News on Screen

Series

Series Name

Britain Can Make It

Issue

Issue No.

3

Date Released

1946

Stories in this Issue:

• 1. Aluminium Houses
• 2. Design in industry
• 3. Canadian round-up

Story

Story No. within this Issue

2 / 3

Summary

COI synopsis: During the war, the only new radios available in Britain were of a standard design, but the end of the war found the engineers busy with plans for post-war sets. One factory is already producing radios of a new design, with a circular cabinet built round the loud-speaker, and a tuning dial running right round the set.
COI Commentary - In the days of 2LO the only "Design" in a wireless set was a wiring diagram to show how it worked.
Later on coils and wires disappeared into a cabinet itself designed as a piece of decorative furniture.
During the war period of "Austerity" and "Utility", Art gave way to Necessity; and a plain standard of design was all we could get - if we were lucky.
The end of the war found the engineers in this radio factory busy with plans for post-war sets.
A prototype chassis was built; and this was approved at a conference of departmental chiefs.
Next problem was the design of the cabinet. They called in Mr. Wells Coates, a well-known consultant designer, and asked him to plan a radio that would be attractive to look at, easy to use - and practical to make. He had to know the engineer’s problems as well as his own.
He based his design on the idea of a circular cabinet built round the loud-speaker. The most novel feature was a tuning-dial running right round the set. This raised a new problem, The chassis had to be re-designed to a circular pattern - with, incidentally, a great gain in accessibility and ease of maintenance.
There were many other problems. Scientists got to work on materials for the set, testing them to withstand the most impossibly rigorous conditions.
The sales experts had their say on such matters as the best and most convenient patterns for switches and tuning-knobs.
The case was to be made of plastic, and this raised problems of economical but efficient mass production.
But at last the first case came out of the presses, the first chassis came off the line, and production was really under way.
Today, more than ever, good design must play its part in industry. The designer must co-operate with management and worker to achieve his results - and he must achieve them is Britain’s prosperity is to become a reality.

Researcher Comments

This story was shot at E.K. Cole Ltd. Southend, and 18 Yeoman’s Row, Brompton Road.

Keywords

Entertainment and leisure; Industry and manufacture; Design

Written sources

The National Archives INF 6   /592 Used for synopsis
Central Film Library Catalogue   1948, p83.
British Film Institute Databases

COI Reference

MI 360/3

Credits:

Sponsor

Board Of Trade

Commentator

Colin Wills

Producer

Duncan Ross

Production Co.

Films of Fact

Producer

Jack B. Holmes

Support services

Jean Hennessey

Support services

John Martin Jones

Editor

Len Green

Sponsor

Ministry of Information

Support services

Peter Hennessey

This series is held by:

Film Archive

Name

British Film Institute (BFI)

Email

For BFI National Archive enquiries:
nonfictioncurators@bfi.org.uk
For commercial/footage reuse enquiries:
footage.films@bfi.org.uk

Web

http://collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web

Phone

020 7255 1444

Fax

020 7580 7503

Address

21 Stephen Street
London W1T 1LN

Notes

The BFI National Archive also preserves the original nitrate film copies of British Movietone News, British Paramount News, Empire News Bulletin, Gaumont British News, Gaumont Graphic, Gaumont Sound News and Universal News (the World War II years are covered by the Imperial War Museum).

Series held

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