Air-Way Memorabilia

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St. Louis mini-meet

Tom,

I am disappointed that I will not be able to be there to see your vacuums. I did get to see them once before a few years back with Fred. December is a horrible time for airline employees to travel as everything is starting to be full and we only go if there is a seat available.

I'll take your work on the Dirtmaster as I don't own one. The only one I've ever seen running was Tim Fuller's and it must have had the baffle problem.

One of these days I'll see yours and check it out first hand. I'm glad you and Derrick will take pics and post them. That will be great.
 
<span style="font-family: comic sans ms,sans-serif;">This PN resembles a Thermax PB3, Rug Doctor V-10 & RinseNVac PB-850 Power Brushes</span>


<span style="font-family: comic sans ms,sans-serif;">
10-18-2006-16-21-58--air-waycharlie.jpg
</span>
 
Hi tolivac.

A few days ago I came across three newspaper clippings that were sent to me back in the Summer of 06. Before I post these, I want to give you a brief history of the factory.

The Air-Way Electric Appliance Co. was located in Toledo, Ohio, and owned by two bothers, Pratt and Clarence Tracy. They made washing machines, and radios and perhaps other things, but it's their vacuum cleaner that they were famous for. What most people don't know is the man responsible for that vacuum cleaner.

We all know that Air-Way introduced the first disposable bag, but few people know that it was the brainstorm of Dr. Daniel B. Replogle of Toledo, Ohio who patented his upright vacuum cleaner in 1916. The problem here was who was to manufacture it. Sometime around 1919 he turned to Pratt Tracy, and the result was the Air-Way home sanitation system which appeared in 1920.

The factory was located at 1501-07 W. Bancroft street (at the corner of Auburn Ave), and produced the Air-Way until the late 1950's, I think the exact year was 1957. After it ceased being used for making vacuum cleaners, it was passed to other owners, then lay vacant for ten years.

According to the three page article I have, and will post later today, the fire that engulfed the building was on or around July 28, 2006. I also have the paperwork from the United States patent office, and the Trade-Mark information that I'll also post.
 
To answer the earlier question as to whether the Hamilton Beach designed power nozzle was a modifiedupright design, I would say the answer is yes. I believe it is a modified Hamilton Beach model 470 from the 1960s. I have not seen this model personally, but I do know it was tested by Consumer Reports in 1964, and was relegated to the bottom of the ratings of the acceptable, fully tested uprights (reason being that its rug-cleaning performance, while not as good as any of the other fully tested models, was still considerably better than any of the straight-suction canisters. Back then, an upright first had to outperform all straight-suction cleaners in order to qualify for the full battery of performance and convenience tests.)
 
A little Airway Building History, just brought to my att....

Read up, Rather interesting info. Someone had to fill this in, that's one of us. Tania Maybe? I can't imagine some weird dude in his mother's basement knowing all of this information to put here as a data steno clerk for Mapapedia LOL. It jibes with what many have pieced together over the years tho.

Fin.

https://wikimapia.org/33703750/Air-Way-Electric-Appliance-Site
 

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