the vehicle.

The 1-stud wide Technic brick was created to build larger and stronger models.