Satellite? Vacuum

This vacuum is not a Eureka vacuum. The seller just seen the service tag on the bottom and listed it as a Eureka and slapped an outrageous price on it like eBay sellers always do without doing any research at all.

I tried doing some research and came up with the following information.

First off, I started with the shop tag. That was likely just a small mom and pop shop licensed to operate as an authorized Eureka service center. I learned that Union Ave. was renamed to Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. in 1986, so this tells us right away that that vacuum was last repaired before that date. I could not find any record of the business at this address though in historical papers, but that isn't a big deal as there's so much stuff that never gets archived or recorded from old newspapers like Newspapers.com does.

I googled the address as its old name and found out that there was a man by the name of Eugene Schneider that lived there, among two other addresses in Portland, and that he had unclaimed property in the form of check proceeds sititng around from 1984-1986 that he never got. He also had an unclaimed savings account in 1969 but had no listed address at that time. Looking up this Eugene Schneider turned up nothing in relation to U.S. Filtronic or the Satellite name, however.

This address still exists in physical form, but the building itself has been long disused and is up for sale: www.loopnet.com/Listing/2...

The trail of that lead dead-ends there.

--------------------------------------------------------

I then started looking up the patent numbers. I learned that these patent numbers, whoever printed the label did not format them properly with commas in the right places. Example being 2642637 brings up nothing, but 2,642,637 does. Some of the patents link to valid vacuum cleaner patents, but searching though the references brings up no mention of any U.S. Filtronic company. So again, not much to go on.

I started then to look up the name of the company itself, U.S. Filtronic. I came up with a website that matched this name that listed it as being in business from 1971 to 1974. search.sunbiz.org/Inquiry/Corpora...

I tried looking up this business and there is no links or leads anywhere else to it. I did some side research on what "dissolved by proclamation" means and what it essentially means is that when a privately owned corporation/business (such as an LLC) fails to provide appropriate tax information pertaining to the business for 2 years, it can be marked as dissolved by proclamation. This happened in 1974. So this vacuum could not be made past 1974. The trail of the business dead ends there since I could not find anything else about it.

I decided next to Google the people on the business records above and see if there was any connections.

I looked up Ruell Leroy Tapp and found out that he passed away in 2007. His obituary makes no mention of his past or any other information about vacuum cleaners, but the names of his then-surviving next of kin all match the names on the business records. www.findagrave.com/memori...

I looked up his wife Ruby Tapp and found out that she passed away just last year in Knoxville. www.dignitymemorial.com/o...

Again, no mention in her obituary of vacuum cleaners but it does mention they ran a lumber and construction company out of Memphis. Now that gives a clue...construction company would need a vacuum a lot right? Maybe he was the type of guy that wanted to build a better mousetrap so to speak and tried to make or sell a rebadged construction vacuum that didn't throw fine particles like sawdust and other debris all over the air.

I decided to look up the last name on the business owner list - Wade Tapp. I found out that this was a typo. His name was actually Wayne Tapp. I looked up his obituary and found out he died in 2010 in Texas. www.memorialparkfuneralan... His next of kin all match the names again on the business document.

His obituary reveals that he "was a salesman for many years". Aha! There's a good clue! A construction company/sawmill would not need a salesman necessarily, but a vacuum company trying to sell their own vacuums in 1971 would. Electrolux was doing door-to-door sales, Kirby was doing door-to-door sales, why not U.S. Filtronic?

Sadly there is no information elsewhere extending beyond this and I cannot find any other connections between any combination of their names and "filtronic" or "satellite".

So making some assumptions and putting two and two together from all the information I found, they might have started a private business in 1971 to try and sell these vacuums door to door, perhaps as rebadges from Switson, and they did not do so well and went out of business after just 1 year in 1972 and after not reporting any income from 1972 to 1974 and operating as a shell with no assets, the government was forced to close their business.

It is possible the seller is a descendant of the family or just happened to find it at random, because that vacuum looks dead mint like it just came out of the box and it was never used, as a memento that sat in a closet and not something someone ever used. You can see they look like younger men from their reflections in the chrome of the cleaner. The vacuum shop repair might have been to fix something on it or keep the motor tuned up one final time while the previous people were alive.

I would say if you want a rare vacuum or possibly a vacuum you will never see again ever in your life, get it. People have paid higher prices for more common vacuums than this one. None have come up for sale on eBay, and not even any old auctions in Google from years ago. It is very possible this is the only surviving one from this private family owned company.

Keep in mind that this is all just based on a lot of amateur Google research and following random links and connections and I am not claiming any of it to be right or accurate. As Columbo would say "just a hunch m'am".


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Post# 407465 4/1/2019 at 15:23 (1,850 days old) by Blackheart (North Dakota)
Checkrate/Likes I ran across this listing on Ebay and I don't think i've seen one of these before. The listing says Eureka and there's a sticker on the dolly that reads "Eureka Electric co." The sticker though appears to be more of a business's rather than a manufacturer? It reminds me of a water-matic. What do we know about it? What sort of filtration system did this use? CLICK HERE TO GO TO Blackheart's LINK on eBay View Full Size

Post# 407472 , Reply# 1 4/1/2019 at 18:17 (1,850 days old) by Collector2 (Moose Jaw, Sk)
Checkrate/Likes I'm not sure about the name but I can tell you that the body & hose design put it as being made by Switson Industries / General Signal Appliances in Welland, Ontario. Its the same design they used for the Watermatic, Regina, Viking and several others. View Full Size

