Thought I would share my vacuum collection photos!
Enjoy. :)
Brandon, you're not the kid that was on the Today Show a while back showing off his vacuums, are you?
I like the old Filter Queen. Does it work well?
Name any artifact, and somewhere there is a nitch of people who collect them! Amazing! I didn't know they made them way back in 1919, thought they still hung rugs up on the clothesline and whacked them with a rug beater.
I suppose somewhere there are people who collect rug beaters!
Didn't Henry Dreyfus have a hand in designing the Hoover?
Welcome Brandon. That's an amazing collection you have! It's great to see the Henry Dreyfus connection, he's the guy who made the Western Electric 302 and 500 series style decisions and we've talked about him quite a bit here on the forum.
My folks used a mid 60's Kirby forever and ever, until the mid 90' as I recall. Then mom got rid of it only because it was so heavy. I have no idea if it was the best vacuum cleaner of it's day or not, only that they cost a mint.
Currently I have a plain jane Eureka for inside the house, a shop vac for the garage stuff, and a Roomba robotic vac mostly for the novelty. That's my vacuum collection.
Quote from: Dennis Markham on October 05, 2010, 11:20:15 PM
Didn't Henry Dreyfus have a hand in designing the Hoover?
If he did, I hope he pulled it out in time! :o
yeah those bristles have been known to take off hands ;)
Quote from: Brinybay on October 05, 2010, 10:51:45 PM
I didn't know they made them way back in 1919, thought they still hung them up and whacked them with a rug beater.
I used to live by a really old rug cleaning business. The rugs were attatched to open racks and large fans (each side same air direction)
would blow/suck the dirt. Out. The were still in business at least 10 years ago.
Jim
Quote from: Phonesrfun on October 06, 2010, 01:08:58 AM
Quote from: Dennis Markham on October 05, 2010, 11:20:15 PM
Didn't Henry Dreyfus have a hand in designing the Hoover?
If he did, I hope he pulled it out in time! :o
(http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh22/Brinybay/lmao.gif)
Brandon, my mom has a Filter Queen exactly like yours in her garage, with most of the attachments. It may have a stopped-up hose or something. I never thought it was any good at all. It was bought at an auction in a pile of stuff, so we never used it when it was new.
My daily driver vac is a Hoover Celebrity II from the 1970s. It's a small, but powerful burnt orange canister-type with a power nozzle and a huge U-shaped bag. Bought for $10 with all the attachments from the Salvation Army. I've owned a lot of Celebrity vacs over the years. Their weak spot is the swivel caster on the front and the plastic in the power nozzles tends to crack.
Here's a YouTube video with one in it...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9DoLp1OMmo
For years and years mom had a Hoover Convertible upright from about 1968, in turquoise and brown. That was bought because we got shag carpet in the bedrooms (yuck) and Axminster in the hall and living rooms. The shag is long gone, but the Axminster looks brand new.
In my basement I have mom's original gray GE canister vacuum, from 1953, and a few other relic vacuums from the 1970s, mostly Hoovers.
Those old suckers are pretty cool.
I've become a fan of Riccar/Simplicity vacs. When my kids were young, they were forever leaving pennies and other small objects in the carpet. Every time I'd not notice, and hit something like that with the Eureka upright, it would break the fan. The last time I took it in for fan replacement, which was 1995, the vac shop talked me into buying a Riccar 2150. Bypass motor, nothing goes through the fan.
Other than replacing belts - none of which ever broke, just stretch with age/use -- that Riccar runs as well now as it ever did. Now both of my kids have Riccars, my girlfriend's daughter has one and we have two. I've run across, cleaned/shined/serviced and resold three on eBay and made good money doing it. They're assembled in a small town in Missouri, which I appreciate. Even with "globally sourced components".
Nice collection Brandon, that last vacuum is really something. I like you fans too. I have a Rainbow Model D with the attachments. I have a small collection of electric fans too.
As my kids would say--that collection really sucks ;), seriously, I think it is great! I would like to have an older one like you have, when quality was king.
Quote from: Craig T on October 07, 2010, 07:15:07 PM
Nice collection Brandon, that last vacuum is really something. I like you fans too. I have a Rainbow Model D with the attachments. I have a small collection of electric fans too.
Oh boy I sure do wish those were my fans! Those pictures were taken at a regional fan meet here in Omaha last month. Whew. Those fans there were just a fraction of the ones people brought. They were all for sale, but that day my pockets weren't deep enough to buy one. One collector brought about 25 restored ones himself. You can see some of them right behind the black and red hoover!
ive got a 1950s Westinghouse 8" in pinkish metallic, and a 1925 Dayton 367 16" brass blade thats being restored right now.
A very long time ago there was an article about some WE fan/Phones. These were some phone and fan combination units.
This was in one of the club newsletters. I think they came out of Hawthorne Works.
I don't know the story behind them. But the memory belongs in this thread.
Jim
Like I really needed to be corrupted!! You guys did this to me. Janet now knows I have lost my mind! BUT...It is in fabulous condition and look at all the attachments!!! Its a Kirby, weighs a ton...Doug
Cool, I have a D80 myself, no tools though... :)
They're a lot lighter to use than the later models (Classic series, Tradition, Heritage-Legend series, Generation series, etc.), and a lot lighter in general... :D
If you ever find a Kirby Golden Trophy Tradition, you'll have a rare one, that's for sure... ;D
(and I have one!!!)
On viewing this I had two thoughts:
1. Wow! Cool collection!!!
2. We're an odd bunch, aren't we? ;-)
Doug,
I think that you're really losing it ;D. First it was phones, then clocks, then radios, a fur coat, and now this. I sure hope that you won't start posting pictures of antique toilets that you found at yard sales ;D ;D
Larry
If you have one collection, you have to have more... ;D
Quote from: LarryInMichigan on September 08, 2012, 09:49:53 PM
Doug,
I think that you're really losing it ;D. First it was phones, then clocks, then radios, a fur coat, and now this. I sure hope that you won't start posting pictures of antique toilets that you found at yard sales ;D ;D
Larry
Larry...losing it implies I had it! ??? I will be selling the vacuum on eBay or I will be finding another residence ....Doug
Quote from: LarryInMichigan on September 08, 2012, 09:49:53 PM
Doug,
... I sure hope that you won't start posting pictures of antique toilets that you found at yard sales ;D ;D
Larry
Antique toilets, aka "outhouses", which brings you to "privy digging": http://tinyurl.com/92mvup2 (http://tinyurl.com/92mvup2). This is something I probably would be doing if not for the manual labor involved.