The brief history of Eames chair tips...
The earliest of the Eames plywood production chairs had few feet design
issues and presented no real problem in this regard, in fact the small feet
on the LCW and DCW acted as the protector of the plywood leg ends in several
ways. Perched on four small metal tack heads, the tack heads facilitated
sliding the chair on the floor and also act to elevate the chair just enough
to protect the plys of the wood legs from chipping off when dragged on some
rougher flooring surfaces.
The early metal framed plywood chairs presented the major recognition
that a chair tip was an honest visual part of the function of the chair
and of concern to the consumer. The first tip was a simple gray solid
rubber washer attached to the bottom of the metal leg with a washer and
machine screw, in fact, like several of the early connecting parts and
metal tubing parts of the Eames tables and chairs, this gray rubber bumper
was borrowed from the pluming parts industry. The ability of this simple
rubber tip to be torn off while sliding the chair, necessitated redesigning
the chair tip for better functionality, the reevaluation being a common
step in the overall design process at the Eames Office. The result was
the use of the black rubber and stainless steel "Domes of Silence", a
push on model of a smooth sliding chair tip or glide, acting like a more
developed version of the tack head used on the all wood chair. It was
a new glide with the look and materials exactly matching those used in
the rest of the chair frame. A small, slightly rounded stainless steel
tip designed to glide silently over most flooring surfaces, thereby doing
away with noisy chairs sliding in schools, offices and lecture halls.
A very small detail, but of equal importance to the design process at
the Eames Office.
These new slide-on boot tips were again replaced in the early 50s with
another improved one. This time the design answer was to permanently attach
the glide to the chair leg, first with a shorter glide that was force
fitted on with a knurled stud, when this made the replacement off broken
feet impossible for the consumer, they again redesigned the glide to screw
in and out for easier replacement by the owner. These same tips, but larger,
were used on most every piece of Eames designed furniture including Cabinets,
the 671 Lounge Chair with ottoman and the Stephens Speaker cabinets. Once
the Eames Office designed their new fiberglass chairs and the variety
of new chair bases that evolved with it, the issue of glides or tips was
confronted again. The 1950 wood dowel legged chair was the last Eames
chair with wood elements almost touching the floor. Learning from the
rusting and staining of the metal tacks used earlier on the wooden chairs,
the Eames office chose to use a clear round plastic tipped foot. Made
at a local factory in Santa Monica, near the Eames Office, The tips were
made of a small nail with a pattered nail head cast into a clear acrylic
button. This not only solved the rust issue but had the added visual benefit
of making the foot element of the chairs design almost visually disappear.
The other new bases were all made of metal tubing or resistance welded
wire rods and presented another evolution in chair tip design at the Eames
Office. The first production tip for the new "Eiffel Tower" wire bases
was a "Dome of Silence" glide that bolted though a hole in the bent leg
end that formed a foot for the bolt. This glide was followed a few years
later with a black rubber and steel foot that pushed-on the ball end of
the rod legs, this tip was self leveling for more comfort on slightly
uneven surfaces. And again in the mid fifties, this model glide, on the
wire bases, was replaced by the all new and all white nylon self-leveling
glide.
In 1955, the replacement of the first issue heavy solid metal tubing
x-bases that used the "Domes of Silence" with the new H-bases made from
hollow steel tubing meant that new feet were needed again. The first foot
tried was the same first issue slide on boot glide but with a small plastic
tip inserted into the tubing end to provide better footing for the boot
glide. The next year new black rubber and steel self leveling tips, resembling
the early Eiffel Tower self-leveling tip, were designed to be inserted
into the hollow tube end of the new steel h-base legs. This was followed
by another design change the next year the use of long lasting and non
rusting white plastic nylon for a newly designed self foot that provided
the final answer for the h-base foot connection.....
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Fiberglass Facts...
Fiberglass, that structural element used along with a plastic bonding resin
to create the shells of the molded plastic Eames shells, had been in use
for over a decade before the Eames considered using it for their production
of seating shells for the new line of molded plastic chairs, which would
feature a wide variety of chair base configurations.
Touted at the 1939 Worlds Fairs as a newer miracle material for the production
things molded for home and business use, fiberglass found little serious
usage until the outbreak of World War II. Used by the Government as a
lightweight, waterproof replacement for other structural materials like
steel, copper and aluminum, light industry found the same use for it after
the war. Primarily used in the burgeoning fiberglass boat business fueled
by the return of 100s of thousands of decommissioned Navy personal seeking
water based recreation. Fiberglas mixed with plastic resin as a bonding/molding
agent was also used in the growing advertising display business as a convenient
and low cost method of reproducing lightweight molded shapes and figures
for endless store displays.
It is interesting to note that the same 1940 MOMA Organic Furniture Competition,
entered by Saarinen and Charles Eames with their collaboration of molded
wood furniture, also exhibited a molded plastic chair by artist/craftsman
James Prestini. Mr. Prestini entered a one-piece molded plastic chair-constructed
of plastic resin mixed with wood chips and molded under compression in
a two piece mold.
Seven years later in 1947, slightly ahead of the Eames fiberglass chair,
the first piece of American furniture designed using fiberglass for the
majority of its construction elements was produced. Designed and produced
by a small firm in New York called Lam Associates. As advertised in Art
& architecture magazine, this dual purpose table had a fiberglass molded
top supported by three simple wood dowels for legs. Lam's table had the
added benefit of serving as a lamp as well, for the designers had included
a light socket and light bulb on the underside of the fiberglass table
to illuminate the top, thereby taking full advantage of the translucent
nature of the fiberglass material. A conclusion the Eames would also come
to as a result of their design process.
Contacting Sol Fingerhut, Irv Green and Ralph Huhn of Zenith Plastics,
located in Gardena California, Charles Eames arranged a series of manufacturing
efforts to design a one-piece, colored plastic, seating shell. Successful
in late 1949, and after deciding the honest translucent look of the fiberglass
and resin was the perfect look, Zenith produced the first shells used
in assembling the Fiberglas chairs in early 1950. As with some new designs,
the weakest connections rapidly make themselves apparent. With the earliest
Fiberglas shells, a cracking and easily damaged edge necessitated the
addition of a fiberglass rope molded along the edge of the shell. This
fiberglass rope had to be laid in by hand along the edge of the mold for
each shell made. In the last year of rope edge shell production, the fiberglass
rope was confined to use on the lower edge of the shell. The shell design
was finally modified to satisfaction by the removal of the support rope
edge and a minor change in shell shape to provide more engineered support.
Manufacturing technologies and materials developed during the war, provided
methods and uses for this lightweight molding material that were only
starting to be explored when the Eames decided to use fiberglass as the
answer to creating a truly one piece seating element that would eventually
spawn millions.
After the mass acceptance of fiberglass as an element of Eames furniture,
a whole new industry sprang up that would produce thousands of imitation
Eames chairs, as well as surfboards and molded fiberglass car bodies for
ultra modern, American sports cars like the 1954 Ford T-Bird and the Studebaker
Avanti designed by Raymond Lowey.
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A reader writes that she has an Eames fiberglass side chair with two
small upholstered cushions attached to the seating shell by means of a
few screws through the bottom and back sides. "It looks odd but original"
she stated. Well, it is original from Herman Miller, offered in the late
50's as the Secretarial Plastic Pivot Chair. 
This re-design was a direct
result from requests from major corporations who had purchased vast amounts
of the original and under-padded fiberglass shell chairs only to hear
major complaints from their secretarial pools whose members were not comfortable
sitting on the all fiberglass chair from 9 to 5. 