Post# 407475 , Reply# 2 4/1/2019 at 20:57 (1,850 days old) by huskyvacs (Gnaw Bone, Indiana)
Checkrate/Likes This vacuum is not a Eureka vacuum. The seller just seen the service tag on the bottom and listed it as a Eureka and slapped an outrageous price on it like eBay sellers always do without doing any research at all. I tried doing some research and came up with the following information. First off, I started with the shop tag. That was likely just a small mom and pop shop licensed to operate as an authorized Eureka service center. I learned that Union Ave. was renamed to Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. in 1986, so this tells us right away that that vacuum was last repaired before that date. I could not find any record of the business at this address though in historical papers, but that isn't a big deal as there's so much stuff that never gets archived or recorded from old newspapers like Newspapers.com does. I googled the address as its old name and found out that there was a man by the name of Eugene Schneider that lived there, among two other addresses in Portland, and that he had unclaimed property in the form of check proceeds sititng around from 1984-1986 that he never got. He also had an unclaimed savings account in 1969 but had no listed address at that time. Looking up this Eugene Schneider turned up nothing in relation to U.S. Filtronic or the Satellite name, however. This address still exists in physical form, but the building itself has been long disused and is up for sale: www.loopnet.com/Listing/2... The trail of that lead dead-ends there. -------------------------------------------------------- I then started looking up the patent numbers. I learned that these patent numbers, whoever printed the label did not format them properly with commas in the right places. Example being 2642637 brings up nothing, but 2,642,637 does. Some of the patents link to valid vacuum cleaner patents, but searching though the references brings up no mention of any U.S. Filtronic company. So again, not much to go on. I started then to look up the name of the company itself, U.S. Filtronic. I came up with a website that matched this name that listed it as being in business from 1971 to 1974. search.sunbiz.org/Inquiry/Corpora... I tried looking up this business and there is no links or leads anywhere else to it. I did some side research on what "dissolved by proclamation" means and what it essentially means is that when a privately owned corporation/business (such as an LLC) fails to provide appropriate tax information pertaining to the business for 2 years, it can be marked as dissolved by proclamation. This happened in 1974. So this vacuum could not be made past 1974. The trail of the business dead ends there since I could not find anything else about it. I decided next to Google the people on the business records above and see if there was any connections. I looked up Ruell Leroy Tapp and found out that he passed away in 2007. His obituary makes no mention of his past or any other information about vacuum cleaners, but the names of his then-surviving next of kin all match the names on the business records. www.findagrave.com/memori... I looked up his wife Ruby Tapp and found out that she passed away just last year in Knoxville. www.dignitymemorial.com/o... Again, no mention in her obituary of vacuum cleaners but it does mention they ran a lumber and construction company out of Memphis. Now that gives a clue...construction company would need a vacuum a lot right? Maybe he was the type of guy that wanted to build a better mousetrap so to speak and tried to make or sell a rebadged construction vacuum that didn't throw fine particles like sawdust and other debris all over the air. I decided to look up the last name on the business owner list - Wade Tapp. I found out that this was a typo. His name was actually Wayne Tapp. I looked up his obituary and found out he died in 2010 in Texas. www.memorialparkfuneralan... His next of kin all match the names again on the business document. His obituary reveals that he "was a salesman for many years". Aha! There's a good clue! A construction company/sawmill would not need a salesman necessarily, but a vacuum company trying to sell their own vacuums in 1971 would. Electrolux was doing door-to-door sales, Kirby was doing door-to-door sales, why not U.S. Filtronic? Sadly there is no information elsewhere extending beyond this and I cannot find any other connections between any combination of their names and "filtronic" or "satellite". So making some assumptions and putting two and two together from all the information I found, they might have started a private business in 1971 to try and sell these vacuums door to door, perhaps as rebadges from Switson, and they did not do so well and went out of business after just 1 year in 1972 and after not reporting any income from 1972 to 1974 and operating as a shell with no assets, the government was forced to close their business. It is possible the seller is a descendant of the family or just happened to find it at random, because that vacuum looks dead mint like it just came out of the box and it was never used, as a memento that sat in a closet and not something someone ever used. You can see they look like younger men from their reflections in the chrome of the cleaner. The vacuum shop repair might have been to fix something on it or keep the motor tuned up one final time while the previous people were alive. I would say if you want a rare vacuum or possibly a vacuum you will never see again ever in your life, get it. People have paid higher prices for more common vacuums than this one. None have come up for sale on eBay, and not even any old auctions in Google from years ago. It is very possible this is the only surviving one from this private family owned company. Keep in mind that this is all just based on a lot of amateur Google research and following random links and connections and I am not claiming any of it to be right or accurate. As Columbo would say "just a hunch m'am".

Post# 407489 , Reply# 3 4/2/2019 at 01:13 (1,850 days old) by kenkart ()
Checkrate/Likes *Satellite* Gem, Seven, Watermatic all the same machine, I have a all chrome Gem and a Water Matic, these use a flat cellulose filter , but unlike a Silver King, these have a deflector on the inlet that imparts a swirling motion to the incoming air, so they maintain their airflow very well unlike the Silver King which plugs up very quickly..

Post# 407504 , Reply# 4 4/2/2019 at 14:04 (1,849 days old) by Blackheart (North Dakota)
Checkrate/Likes *Ah, okay* The inlet threw me off a little bit. I've not had much experience with water-matic machines aside from a 2008 special edition I had. The inlet in that faced the bottom of the tub rather than the side. Then there was that odd item they had in the bin. I thought it may have been some sort of filter cage or something. Thanks for the info guys!