Thread Number: 35628
/ Tag: 50s/60s/70s Vacuum Cleaners
Tanks vs canisters |
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Post# 382686 , Reply# 1   12/15/2017 at 21:08 (2,295 days old) by human (Pines of Carolina)   |   | |
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So if I understand you correctly, a machine with a horizontal orientation (e.g., Electrolux 1205) is considered a tank and one with a vertical orientation with the motor on top and the dirt chamber below (e.g., Filter Queen Majestic) would be a canister. But do manufacturers use these terms in that way consistently? For instance, I hear the Electrolux 1205 and subsequent models based on that design referred to collectively as "metal canisters".
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Post# 382707 , Reply# 3   12/16/2017 at 00:26 (2,295 days old) by human (Pines of Carolina)   |   | |
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I see your point and it is certainly consistent with the traditionalist sensibilities I often read in your posts. It brings to mind a discussion from a linguistics class I took in graduate school about prescriptive vs. descriptive interpretations of language. A prescriptive interpretation says 'this is the way it's properly done'. It's locked in, formal and largely unchanging over time. There's certainly a place for that as an anchor point to better understand the origins of contemporary usage.
Conversely, a descriptive interpretation observes and accepts trends in popular usage, saying 'this is the way people are doing it now'. The reality is that living languages evolve over time and words take on different shades of meaning as our perception of the concepts behind them change. You only have to watch a movie or TV show from the mid-20th century to see how much our language has changed over a relatively short period of time. Your examples both of vacuum cleaners and of cars illustrate this point nicely. At one time in the not too distant past, there was a apparently a greater distinction in the vacuum cleaner industry between canisters and tanks. These days, so few of either type of machine are being produced that the distinction is lost on the average person and it is thus more expedient and comprehensible to refer to both styles collectively as canisters. Likewise, the distinction between a four-door hardtop and a four-door sedan or a coupe and a two-door sedan is lost on the average person who does not know, or maybe doesn't remember that some cars didn't have B-pillars. These days, thanks largely to modern safety regulations, true coupes and hardtops have been effectively out of production since the late '70s. In today's market, all four-door cars are sedans and the few two-door cars still being produced are coupes. The term 'hard top' today simply means 'not a convertible', although some convertibles today have retractible hard tops instead of fabric or vinyl soft tops. For better or worse, language and words tend to change with the times and as that natural process happens, earlier meanings--or shades thereof--are diminished or even lost entirely. It's not a new concept; it's been with us since the beginning of, well, language. |
Post# 382726 , Reply# 4   12/16/2017 at 09:23 (2,294 days old) by n0oxy (Saint Louis Missouri, United States)   |   | |
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I tend to call anything that you pull along as you are vacuuming a canister, whether this is a long narrow machine like an Electrolux or something larger like a Sebo or Miele, I call them all canisters. Backpacks and central vacuums also have a hose that is used for the cleaning, but I don't call these canisters usually. Mike |
Post# 382727 , Reply# 5   12/16/2017 at 10:01 (2,294 days old) by dysonman1 (the county)   |   | |
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This is a canister vacuum cleaner.
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Post# 382728 , Reply# 6   12/16/2017 at 10:02 (2,294 days old) by dysonman1 (the county)   |   | |
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This is a tank-type vacuum cleaner. Made long, to sit on stair treads.
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Post# 382729 , Reply# 7   12/16/2017 at 10:04 (2,294 days old) by dysonman1 (the county)   |   | |
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Post# 382730 , Reply# 8   12/16/2017 at 10:05 (2,294 days old) by dysonman1 (the county)   |   | |
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Post# 382738 , Reply# 9   12/16/2017 at 12:15 (2,294 days old) by Kirbysthebest (Midwest)   |   | |
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I have headed machines like Filter Queen, Henry, and Fairfax referred to as a pot vacuum. Would you make that further distinction? |
Post# 382745 , Reply# 11   12/16/2017 at 13:57 (2,294 days old) by Ultralux88 (Denver, Colorado)   |   | |
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I learned this at a very early age, and I can't even remember who explained it to me, I think I picked it up at a vac shop? May also have been from an Electrolux owner, I don't know. To me this ranks about the same as people calling attachments by the wrong names, but not as irritating as wrapping the cord in a figure 8.
