sick and tired of new scrap appliances.

[LizzieMaine]

The more automation involved, the flimsier the gadget. You think you're saving yourself effort but you're being royally bamboozled.

[jamespowers]

The more automation involved, the flimsier the gadget. You think you're saving yourself effort but you're being royally bamboozled.

Exactly!

[rocketeer]

You'd be surprised how many people in the Era firmly believed that quality was more important than "the latest and the newest." When General Electric was promoting their "monitor-top" electric refrigerators in the late twenties, one of the main selling points was that they had a possible lifespan of up to 400 *years* based on lab testing. Thruout the Era, Sheaffer promoted its "Lifetime" line of fountain pens -- pens which were manufactured to such a high standard that they were guaranteed for the life of the owner. If you take a close look inside the radios manufactured in the 1930s, you'll see a lot of overengineering -- parts designed and manufactured to exceed operational tolerances, and further designed so that if something did go wrong, it was simple to repair.

People bought these things expecting they wouldn't have to buy another one, or if they did have to buy another one it'd be a long time down the line. It wasn't at all rare for a couple to furnish their home when they got married -- and to still have much of what they'd bought when they celebrated their fiftieth anniversary. That was the ethos of the time. It wasn't until the postwar era that the decline began, and the cult of planned obsolesence became dominant by the mid-fifties. It's been downhill for manufacturing quality and our civilization in general ever since.

I'm afraid I would not be surprised how many here would pay good money for quality products, and I'm one of them, but lets be honest, if there were 250 000 members here that would still be a minority and would not have any impact on production of quality consumer goods. Some goods would still out-price themselves because consumers simply could not afford the initial outlay.
Today quality items are made though often in small numbers. Leather jackets, a favourite item in the lounge made by Aero for example are fantastic quality but they cost a fortune, no matter how good they are, some simply cant afford to pay £600 for everyday wear even if it would last 50 plus years. How about a Kitchenaid food mixer? It may again last a lifetime but would the average housewife pay this today? The food mixer and washing machine were one of the most desirable items a woman could own post war, especially in the UK. Just thought I would throw some male chauvinism in as we are talking from that era.
Reflecting back to things made in China; This is the country that produced the most complex sports stadium ever made for their 2008 Olympics, the Chinese also built the worlds most advanced passenger train, certainly the fastest. But why cant they make a broom that the head will stay on for more than a week? It's not that they cant, they just don't want to

[jamespowers]

Reflecting back to things made in China; This is the country that produced the most complex sports stadium ever made for their 2008 Olympics, the Chinese also built the worlds most advanced passenger train, certainly the fastest. But why cant they make a broom that the head will stay on for more than a week? It's not that they cant, they just don't want to

My father-in-law, who actually lives there, says that they laugh at the junk they send us. Great. We snap all the junk up and they treat us with contempt. Wonderful. Fortunately, we get them back because Walmart has many stores there too. I call it the boomerang effect.

[59Lark]

I spoke to a gentleman in our town, that fixed appliances, now only vacuums , but years ago he did fix toasters etc, small appliances. The older toasters have a metal activator two different metals that with heat will throw the switch to pop the toast. No lousy electro magnet that fails in 6 months. I maybe using my GE toaster till I retire. Here is hoping, we are to start looking for these items now from here on. 59 LARK.

[jamespowers]

I spoke to a gentleman in our town, that fixed appliances, now only vacuums , but years ago he did fix toasters etc, small appliances. The older toasters have a metal activator two different metals that with heat will throw the switch to pop the toast. No lousy electro magnet that fails in 6 months. I maybe using my GE toaster till I retire. Here is hoping, we are to start looking for these items now from here on. 59 LARK.

Looking for? I have them now.
Interestingly, I found a trove of my mother's old wedding presents stashed away in the garage. It was a box of duplicate stuff but a mixer for back then brand new in the box has been working for nearly two decades now without a hitch. The blankets don't pill and fall apart when you wash them. The dishes have patterns that don't wash off and most everything was made right here.

