Ed, you won't bother us talking about Macs. Especially compact Macs! There are several websites that detail the history of the Macintosh, though I'm not sure any of them would have answered your specific questions.

Check out this Wiki link, it also has some good links about the Mac SE at the end of the article.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macintosh_SE

We're always happy to help with your questions though.