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Post# 382752 , Reply# 12   12/16/2017 at 15:21 (2,294 days old) by Phaeton (Los Angeles )   |   | |
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Hello All of the above persons,
I often wanted to bring this subject up. But as a relatively new member and the fact that I am not a big collector, I decided it would not be correct or a good idea. Dysonman1 who has been involved with vacuums for a long time as well as Kenkart have it right and that is the way I was taught to call them by Mr. Condo. When I worked for Mr. Ben Condo at his shop any vacuum that was long like an Electrolux, Filtex , bullet Kenmore were called or referred to as Tanks and say a Eureka with the swivel top, GE with swivel top were called or referred to as Canisters. The Hoover Model 50, Hoover refers to it as a Cylinder vacuum and the Royal ad for their Model 290 does not describe it as anything other than a vacuum. A Hoover 1951 ad for the Model 29 and Model 51 reads “You can choose Hoover Triple-Action upright or Hoover AREO-DYNE tank”. A Eureka 1965 ad for their Empress reads; “Suctions is what vacuum cleaning is all about. And the new Eureka Empress give you more than any other – upright, - canister or tank-type – yet built." Now also as a person not involved with vacuums for 30 or so years I do not understand calling a Fan in a Hoover or Eureka upright and Impeller. Usually at the end of the motor shaft is a pulley for the belt that turns the Brush-Roll. I see some calling a Brush-Roll a Distributor. So why Impeller and why Distributor? I work on older cars which have distributors. A small boat has a propeller. I believe a jet engine or aircraft engine has an Impeller. Please help me to understand. Thank you for looking, Pete |
Post# 382771 , Reply# 14   12/17/2017 at 07:09 (2,293 days old) by eurekaprince (Montreal, Canada)   |   | |
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Post# 382779 , Reply# 16   12/17/2017 at 10:50 (2,293 days old) by Real1shep (Walla Walla, WA)   |   | |
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Yeah, don't get me going on the soda/pop reference. I asked for a soda in CO and got soda water. So reluctantly after calling [pop] soda all my life I switched to pop for the yankees.....lol.
Kevin |
Post# 382823 , Reply# 17   12/17/2017 at 22:36 (2,293 days old) by human (Pines of Carolina)   |   | |
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Post# 382824 , Reply# 18   12/17/2017 at 22:55 (2,293 days old) by vacuumlad1650 (Wauponsee, IL)   |   | |
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Post# 382833 , Reply# 19   12/17/2017 at 23:35 (2,293 days old) by josh (Forest Park, IL & Spring Grove, IL)   |   | |
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Post# 382836 , Reply# 20   12/18/2017 at 01:22 (2,293 days old) by Kirbysthebest (Midwest)   |   | |
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Carbon monoxide is deadly. Stick with CO2, one carbon two oxygen molecules. It will make your drink fizzy, without binding your hemoglobin |
Post# 382839 , Reply# 21   12/18/2017 at 03:41 (2,292 days old) by Real1shep (Walla Walla, WA)   |   | |
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It took me a sec on that one. Hopefully you're being funny...the CO abbreviation I used was for Colorado.
Kevin |
Post# 382852 , Reply# 23   12/18/2017 at 13:04 (2,292 days old) by Phaeton (Los Angeles )   |   | |
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Hello All,
Try looking up "Soda Jerk" on Wikipedia or just "Soda Fountain". I am going to get my Sassafras Tea, out of a tank or a canister? Happy Hoovering, oh drat I am not in the UK. Oh, Alex don't get upset as I think you are great. You actually work on your Hoovers and do a great job of restoring them. Boy life sure is a "B" when you are a frigging old newbie. Thank you for looking, Pete |
Post# 382855 , Reply# 24   12/18/2017 at 14:45 (2,292 days old) by Collector2 (Moose Jaw, Sk)   |   | |
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I have to totally agree with this. Its one of my pet peeves too. I have also encountered the opposite. A lot of the guys I have talked with tend to refer to any vacuum with a hose as a Tank type. It annoys me as my preference is the Tank type of machine and I am constantly having to explain that something like a Filter Queen or Miele is a Cannister, not a tank.
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Post# 382874 , Reply# 25   12/18/2017 at 23:47 (2,292 days old) by Kirbysthebest (Midwest)   |   | |
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Never Mind. |