[vitanola]

two words: planned obsolescence. And it´s not only China (I´m pretty sure that most of the stuff we get from China was designed and developed by western engineers and designers), it´s a world wide process. In case you haven´t done so yet, you should check out the documentary "The light bulb conspiracy".

"The Light Bulb Conspiracy"! Well it sounds good. UNLESS one understands the (rather simple) engineering characteristics of tungsten filament incandescent light bulbs. The original filament material for light bulbs was carbon, initially carbonized bamboo, after the early 'ninties, a labrotory produced carbonized celluloid filament, flashed with an amorphous carbon coating. These carbon filament lamps were by 1900 or so made to be quite durable, their only problem was that they were terribly inefficient. A typical "1000 hour" carbon lamp produced about 3 1/2 lumens per watt of current consumed. The Shelby "Long Life" carbon lamps were less efficient, producing but two lumens per watt.

The inefficiency of these lamps did much to retard the general acceptance of electric lighting, for in the early days of the last century electricity was quite expensive, running as much as 25 cents a kilowatt-hour, and these inefficient lamps made electric lighting unaffordable.

The new, metallic filament Tungsten lamps could produce as many as fourteen lumens per watt consumed, but only if bulb life was limited, for efficiency of a tungsten lamp is directly related to filament temperature, while life expectancy is inversely related to filament temperature. The limits set on the design life of these light bulbs were intended to force a reasonable level of efficiency, so that electric light would be affordable. Although the cost of electricity dropped precipitously after the introduction of large, efficient turbine generating plants by the 1920's it was still more than ten times as expensive in real terms as it is today, and so efficiency was of paramount importance to consumers.

[scottyrocks]

The more automation involved, the flimsier the gadget. You think you're saving yourself effort but you're being royally bamboozled.

My first qwerty keyboard cell phone was an ENV2. In 2 years I had 10 ENV2s. One of the many times I brought one back because something didn't work correctly, the service department guy told me that they are essentially mini-computers so things are bound to go wrong. Before that, I had one regular flip phone that lasted me 2 years before I traded it in on my first ENV2.

[LizzieMaine]

I have three phones. One made in 1929, one in 1933, and a new, modern one from 1940. They all work fine, and the only one that ever appears to have had any sort of service work done on it is the 1929, which had updated transmitter and receiver capsules added around 1943, when a lot of old phones were put back into emergency wartime use. (It remained in daily use after that "temporary" upgrade until the late 1960s). As long as central-battery landlines exist, these phones will be perfectly functional.

My refrigerator was built in November 1945. The only repair work ever done on it was done by me -- in 1989, when I installed a new thermostat. I fully expect it to outlive me.

The clock on my mantel was purchased new -- by my great-grandfather, in 1911. It still keeps perfect time.

All these products were manufactured in the USA. We knew how to do it, we knew how to make quality products that would last, and that owners could take pride in. Now we don't. Even if we wanted to, the knowledge of how to make products like that is gone with the generation that made them. And that, in a nutshell, is how civilizations die.

[jamespowers]

I have three phones. One made in 1929, one in 1933, and a new, modern one from 1940. They all work fine, and the only one that ever appears to have had any sort of service work done on it is the 1929, which had updated transmitter and receiver capsules added around 1943, when a lot of old phones were put back into emergency wartime use. (It remained in daily use after that "temporary" upgrade until the late 1960s). As long as central-battery landlines exist, these phones will be perfectly functional.

My refrigerator was built in November 1945. The only repair work ever done on it was done by me -- in 1989, when I installed a new thermostat. I fully expect it to outlive me.

The clock on my mantel was purchased new -- by my great-grandfather, in 1911. It still keeps perfect time.

All these products were manufactured in the USA. We knew how to do it, we knew how to make quality products that would last, and that owners could take pride in. Now we don't. Even if we wanted to, the knowledge of how to make products like that is gone with the generation that made them. And that, in a nutshell, is how civilizations die.

And so the Dysgenics begin. Soon we will all be drinking Brawndo instead of water.