two really strange questions

[Ken Smith]

Reur second question on type faces and fonts for Heath Company manuals, I
don't know what typeface/font was used for the Heathkit logo, but here are
the standards for type faces and fonts (as of 1977):

Type Faces:
(1)  Helvetica -- Roman, Italic, Bold Roman, Bold Italic, Condensed Roman
and Bold Condensed Roman.
(2)  Melior -- Roman, Italic, Bold Roman
(3)  Snell Roundhand Script
(4)  Cascade Script.

Font Sizes:
The positions and font sizes for the four heading levels in the manuals
were as follows:
Level 1:  Left margin, 24 pt, centered in 3" of vertical white space at the
top of the page.
Level 2:  Centered, 16 pt bold all caps.
Level 3:  Left margin, 11 pt bold all caps.
Level 4:  Left margin, 11 pt bold inital caps only.

For artwork titling, the following standards were used:
In the Illustration Book, the word:
"Pictorial" -- 14 pt all caps
"Figure" -- 14 pt all caps
"Detail" -- 14 pt lower case, initial caps

On a page, the word:
"Pictorial"  --  11 pt bold all caps
"Figure"  -- 11 pt bold all caps
"Detail"  -- 11 pt lower case, initial caps

There was another character set available ("Seven Pi") which was roughly
equivalent to Wingdings, ZAPFDingbats and WordPerfect Typographic Symbols
for symbols like copyright, registered trademark etc.

The type faces and fonts available were all that were available with the
Manual Department's typesetting word processor.  The word processor's
output was a 6-level punched paper tape.  Like all PPT systems of that era
(e.g. Teletype KSR/ASR), when you made a typo of other wordproccessing
mistake, you had to back up the paper tape and type over with null
characters, then retype.  The punched 6-level output tape was fed to a
Kodak (I think) processor which output the typeset text in single columns
on photographic paper.  These strips were cut and pasted to manual mockup,
along with the line drawings and illustrations.  Manuals for kits were sent
to a local printer who returned proof manuals as "silver prints", then
printed the kit manuals when they got final approval.  In house manuals
(e.g., blue cover Service Department service manuals) were printed in house.

Just as an aside and my personal observation, the real, absolute heart and
soul of Heath Company was in the work done by all the employees in the
Manual Department, the work done by the packaging engineer(s)who designed
the parts boxes and the way they were to be layed out in the kit box, and
the work done by the employees who pulled parts from bins and stuffed paper
sacks with parts, wire, and all the rest of the stuff that went into a
Heathkit.

  There are literally hundreds of kits out in the market today -- Cobra
sports cars, Pontiac Fiero rebuilds, spec sports racers, hot rods and
street rods, light aircraft of all types and sizes, sailboats and power
boats, and of course, gazillions of electronic kits too.  Some are great,
some are good, some are mediocre, but not one of them to my knowledge has
duplicated what Heath Company was able to do ... put all of the parts
neatly arranged in a box and tell a customer exactly, step by step, how to
put all those screws, nuts, bolts, wire and components together and end up
with something that works when you're finished (well, more often than not,
that is!)

As for the demise of Heath Company, IMHO Heath Company's own mismanagement
had far, far more to do with it than anything Schlumberger or Zenith ever
did.

Ken Smith, N8KS
Abingdon, Maryland

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