Okay Now I will comment on my visit with Kyle...
So,
Kyle has visited my store several times in the past few months, and it always seems that we never have time to really "use" the old or (older) vacuum's and talk shop. Therefore he made the comment that I should take a small daytrip and come visit his collection in Adrian.
I decided to take a few machines with me to show him..... and these are the machines that you see here..of course sans the Model O .
Vacuum number one is...The Kirby 505. It was a family members that was finally gifted to me after several years of waiting. I restored and polished it many years ago around 1998-99 when I worked at the vacuum shop in Lansing.It's been It has all the tools, which I left at my store, along with the Handi-Butler and the Power-Polisher and the owners manual. I have never been a Kirby person, but this one has significance as it was my great grandmothers, turn my great-aunt's turned mine.
Vacuum Number two is....1974? Singer Golden PowerMasteR from Jeff Parker. He has so graciously gifted this machine to me several years ago also with a Singer S-3 of which is in storage at this time so it did not go with. I had to fashion a headlight lens for the S-GPM as it came to me without one at the time of the arrival to me. Later about a year ago I found a second one that was trashed, bad motor..no brush roll, but had a good base , hood and lens and spare switch and cord reel. I of course took both of them and made one IMHO perfect one for my collection. It will never leave me and is the only machine I would ever consider in a perfect world being buried with.
The third machine is my......1978? Premier Commercial I have question marked the Singer and The Premier as they were clearly built for several years each without changes and a years is hard to ascertain...unless a person from the upper hierarchy of the club would like to accurately date them for me. this too was a Jeff Parker gift. He apparantly found it in a trash can as he was coming home one day. Knowing that I liked it, he gifted it to me virtually as you see it. It looks MORE scratched in this picture....but in real life it's glossy and sexy chrome and black. I re-stenciled the PREMIER script and finally had to replace the cord..but other than that it's original and perfect.
Vacuum number Five is.....My positively identified by catalog and original owners manual 1974 Sears BEST Power Mate canister Cleaner. This machine was purchased by it's original owner, and one of my cherished current customer's on June 23, 1974 from Sears Roebuck and Co in Allen Park Michigan, which is the oldest currently open Sears store in our state. It has everything with it including the attachment tray which unfortunately inside the machine, and I am sure no pictures was taken with the tools out. I also do not have the lambswool pads that fit over the floor tool and upholstery tool. Otherwise this machine is the very nicest I've ever had in a canister.
Vacuum Number Six is....now Kyle's mint early 1980's Regina ElectrikBroom PowerTeam. This machine I found in 1997 in a batch of vacuum cleaners that came from a local Lansing Kirby Dealer as trade ins. I immediately scarfed it and shoved it into my trunk, and after finding a motor and brushroll thru many various channels..Completed it around 2000. IT's been hardly used since....and Kyle about dies when he saw it so I gifted it to him. Gotta pay it forward...
Vacuums that weren't seen was a late 1970's Eureka F&G that is orange and beige in almost perfect and unused shape. I gifted that to Kyle also... among many machines he has .....including...
The Hoover Model O
You can see my face when holding the handle of the worlds first commercially successful vacuum cleaner. I was in fact in LALA land. I felt super privileged pushing that heavy clanking monstrous thing back and forth over that small rug. It must have been the same way Susan Hoover Felt in 1907-08 when she pushed Murray's prototype across the rug in her entryway.
Surprisingly...Kyle pointed out that the machine is made of wood and tin. And to my amazement that machine is in fact wood upper and lower body, with tacked tin around. The whole nozzle housing is cut tin, and the basic construction is SO good considering that there was absolutely NO previous technology to go by.
I was surprised also that it wasn't as heavy as I had imagined I mean it's 40 lbs. so it;s definitely a chunker but It definitely is an experience that I will never forget. However..just have been able to run it and see it work and blow up that ginormous bag that I'm holding would have been truly heavenly. Maybe if it could be restored properly and as close to original as possible...that may occur here in the future
Well this is a Very long tome and I'm kinda out of thought surprisingly...so I'll stop and wait to see if anyone else will make comments on this visit Kyle and I had. Thanks again Kyle for posting the pictures and having me down. Maybe we can do it again soon.
Chad
