This article is an excellent explanation of yellowing of plastics:
http://www.vintagecomputing.com/index.php/archives/189
http://www.vintagecomputing.com/index.php/archives/189
Yellowed Compact?
- Thread starter tt
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'Plastics' were developed and exploited for their relative cheapness and ready fabrication into shapes and thicknesses matched by no natural materials. Expansion of the range of their uses does not change their position as relatively cheap materials, either in base cost or fabrication cost, or both. There are tradeoffs for this in durability or longevity, despite that some plastics have uses that no other materials can equal.
The near-universality of their use should not overwhelm our good sense. Those plastics that are not uniquely fitted to their uses are intended to be disposable, so there is no point in bemoaning either their deterioration or their fragility, and in some cases, their hideous unsuitability in texture, colour, shape or strength. No computer designed with a plastic case was planned to last to Antique (100 years) or Vintage (50 years) status. No million-dollar computer comes in an all-plastic housing.
As far as professional museology goes, natural deterioration of form and finish is regarded as concomitant with age and use, and it is universally considered to be preferable to display a cleaned original with its subsequent flaws rather than a refabricated falsehood.
de
The near-universality of their use should not overwhelm our good sense. Those plastics that are not uniquely fitted to their uses are intended to be disposable, so there is no point in bemoaning either their deterioration or their fragility, and in some cases, their hideous unsuitability in texture, colour, shape or strength. No computer designed with a plastic case was planned to last to Antique (100 years) or Vintage (50 years) status. No million-dollar computer comes in an all-plastic housing.
As far as professional museology goes, natural deterioration of form and finish is regarded as concomitant with age and use, and it is universally considered to be preferable to display a cleaned original with its subsequent flaws rather than a refabricated falsehood.
de
Equill argues the case (sic) well for ignoring the yellowing of hard plastics in computers. However yellowing may also be associated with degradation of mechanical properties. This is unlikely to be a problem with most computers (unless the mouse and keycaps start to disintegrate) but may be a factor in the long term survival of more vigorously used devices such as consoles and arcade machines.
Degradation of soft plastics, such as those used for rollers in printers and scanners, is already a problem. As old calculator enthusiasts have discovered, new old stock (NOS) provides only a short term fix until NOS starts to decay.
Degradation of soft plastics, such as those used for rollers in printers and scanners, is already a problem. As old calculator enthusiasts have discovered, new old stock (NOS) provides only a short term fix until NOS starts to decay.
That was a sly one ...
Not so much that we should ignore yellowing as that it is not something to get het up about. Choose the best that are available, by all means, and clean them of surface grime and the like, but also accept the inevitability of imperfection in a flawed structural material.
How sensible, in hindsight, was the black livery of the Performa 5400DE and PPC 5500. Or even this alternative.
de
Yes. My Mac TV looks great as do all of my PowerBooks.
I wonder how well all those beautiful translucent plastics of the new iMac generation will fare? Not to mention all those bright white iMacs & portables ...
One thing is for sure the aluminum models should clean up real nice in 30 years! But then the original Macintosh wouldn't be the same in a metal enclosure.
But seriously, equill, we can deduce now that plastics were never meant to withstand the test of time, but what did they think then? I mean Jobs was producing "art" and having his team sign it. Art is intended to last for the ages, so was Jobs simply deluding himself? Kunkle's "Apple Design" goes into Mannock's choice of color for the Macintosh, which was specifically to reduce the creeping orange hue that plagued the Lisa as well as the use of other plastics to minimize the deteriorative effects. Certainly there was an effort to mitigate the problem in the short term, but did the designers know there would never be a long term solution?
Oddly, the very thing that inspired Jobs, a Cuisinart coffee maker in white which sat on my kitchen counter since the late 80s in direct sunlight is as white today as it was then, despite also generating large amounts of heat during the coffee brewing process and sitting in my garage for many recent years.
Granted manufacturing and business practices are financially driven and the overriding factor is to get products to market at any cost, but do these products need degrade simply because they are plastic?
I suspect that signatures in cases, Easter Eggs, model names, System names, MLB architectures and the like (which often show a high degree of literary awareness, impish mischief and invention in Apple's staff), were part of a (then) culture of swinging devilment and irreverence. Take the BHA and LAW architectures (alias Carl Sagan).
Art is where you find it, and not always where it is paid for. Take the oohs and aahs about Primitive (Western) Art. Picasso must have taken not more than a minute for his long-lived impression of a compact Mac. Only someone in a determined search for art could find it in Bakelite teaspoons, or urea-formaldehyde backscratchers. I cannot deny (and am not yet mad enough to try) that there were finely-crafted articles, &c. in older plastics, but that they were intended, in materials of then-unknown longevity, to last for a thousand years and one year, I have to doubt. Their functions were to last until the next model replaced them. And that is still the case with most crafted (including carry-bags) plastic.
