I was looking for some patent data regarding the Sears vacuum I recently aquired. I thought I'd look at Google patents and found some interesting stuff. I not only found what I was looking for, but some other interesting stuff. I'm just going to give some patent numbers and the link to where you enter them:
2450172 - Vacuum Cleaner Accessory Stand (Lux Model 30 Lovers Will Like This)
2102353 - Rexair Canister Vacuum, 1937
2241862 - Protective Covering For Vacuums, (Singer R series?)
2227302 - Cylinder Cleaner Where Intake and Exhaust are on Same End - For Electrolux
2125850 - Vacuum Cleaner Muffler (very cool) - For the Regina Co.
And a few James B. Kirby Patents: D120736 - The common Kirby cleaner D91886 - Extremely Cool Vacuum Cleaner Casing 1421958 - Wireless Vacuette 2079293 - A totaly crazy design, in hindsight 1156235 - Very Early Stick Cleaner 2053563 - Kirby Utility Hand Vac 1395500 - Vacuette Friction Drive Brush Roll 1983175 - The Emptor
All of these patent numbers can be entered after you click on the link below:
Thanks for posting these, they are really interesting. I didn't know Google had a way to look up patents for free. The only thing is the patents seem a bit hard to understand what they are saying. The sentences go on forever it seems. But the drawings are neat to look at. Thanks again!
I, personally, don't read the full text unless the item in question is highly interesting. I recommend the same for others. The combination of older style language, legal language, and technical language, makes the text hard to comprehend.
The pictures should be the main idea. I feel that what can be gained from this is a better look at what inventors were thinking, and what could have been put in production. The other thing, is that some of the best vacuum inventors, like James Kirby, design some really impractical stuff on their way making the machines we know of today. A fine example of this is 2079293 which was a Kirby design utilizing two brushroll belts. I think judging by the patent dates you can see what it is leading to, but it is not there yet. Other examples might include the turbine brush (he almost had it right) and the clean air Kirby, which I think is probably far too bulky, even by Kirby standards, but is a cool concept.
The first five patents I listed where actually on the first page of a fairly simple search I conducted (showing 100 patents per page) and it is cool how many recognizable things turn up so quickly.
With the Kirby patents, I ran across those while looking for something, and thought I'd share them since I had them right there. It is cool to see somethings that you know very well and see some technical drawings of them. I think the Kirby Utility drawings or the Regina Vacuum Muffler are two favorites of mine.