Thread Number: 17235
Hoover Vault Information |
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Post# 185230   6/11/2012 at 20:44 (4,336 days old) by bagintheback (Flagstaff, Arizona)   |   | |
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I've know about this infamous place for a few years but I still am not entirely sure on it's history. From my understanding it closed when TTI bought the company and a few machines were saved or auctioned off. Every machine produced after a certain date was archived, and it usually was the first off the line. I'm assuming it was located in North Canton. So I'd like to know a few more things:
*How long have us collectors known of the vault and how did we hear of it? *When was the vault created and what were the frist and last machines to be archived? *What was the purpose for the company to save the machines? *Did any other vacuum companies have anything similar? *Were appliances other than vacuums manufactured by Hoover archived? *Were vacuums manufactured outside of the United States archived? If so were they archived in their country of origin? Nathaniel |
Post# 185321 , Reply# 2   6/12/2012 at 20:20 (4,335 days old) by portable (Corvallis, OR)   |   | |
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The first time I ever saw the Vault was in August of 1982, when Alex Taber and I toured Hoover for the first time. Indeed, there were competitors' machines in the Vault - mostly from early in the century (20th). I did not see one representative Hoover machine for each model off the line, but we were told that they were doing that and had been since about the time of World War II, IIRC. There were a number of machines represented, including Canadian models. The Vault was not well documented, though there was an inventory list, of sorts, poorly executed. You will need to refer to the search results about the Vault for more information.
I saw The Vault for the 2nd time in the 1990's, and then never again after that. When the Club saw the Vault the last time, during a Convention, I was not there to witness it. Tom Anderson probably knows much more about the Vault contents and history. Most of that will come up in the search you do.
John Lucia |
Post# 185325 , Reply# 3   6/12/2012 at 20:36 (4,335 days old) by eurekaprince (Montreal, Canada)   |   | |
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Post# 185353 , Reply# 4   6/12/2012 at 23:47 (4,335 days old) by gottahaveahoove (Pittston, Pennsylvania, 18640)   |   | |
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They would take the first model off the line, and, a later one, sometimes the last of the run. They were labeles with "vault tags"... model, year, date it was put in there. They also had one of each competitor in there. They would test, run, compare, etc changes, etc in a model run. For example: the model 70 convertible saw the large metal badge morph into the small sticker during the run. The 1076 started out with a diving board (bag clip). Yet, it finished with a spring. Cleaners were PILED high, in 3 large sunny rooms. Some were damaged. They weren't kept there to stay pretty, they were put there to be documented. I visited the empty vault in '08 with the group. It is actually 3 HUGE rooms. More on this later... Did this help at all?
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Post# 185354 , Reply# 5   6/12/2012 at 23:51 (4,335 days old) by gottahaveahoove (Pittston, Pennsylvania, 18640)   |   | |
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Post# 185356 , Reply# 6   6/13/2012 at 00:52 (4,335 days old) by gsheen (Cape Town South Africa)   |   | |
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When I worked for Electrolux we had a similar area, hundreds of samples and competitors machines, our room was a dark room with poor lighting, I remember national Panasonic's , many Eureka's ( obviously ) Hoovers , sunbeams, I often asked about buying the samples and was always given the run around and about 6 years ago when I no longer worked there and the factory was moving the whole lot was dumped and destroyed.
Very very sad and stupid |