Bell Telephone System’s Preeminent Role in the Growth of Industrial Design, livre ebook

Histories of design pay scant attention to the corded telephone, which played an immeasurable role in early communication. Although the Bell System, with many Nobel Prizes, is justly acknowledged for its technical prowess, it should also be recognized for its early and considerable impact on the developing discipline of industrial design. In 1930, young Henry Dreyfuss, who would later become known as a pioneer of industrial design, was retained by the Bell System as a design consultant and matured in that environment. With substantial input from Bell System engineers, Dreyfuss and his staff produced attractive telephone designs that were manufactured and installed in more than one hundred million American homes and copied around the world. Featuring over one hundred illustrations, Bell Telephone System’s Preeminent Role in the Growth of Industrial Design is a deep dive into the development and evolution of the corded telephone. A detailed case study of an object that would become so ubiquitous and commonplace, it is also the story writ large of the establishment and importance of the field of industrial design.
Acknowledgments
Introduction
PART 1: INDUSTRIAL DESIGN TAKES ROOT
1. Alexander Graham Bell’s Telephone in a Box
2. An Unexpected Configuration Change
3. Rapid Domestication
PART 2: A 20-YEAR DESIGN DROUGHT
4. The Grand System of Universal Service
5. It’s Only Applied Decoration
6. Central Batteries and the Booster Circuit
7. Simplification and Standardization
PART 3: DESIGN BLOOM
8. Theodore Vail, Patron of the Arts
9. The “French Phone” Has a Handset
10. Problems Solved for a New Handset
11. Handset Dimensions
PART 4: DESIGN’S GROWING PAINS
12. Complaints About Appearance
13. Small Changes Make a Big Difference
14. Design Misstep in the Bell System
15. The Bell System’s American Competitors Follow Suit
PART 5: THE ART DECO AND BAUHAUS PERIODS
16. The Iconic Prewar Bell System Telephone
17. New International Designs Emerge
18. Henry Dreyfuss and the Myths
PART 6: POSTWAR IN THE BELL SYSTEM
19. Bell Labs Versus AT&T Headquarters
20. Finally, a Comfortable Handset
21. The Postwar Bell System Standard Telephone
22. Transistors and Push-Button Dialing
PART 7: OTHER VARIANTS AND DESIGNS
23. Copies of the Bell System Standard Telephone
24. The Bell System’s Bedroom Telephone
25. The Dial-in-Handset Telephone
26. Whimsical Bell System Designs
27. Innovative International Designs
Conclusion
References
Index
About the Authors