Re: {Collins} S-Line Question for Collins Historians

["Richard Knoppow" <dickburk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Charlie T, K3ICH" <pincon@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <collins@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, June 26, 2011 4:04 PM
Subject: Re: {Collins} S-Line Question for Collins 
Historians


> RE: Modern look of the S-Line
>
> It all looked right at home in Arthur Godrey's "Glass 
> Bottom Boat" movie.
>
> Compared to the Frankenstein's lab look of the A-Line*, it 
> must have been a welcome sight to the modern housewife of 
> the fifties.
>
> I can certainly see a wife approved station on a table in 
> the family room. ( two or three cabinets max though.)
>
> 73' Charlie k3ICH
>
> * NOT my opinion......just something I heard from someone 
> who apparently didn't appreciate the beauty of St. James 
> Gray.
    Well, its not my opinion either. I think the A line is 
actually quite attractive but it _looks_ like industrial 
gear and not home hi-fi. The interesting thing is that the 
S-line stuff looks much more elegant to me in person than in 
photographs.
    I think Collins was always aware of appearances even in 
the earliest transmitters. They all have a certain elegance.
    The history of industrial design is interesting. I 
think there began to be a movement around the mid 1930's to 
move away from the steam locomotive look. Actually, 
"streamline" steam locomotives were among the first. Western 
Electric employed outside industrial designers for both its 
sound equipment and telephone equipment c. late 1930's. Have 
a look at WE's broadcast transmitters, speech input 
equipment, and the famous 639A/B microphone. The microphone 
is interesting because it was intended to suggest its 
uni-directional characteristic. The patent shows a reversed 
arrangement of the two elements from the commercial version, 
evedently done to fit it into the tear-drop shaped case. The 
patent arrangement is the better one from an acoustical 
standpoint but I think some form-follows-function was 
abandoned for pure looks. I don't see any sign of this in 
the Collins gear, the S-line appears to have been designed 
with convenience and simplicity of use in mind but even the 
A line has good egonomics (means the controls are easy to 
reach and are where you expect them to be). I think the 
design objectives moved from what looked good in the radio 
room or shop to what looked good in the executive offices or 
home. There was undoubtedly some market research behind 
this. personally, I like big-knob equipment and large dogs.

--
Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles
WB6KBL
dickburk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx