1939 Vactric Silent Q

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Rob,
You just need to make sure that it really IS earthed, and only used it with an earth current circuit breaker. And a three amp fuse, or lower (2amp) if you can get them. I have a chum who has got a "belt" off several of his old Vactrics when the insulation has broken down. Nice machine though!
Al
 
Vactric

Congrats Rob on finding the family dream machine!!!and also in great shape with the box and instructions etc...Rob, was the Apex-Vactric add with the instructions??

Doug, isnt it funny we sometimes miss the obvious, after your comments I went back to have another look and yes you can see the similarities to the E-lux etc..

Alistair, a very warm welcome to the club, hope you have a good time looking through the old stuff and I know you have a great knowledge to contribute!!!!

Cheers, Mike
 
Al,

Welcome to the club, nice to see you here. Thanks for the heads up about the earthing.

I have been running it off a circuit breaker, nice as the machine is I dont trust it enough although you make an interesting point about the fuse of which I will check tommorrow to see what the plug has.

I am very wary of it especially around the cord socket into the machine. The prongs inside the plug seem rather close to the outer casing and I do worry about the integrity of the metal work especially around the cleaners switch if one were to touch the metal switch surround.

Guess I ought to rest easy though as its hardly going to be a daily driver unless I were to lay down parquet flooring although the machine really does feel right at home in my house.

Mike yes the Apex Vactric advert came with the cleaner. Nice little bonus to have the whole thing which adds to interest.

I looked up Miss Molyneux's address which was Hawarden Terrace, Shotton Nr Chester but no such address exists it seems(According to Google Earth) but I fully intend to find out who exactly this Miss E Molyneux was and what kind of life she may of lead.

I imagine a trip to Chester City Council offices may shed some light onto the type of house she lived in and the status of the street/area.

For a "Miss" to buy a vacuum cleaner those days it seems like she may have been well off especially to pay cash for it at that.

Perhaps she was a lady of leisure or maybe a lady of the night.... who knows? Would be fun to find out.

She was certainly ahead of her time thats for sure.

My parents certainly didnt have this level luxury before they were married even though it was the late 1970's.

They tell of having to cut the lawn with scissors (lawn was reasonably small and my mother did enjoy doing it) but a lawnmower was low on the list of priorities when the humble pair of Fiskars were to suffice.

Imagine a single lady having a vacuum cleaner in 1939!

Perhaps it was more common than I give credit for, does anyone know?
 
Oh SHOCK HORROR!!!!

I forgot to say

Cheekily showed my Mum as she left 30 minutes ago (not that keen on my hobby still) and I actually got some conversation out of her about it.

She recognised it quickly and even went as far to question if it was actually the model Nan had.
She seems to think the on/off button was different although isnt sure. Im adamant this was the exact one she had - perhaps they did a couple of Silent Q versions but I specifically know the on/off switch was the one Nans had.

Shame I didnt get the same response when I left the Turbomaster in the dining room before christmas. I half expected her to exclaim that she had one of those but didnt.
and as for remembering Moulinex Majors, she had no clue what I was on about last week.

LOL
 
Hmmm. The adverts raise another question as they are Apex-Vactric machines. President (house brand for State Vacuum Stores in Canada and the US) was made by Bylock in England then later by Vactric for the Canadian Stores and by Apex in the US. The Apex and Bylock Machines looked exactly alike, aside from colour. At the same time I have that same upright thats named as a Vactric in the ad under the name Apex. If you throw that ad into the works all three companies - Apex, bylock and Vactric must have been inter related somehow. I wonder if they were subsidiaries or something? Anyone have any information they can throw in?

