Sorry to burst your bubble, but this could not have been the first. That honor goes to John S. Thurman, and his Pneumatic Renovator patented in 1899. Herbert C. Booth patented his vacuum cleaner in 1901 in London, and soon after Arco Wand and the Spencer central vacuum cleaners were introduced. By 1909, central machines were a dime a dozen. In 1905, Royal introduced a non electric hand pumper, James B. Kirby followed in 1906 with his non electric Domestic Cyclone, electrified in 1907, and also in 1907, Murray J. Spangler invented the Electric Suction Sweeper, the rights of production were turned over to William Hoover in 1908, and became the famous model O!

This vacuum cleaner that Wilbur designed looks awesome, but it was not the first, not even close.

Alex Taber.

This post has to be short one, as I cannot type very well today.

Why? Last night my golden retriever Felecia, got under my feet and tripped me, I landed on the right shoulder, and have an aching rotator cuff. And it's the arm I use to type, or work my mouse!

I've been researching non electric vacuum cleaners for over 40 years, 1972, or there about when I got my first non electric two person, hand pumper, The Lakeside, circa 1890. The oldest known vacuum is the Whirlwind, that dates back to 1869, and yes, I have one!

The history of the vacuum cleaner is a three part process. (1) The non electric 1869 to about 1915. (2) The industrial, which included devices on horse driven carts with hoses snaked through the windows and doors, or machines mounted on basement walls with pipes snaked through walls and a hose plugged into the wall receptacle (also portable units mounted on wheels and moved from room to room like the Federal Electric of 1910). And finally (3) the modern, electric vacuum cleaner like the Hoover model O, and a host of others.

The vacuum cleaner of today actually began with the Model O, Kirby Vac-U-ette, the Richmond (Hamilton/Beach circa 1910) and so on. Air-Way, Electrolux, Eureka, General Electric, Health Mor (Filter Queen) and dozens of others followed from 1910 to the late 1960's.

The history of the vacuum cleaner is fascinating, but it's also a massive project that I've been researching since I got the Lakeside in 1972. Every time I think I've got the complete list, another treasure like the one you mentioned, pops up, and I go back to square one. As for John S. Thurman (St Louis, Mo.) who introduced his pneumatic Renovator, and Hubert Cecil Booth who introduced the first British vacuum cleaner, they were the pioneers in this industry, and soon to follow were James B. Kirby, Murray J. Spangler, Axle L. Wenner-Gren (Electrolux)  Dr. Daniel B. Replogle, and the brothers Clarence and Pratt Tracy (all three were Air-Way), and Alex Lewyt, as well as countless other inventors, designers, and promoters.

The list and the research is literally mind boggling, and now with names like Dyson, and the age of robotics, who can say where we go from here?

(So much for a short post, but once I get started, one idea after another pops up)!

Thanks for introducing another great machine.

Alex Taber.

I've never published these, though they were intended for the newsletters of the V.C.C.C.. The first is still a work in progress, but I think you will find it educational. Besides I can share it with everybody. I'll also share other topics, like the history of the electric Vacuum cleaner, and history of Electrolux.

Page 2.

Okay here we go. It's not completely what you want, but it's a start.

Alex Taber.

Electric

Electric.

Electric.

Electric.

Electric.

And finally.

Here are a few vacuum cleaners that were introduced in 1870 to about 73. Tomorrow I'll scan in a few very odd machines, that did sell.  However, the one shown here is the Agan which followed on the heels of the Whirlwind.

You have prompted me to start digging research into the central vac. I'll look up the General Electric question tonight, and see what's out there.

Alex Taber.

Willies cylindrical Sweeper.

The very first vacuum cleaner to be shown in a Sears catalog was the Dust Killer. This one is mine, and dates back to 1909.

The Cyclone circa 1899, also one of mine.

Yes, I'm aware that there are several typos in my history of the electric vacuum cleaner, and I caught a few tonight that were overlooked when I wrote it back in 2005. Yes, I know, it was Allen Ludden of Password fame, not Bill! But this was not meant to be a final printing, that's one of the reasons it never made it into the newsletter, so please, cut me a little slack. 

On that note, I'm taking my aching shoulder off to bed. And for those of you who didn't follow an early post in this thread, my dog Felecia got under foot last night and tripped me! Went and got an x-ray this afternoon. Nothing broken, just a bad sprain.

I wish each of you a Happy New Year, and remember, January 2nd, the V.C.C.C. turns 31. Here's a look at the machine that became our first logo. Thanks to all who made it happen, and those who have kept it alive all these years. And finally a huge bear hug to John Lucia, without him, there wouldn't be a club.

Bob Alex Taber.

The first commercial was the C-A, it came out in the early 1960's I'll post info on it later today, the second was the C-B. More on that too.

Alex Taber.

I did not intend to state that the double stretch hose went to any particular model, I meant to speak about it as one of the tools, like the telescoping wand. This is where editing comes in, fact is, I found many errors, like not mentioning the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 being the cause of the Chapman/ Skinner company to be lost. However, while I caught that mistake, I assume the readers figured it out.

Let me also say that these were merely notes intended to outline a 'history' in far greater detail. And that's why I never published it in the newsletters. However, I did send it to a few collectors earlier this year, and was told to post it. While my intention was to let reactor read it, I felt, why not share this info, which is not polished and perfected? In all honesty, it's rare when I post anything that hasn't been edited and deemed ready to post. Aside from the many typos, I'm rather proud of this 'history,' and will go into more detail on how it came into being, along with a lot more pictures of old machines later today.

For now, let me simply say, have a Happy New Year.

