In AD&D 1, gnomes were tinkerers and had some mechanical goings-on. The archetype gnome adventurer was a thief or an illusionist; gnomes were just better at illusion magic than any other kind.

This was writ large in the Dragonlance novels (original 3 or 6, anyway). Gnome cities were filled with elaborate clockwork devices of variable utility and reliability, and gnomes were depicted as both quite scatterbrained and incredibly focused.

(Also, have you seen Volo's Guide to Monsters? Pretty good stuff.)