Raymond Loewy

[kb2vxa]

Hey there,

As usual I have the TV on in the background and watching America Unearthed, Scott examines mysterious crosses and swords discovered in Tuscon in the 1920s he mentions the engraving of a Lorraine Cross and the Exxon logo being strikingly similar. It being the symbol of the Knights Templar which are closely associated with the Freemasons and Loewy being a Mason having designed the logo things start coming together. The name struck a chord, >BONG< he designed the GG-1 for the Pennsylvania Railroad http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PRR_GG1 and a slew of things I got curious about the man. You may be interested in all the things in your life connected with him so Google for giggles and you may as well start here. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Loewy Speaking of the mighty G, here it is one of my favorite locomotives roaring through my home town of Rahway, New Jersey.

Oh crap, the picture sucks raw eggs so the same locomotive in Perth Amboy 1981 will do.

[N2NH]

Hey there,

As usual I have the TV on in the background and watching America Unearthed, Scott examines mysterious crosses and swords discovered in Tuscon in the 1920s he mentions the engraving of a Lorraine Cross and the Exxon logo being strikingly similar. It being the symbol of the Knights Templar which are closely associated with the Freemasons and Loewy being a Mason having designed the logo things start coming together. The name struck a chord, >BONG< he designed the GG-1 for the Pennsylvania Railroad http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PRR_GG1 and a slew of things I got curious about the man...

I did know about Loewy's role with the GG-1 as well as the S-1. He also designed the original Air Force One.

[NQ6U]

Didn't Loewy also design the cabinets for some Hallicrafters radios?

[WØTKX]

Museum of Modern Art; Loewy

Designed S-40A



Wow, I'd forgotten him. Always loved his work, and his design changes over the years. His designs were classy, and very functional where needed, but always stylish. And most of his work was quite "cmeercial" as it always looks good, even when strictly for function, like the radios. An old American car company that had cars that were as consistently cool looking, especially for the times. As nice a design as anything from Europe back then.

A metalworking shop teachers of mine did a 3 day class on him, especially the Studebakers. Last day, we got access to the sheet metal, and some straight scrap fenders donated from a local scrap yard. And we had to cut out shapes to make that damn fender look better, by welding shapes on before the 3 hour class was over. :shock:

Bastid. I had a hard time (panic) coming up with an idea with enough time to finish. C+. For "roughness". The idea was good, but I didn't have enough time to finish welding. Barely had time to tack it in place. Sigh.

One of my grandpas (RIP) was Studebaker guy, when the company was in existence.

[K7SGJ]

I like his seasoned salt, even if he did spell his name wrong on the label.

lowery.jpg

[kb2vxa]

Yup, he designed the cabinets for Halliscratchers but the innards were classic RCA.

[N2NH]

Are those knobs original? They look a lot like replacements I got from Lafayette in the late 1960s for my Comstat 25A.

[WX7P]

These.

1953_Studebaker_Commander.jpg

1953 Studebaker
coke_vendo.jpg

Coke Machine

[WØTKX]

"Looks Like a Knob"" class of artwork. Yupper. Raymond Loewy had a thing for knobs.

Honorary Posthumous Member Status? Like the Mormons do?

[kb2vxa]

No, those are not original knobs and the Comstat 25A was illegal from the factory. For bonus points tell me why.

Loewy didn't design the Coke machine, there were many completely different ones but he DID design the "Mae West" bottle. Great design too, you could use it as a hammer.

One silly question, why a used flash bulb? Rather interestingly Ansco merged with General Aniline in 1939 to become General Aniline and Film (GAF), the dye division was located in Tremley Point Linden right next to my home town Rahway. OSHA didn't exist at the time and employees' urine was blue-green due to aniline dye being absorbed through the skin. (Unpublished info leaked by a short time employee, Jack WA2V SK) No EPA either so when the plant shut down in the 1970s nothing could be built on the site, GAF's legacy is one of the worst Superfund cleanup sites in the country. I wonder what Henry Fonda would think if he knew the dyes in the film he was advertizing made the whole area around Tremley Point Road just beyond CITGO Petroleum Terminal New Jersey's very own Love Canal still abandoned and in ruins. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuJ--B59kAc