Nutone Skyline

Nutone Skyline K-14 Door Chime incorporates resonators in cover

Nutone Skyline by Peter Muller-Munk 1948

Resonator chambers incorporated into the design of this door chime distinguish the NuTone K-14 Skyline.  While many chimes imitated tubular bells with exposed  resonator chambers and many others hid the resonator chambers beneath a cover, the NuTone Skyline actually streamlined the resonator chambers within it’s design. As shown in the second gallery picture below, the curved sides of this chime were actually resonators. Vibrating air from the tone bars is introduced to the chamber for amplification through rectangular cut-outs. The mounting instructions on the parts envelope found with this chime describe the design as follows:

This NuTone “Skyline” Chime was designed for mounting on wall about six feet from floor. The plastic cover and metal decoration partially conceal the tone bars. This feature allows for greater tone volume— especially because of the two built-in resonators. This is the most compact double-resonator chime ever built. Its tone quality and volume exceed anything on the market in the same price class.

This doorbell is also an early example of a styrene plastic cover and mechanism base. The “Skyline” was a successor model to the Streamliner door chime.