Doug
 
Apex. Vactric & Bylock

As far as I know there is no direct connection between the three companies beyond the US company providing the design (at least) for the two UK companies. Vactric was a relitavly small company, with basically two cannister lines and one upright. The Silent Q appears to have made its first appearence in the mid 1920s. It seems to have been replaced (although the models may have run side by side for a while) with the W100 - which had the leather strap, toggle switch and the cable connector mounted vertically behind the switch shortly before WW2. I believe it was the first sight of the distinctive (and in my view horrible) Vactric runners. After WW2 it was remaned the W101, in an attractive sea green colour, and fixed handle - in my view the most attractive of all of them. It later became the W202 and W404 (and National Utilities) with the brown "bakelite" ends and open chrome handle - it was this model which Doug refers to being on sale in Canada. They also ran a cheaper, lower powered and physically smaller cannister known as the "Popular". In the mid 1930s the introduced an upright similar looking, in many ways, to the Hoover Junior 370. This ran until the late 1950s shortly before the company folded.
I presume they imported the Apex model in order to compete against the Hoover 800/825, or possibly they assembled it from parts. Likewise the washing machines, in order to get a hold (which they never did) on the embryonic washing machine market, as were Goblin. They were still trying to sell washing machine in the 1950s, although by that time the market was expanding rapidly and highly competitative. It would be interesting to know if their single tub wringer machine was also by Apex.
They also did some three head floor polishers and shortly before their demise in early 1960 they produced a new upright, somewhat resembling the Hoover 638 I have only seen those is advertsiments.
In its time the 202/404 was right at the top of the price market, in 1960 it was almost the same price as all new Lux 65 and not far behind the Hoover 652 so it is surprising that there are SO many of these machines still about - they crop up quite regularly on UK ebay, especially when up against more modern machines like the Connie and Lux models. They also seem to have had a fairly extensive operation in Australia as well with an assembly plant and, apparently, a pretty extensive sales force.
Al
 
Still awake? Good ......

Up until WW2 Bylock was a manufacturer of hair dryers, and it appears that it was not until 1947 that they expanded out into other products such as vacuum cleaners. It would not surprise me if they used Apex designs for the cleaners built in the UK, it happened lots of other times too. They produced quite a few models during their life time, many of them variations on a theme. Amongst the last of their models was the "Tablevac" which jack has previously written about. WHAT WERE THEY THINKING OF? There is a US link with this machine too, perhaps Jack would be so kind as to remind us.
I recently discovered that Bylock were taken over in may 1963 by the Rolls washing machine company, and by June 1964 they were gone - when Rolls went bust. There were extensive legal proceedings not just over this but over Bylock as well, with the directors prosecuted for fraudalent trading although nothing was ever proved (google Richard Reeder Harris for the Daily Telegraph obituary - this has the details).
I was very pleased recently to acquite a Bylock Electramaid which was the first cleaner my parents had and the first I remember. If I can ever get in my loft for cleaners I will load some pictures
Al
 
Hey Al, great to have you with us at last!

I'm assuming the US-Bylock link you refer to is Bylock's use of the Bylock-Lewyt See-Thru Speed-Sak. Ingenious idea - a bag with a see-through panel, twinned with a clear window in the machine itself, so you can see when it's full!

Of course, you could argue that this design comes at the slight expense of potential performance, since you lose a section of porous surface area.

I wonder how practical and durable these bags were in day-to-day use!

8-12-2009-12-42-39--VintageHoover.jpg
 
I have a Vactric Cylinder also, Model W-202, about which I know next to nothing. Made in Great Britain for Canada, where it ended up in my hands from fabled Petrolia last mid winter. While it is not as vintage as yours it is certainly old. Packed in the box with the manual and other papers was a Trade Vacuum Cleaner Parts & Supplies brochure from Central vacuum Cleaner Service, Toronto Ontario and dated March 10, 1937. I highly doubt mine is the 1937 model. LOL

Complete set of tools in a cardboard tool caddy and still thumping hose. It was packed in it's own labeled but rotting cardboard shipping box.

The wands are the smaller diameter metric size not compatible with standard North American tools and hoses.

8-12-2009-22-49-55--aeoliandave.jpg
 
Here I am examining the curious electric heat attachment that piggybacks on to the power cord and socket for a blast of hot air. has a flapper valve so electricity flows to the coils only when a blast of air is passing through.

8-12-2009-22-52-13--aeoliandave.jpg
 

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