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

Authors

Ralph O. Meyer
Russell A. Flinchum, North Carolina State University

Files

Page Count

216

Language

English

Description

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.

ISBN

9781626711112

Publication Date

Spring 5-15-2025

Publisher

Purdue University Press

City

West Lafayette

Keywords

industrial design, Bell telephones, Henry Dreyfuss, Bell Laboratories, Western Electric, AT&T, Automatic Electric, Kellogg, Stromberg-Carlson, British General Post Office, Bell Telephone Manufacturing Company Antwerp, Ericsson, Siemens, William Channing, Harold Dodge, George Lum, Robert Hose, Donald Genaro, Jean Heiberg, Ralph Lysell, Richard Sapper, Marco Zanuso, handset, design history

Disciplines

Engineering | History | History of Science, Technology, and Medicine | Industrial and Product Design

Comments

Open access publication of this title is supported by Purdue University Libraries and School of Information Studies.

Recommended Citation

Meyer, Ralph O. and Flinchum, Russell A., "Bell Telephone System’s Preeminent Role in the Growth of Industrial Design" (2025). Purdue University Press Books. 80.
https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/purduepress_ebooks/80