The factory is located at the intersection of Via Fermi and Via Albert Einstein (the roads on this industrial estate are named after famous scientists) in Settimo Milanese, Milan, Italy—hallowed ground for Echorec enthusiasts. Sadly, Dr. Bini passed away two or three years ago at the time of writing this article (2013). Although Binson products are no longer manufactured, his daughter still owns the rights to the original “Binson” trademark.
Eric Snowball retired in 2011 and passed away not long after in 2016. However, the Binson story still doesn’t quite end here either; there’s another little tale to tell of a Milanese engineer, Marcello Patruno. Patruno dropped into the factory in 1982 to purchase a lot of Echorec machines and some new old stock parts. The fellow had a passion for vintage equipment and intended one day to restore and build his own machines. His first rebuilds were made to the original specifications, but he then went on to make several useful modifications to improve the design, including a solid aluminium idler wheel, variable speed D.C. motor and sleeker enclosure.
So, perhaps the Binson story will never end, at least not while there are a few die-hard enthusiasts who are using, adoring and working to keep these archaic, yet magnificent machines alive. And, just one more thing: For Dr Bini super-quality was an absolute must. The Binson company manufactured every single component in house apart from tubes, heads and bolts. When asked if it would not have been cheaper to have chassis and wooden cases and moulded parts made by third party manufacturers, Bini replied, “Sure it would have been cheaper, but then it would not be Binson stuff anymore!”.
Author’s note: Special thanks to David Bozzoni for kindly supplying additional material. Very little written text exists about Binson and I welcome any additional information, pictures or literature anyone can offer to supplement or improve this article.