EKCO The Early Years - Part Two

Notes:
1. Pure Bakelite was an amber colour and could take colour quite well. However, the colour additions made it quite brittle and thus needed to be stabilised with a filling substance, often sawdust. This had the effect of making the Bakelite duller, more opaque and the colours less vivid. The most popular colours of Bakelite were browns, blacks, reds, greens, yellows and white; brighter colours were made from alternative plastics such as Catalin who came to the market in 1927 after the patent for Bakelite expired.
2. Serge Chermayeff’s approach to the radio could be considered architectural, emphasising the two basic forms already associated with the apparatus, the square box and the circular tuning dial and knobs.
3. Wells Coates’ A22 was shown in a green cabinet, a one-off non-standard colour produced specially for the ‘Britain Can Make It’ exhibition in 1946 at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Coates was also the architect of the Research & Development block at Southend.
4. Sir Misha Black developed the external styling of British Rail's Class 71 electric (1958), and Class 52 diesel (1961) locomotives, and designed Westminster's street name signs (1968) and the iconic geometric orange, black, yellow and brown moquette used on London Transport seating (late 1978).
5. John Kenneth ‘Jake’ White designed the M23, which came about due to the loss of the plans for the RS2 in the fire at the EKCO Works. The same cabinet moulds were used, but with an updated chassis. White also designed the U122, commonly known as the ‘Toaster Radio’ (because of its shape) in 1950/51. It was EKCOs first portable radio housed in a polystyrene case, and featured a specially-designed Goodman’s speaker.
Music:
Big Band Swing Instrumental by Nicholas Panek
Nickpanek620 - Pixabay user_id:38266323
Sources:
Ken GodshillDoreen Acres (Richard Spencer photos)
Derek Cole
Harwood, Elain. Art Deco Britain: Buildings of the Interwar Years. 2019.
Isabel Schnabel, "The German twin crisis of 1931". Journal of Economic History, 2004.
British Vintage Wireless Museum Bulletin, Vol 24, No 2, Summer 1999.
O’Donovan, Donal. God’s architect: a life of Raymond McGrath. Bray, Ireland: Kilbride Books. 1995.
Vintage Wireless, Vol 10, No 4, March 1986.
Powers, Alan. ‘Simple Intime - the Work of Raymond McGrath’. Thirties Society Journal No 3. 1983.
The Broadcaster Trade Annual 1933, 1935, 1936, 1937.
The Southend Times, 14 March 1934.
Radio Pictorial, 13 April 1934.
Radio Pictorial, 19 January 1934.
World Radio, 26 August 1932.
The Southend Standard, 25 August 1932.
Practical Radio, February 1932.
The Wireless and Gramophone Trader, 21 June 1930.
British Vintage Wireless Society www.bvws.org.uk/
splendette.com....
academic.oup.com/
Photos:
John Kenneth (Jake) White - BVWS Bulletin Volume 22, Number 4 (Winter 1997)
Robert’s of Balham, London Borough of Wandsworth, 1985 courtesy of Alison Sinclair
EKCO SW86 Export Model to New Zealand from the Collection of Auckland Museum Tamaki Paenga Hira, 1999.40.1 (CC BY)
Thermovent Heaters by Klaas Vermaas
www.flickr.com...
M23 Radio courtesy of www.snellingsm...
EKCO Mains Drive Radio Receiver 1929 courtesy of The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum
Interior view of BBC Broadcasting House 1932
alondoninherit...
Wall Street Headline papers from
www.parisology...
Serge Iven Chermayeff courtesy of www.greyscape....
Sir Misha Black courtesy of images.co.uk/
Other photos from the Author’s Collection.