Alex Taber.

Here's the Electrolux C-A, as taken from the book 'Electrolux the first 40 years-1924 - 1964.'

Here are 3 pages of the patent to the C-A.

Page 2, showing the container for wet pick-up. Also the rear filter and blower port. The two clips in back held the power nozzle, which did not have the long wand, and could actually fit on the hose handle.

Page 3, the control panel.

Here's one of the strange ideas used. Yes, this was marketed, but I don't think it lasted very long.

More info to follow.

For those of you who don't know who Stacy was, she served as the director of the Hoover Historical Center for many years. The device posted above, was just one of the dozens of black and white glossies she gave me in August 1980. Without knowing it, she was laying the groundwork for the V.C.C.C. . A year or so later, Stacy forwarded a letter from John Lucia to me, but I'll save that till Thursday when our club turns 31!

Alex Taber,

Happy New Year!

I didn't have much interest in the industrial vacuum cleaning systems when I compiled my notes for that history. Frankly, it was just a good segue from non electric to early electric. Now, all these years later, I've developed an interest in the history of the central vac. So please, share what you know about the Vortex, and other European vacuum cleaners.

Thanks,

Alex Taber.   

If you knew me, and my writing style, it would drive you crazy,  and often does me too)! I usually take dictation from my mind, where there is a wealth of information stored away. Transferring this to paper, or a monitor is fine, but then I find the typos. And this history is loaded with them. Usually I go through three drafts before printing, but this was a work in progress that I started right after the 05 convention in Los Angeles. As my partner Charles, (no not Charles Richard Lester) was going through some serious medical issues, and I was his fulltime caregiver and nurse, I simply tabled it.

Once I got access to the internet last year, I opened that file, and tacked on the ending, keeping the date of original publication intact. But clearly, this is not up to my standards. And yes, I am my own severest critic!!

Then I met a few fellow collectors who were interested in history, and asked to read it unedited, so I  forwarded it to them as is. However, the history of the non electric was left unfinished, and needs a lot more work.   As for the C-A, I know the inside story on that, and will address it in the next post, but it was Electrolux that designed it.

Alex Taber.

If you are talking about the book by Carroll Gantz, I haven't read it yet, and I understand I'm mentioned in it. However, my name is spelled wrong, it's Taber, not Tabor! As I was not consulted, and could have contributed a lot of information, as I did on a book called 'Collecting Household Antiques,' and then having my information altered, I'm a bit gun-shy here.

My mind is a sponge that soaks up facts, be that vacuum cleaner, or other things like the history of the Titanic, the Great Chicago fire, San Francisco earthquake and a myriad of others. When the time is right, I share these, but checking facts is not as easy. People who were there to corroborate vacuum cleaner facts are gone, and in most cases Wikipedia offers no help.

As I mentioned earlier on this thread or another one, the idea of a book on the vacuum cleaner was brought up at the first meeting of the V.C.C.C. in May of 85. Back then, we didn't have enough data to work with. Besides, other than Hoover, vacuum cleaner companies would not turn over facts. I learned that in 1979, when I wrote to Electrolux about info on the C-A, and was told it never existed! Weeks later I got a letter from Charles McKee, who told me that the top brass of Electrolux held a board meeting to answer my questions, and he included the instruction book for the C-A. Yes, I was impressed. But he also said that Electrolux and other companies are not interested in history, just sales! Sure, I have a lot of information that I gathered over the years, but we at the V.C.C.C. knew we could cover that in the newsletters. Which, by the way, I wrote, with all Hoover information being covered by John Lucia. Merely digging up ideas to keep the newsletters going was mind boggling! Today, those notes are packed in boxes, but what's in my head, can and will be shared with Vacuumland.

Now about the C-A. Here's the inside information. The man who was directly responsible for it was an Electrolux salesman from Wallingford, Connecticut, and his name was Quinto Escary. Sometime in the early 1940's he was talking with Alex Rowan, house director for Choate School (now Choate/Rosemary Hall), and Alex asked him if Electrolux could design a machine that could be rolled up and down stairs, so the maids wouldn't have to carry the model XXX. Since Quinto was frequently at the Electrolux factory, which was only an hours drive from Wallingford, he spoke to Gustaf E. Lofgren about it, though it took years before the idea was realized. The person responsible for it's invention was John J. Kowalewski, who filed patent #3,172,743 on November 30, 1961. And yes, Choate got the first one to roll off the production line. By the way, Alex Rowan was my maternal grandfather, and I got to play with that C-A.   

I was only a kid of ten or eleven when the C-A came out. At this point in my life I was way too young to be interested in history, but loved to see vacuum cleaners in magazines, and if my mom or grandmother went to Sears, or any other department store, they left me in the vacuum cleaner department and did their shopping. Yes, in the 1950, and 60's life was easier and safer! but that was the extent of my involvement with vacuum cleaners.

Yes, I did know Quinto, everybody did, not only did he sell Electrolux's to our neighbor Jeanette, (the lady who had that model LX, and inadvertently created my obsession) but to nearly everybody in Wallingford. He also happened to live next door to my paternal grandparents, so I knew him quite well.  

Shortly after Quinto brought the C-A to my grandpa, I got to play with it for a day, and have wanted one ever since. But aside from getting the story of the C-A's history from my grandpa, which was confirmed by Quinto in 1968 when I worked for the Hamden branch of Electrolux, I never knew why they switched to the C-B. I've heard it was an electrical thing with a defective ground plug, but not sure that was the reason. However, it was the only wet/dry Electrolux. But one thing I can tell you, the White division did not make any Electrolux products.

Alex Taber