A PTFE bushing for the stirrer of a liquid nitrogen bath (to get imaginative, hypothetical and exemplary for a moment) may have more swinging on its reliability, but it will be replaced, just to ensure reliability, long before it wears out. Most other plastic used is aimed at a decade or less. You have the advantage of me in referring to Apple Design, but I am also aware that Apple's Platinum was our yellowing Beige with enough blue masking pigment to prolong the time until arrival of galloping yellow, which is still a much shorter interval than forever.
de
Art is where you find it, and not always where it is paid for. Take the oohs and aahs about Primitive (Western) Art. Picasso must have taken not more than a minute for his long-lived impression of a compact Mac. Only someone in a determined search for art could find it in Bakelite teaspoons, or urea-formaldehyde backscratchers. I cannot deny (and am not yet mad enough to try) that there were finely-crafted articles, &c. in older plastics, but that they were intended, in materials of then-unknown longevity, to last for a thousand years and one year, I have to doubt. Their functions were to last until the next model replaced them. And that is still the case with most crafted (including carry-bags) plastic.
A PTFE bushing for the stirrer of a liquid nitrogen bath (to get imaginative, hypothetical and exemplary for a moment) may have more swinging on its reliability, but it will be replaced, just to ensure reliability, long before it wears out. Most other plastic used is aimed at a decade or less. You have the advantage of me in referring to Apple Design, but I am also aware that Apple's Platinum was our yellowing Beige with enough blue masking pigment to prolong the time until arrival of galloping yellow, which is still a much shorter interval than forever.
de
No consumer product is intended, by definition, to last forever. It's one of the problems that face historians and museum people; they want to record things for eternity but books, tapes, CDs, photographs etc have a finite life.
But there are a few consumer gems. The valve radio was an expensive item and, with a bit of servicing, was expected by the purchaser to last for a long time. The electronics were serviceable (ie repair was cheaper than replacement) and the manufacturers who chose bakelite cases (rather than wood veneer) expected them to last. And to last longer than the model replacement interval.
And possibly the argument is true for twenty and thirty year old computers. You have the design versus production compromise: plastic that lasts for a long time versus cheaper plastic. So delivered product is often less perfect than the designers intended. As Mac128 remarked, the Mac designers chose (and retained for production) a plastic that was better than earlier Apple efforts. It was a good choice, and an old Mac 128K still looked good when the Mac II was launched.
Equill: One of the constancies across cultures is the birthday. Next birthday, make sure that you get Kunkle's "Apple Design" as a present. You won't regret.
equill's point is well taken and I think it is more true today than several decades ago as Charlieman cites. In particular, my Mother's printer failed just over the warranty period and HP's response to her support call was, "buy a new one, it'll cost less". We got her a new HP despite our frustration with them and I noted the plastic was very thin and cheap. Despite being a bit larger than a compact Macintosh, it was significantly lighter than a gutted plastic case of a Macintosh alone. I mean those old Macs were sturdy.
What is interesting is that mid to high end stereo equipment has almost always been crafted in wood, metal and glass cases as if to withstand the ages. That tradition continues today even though the standards keep changing every couple of years. Finally computers have caught up with that trend. Kitchen appliances have returned to similar stainless construction, like my grandmother's 30's era toaster in chrome and Bakelight which still looks brand new. Perhaps plastic housings were just a brief flirtation in the later part of the 20th century awaiting practical metal fabrication techniques to catch up with industrial designer's visions?
As for "Apple Design" it truly is a treat at current prices of well over $100. I'm even thinking of scanning mine and selling the tome myself. A little OCR in the processes will make it far easier to locate passages than its present anemic index.
What is interesting is that mid to high end stereo equipment has almost always been crafted in wood, metal and glass cases as if to withstand the ages. That tradition continues today even though the standards keep changing every couple of years. Finally computers have caught up with that trend. Kitchen appliances have returned to similar stainless construction, like my grandmother's 30's era toaster in chrome and Bakelight which still looks brand new. Perhaps plastic housings were just a brief flirtation in the later part of the 20th century awaiting practical metal fabrication techniques to catch up with industrial designer's visions?
As for "Apple Design" it truly is a treat at current prices of well over $100. I'm even thinking of scanning mine and selling the tome myself. A little OCR in the processes will make it far easier to locate passages than its present anemic index.
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