Adjust-O-Rite Plugs Through the Years
From about 1945 to the present, there has been a considerable variety in designs of the Adjust-O-Rite plug.
Circa 1945 to circa 1950 - Red and black, with ROYAL in gold letters.
Circa 1950 to circa 1958 - Black and red, with red R-O-Y-A-L letters seen vertically on black portion of plug, and the words ADJUST-O-RITE on the red portion, below the Royal crown logo.
Circa 1958 to 1975 - Red plug with white R-O-Y-A-L letters seen vertically on left portion of plug, and the words ADJUST-O-RITE on the right portion, below the Royal crown logo. From 1966-75 a light blue version also existed, with red R-O-Y-A-L letters and crown logo. The red plug was used on models 602 and 801 while the light blue plug was used on models 606, 606A and 880. Versions of the logo without the R-O-Y-A-L letters were used on vacuums sold through exclusive distributors and private labels (a rare gold version was used for the Imperial Prestige A880 sold in the early '70s). For the Electro-Hygiene premium models, the word "Electro" is seen above the stub opening, and "HYGIENE" below, with a thunderbolt seen connecting through the lower-case "e" in "Electro."
1976 to 1986 - New design features the words "Adjust" and "Rite" set in Royal's then-current typeface, on the top and bottom of the stub opening respectively. The colors are the same two - red and light blue. This design was also used for Electro-Hygiene models.
1987 to March 1988 - The words "Adjust" and "Rite" are now both positioned above the stub opening. The belt position is now located below the stub opening.
April 1988 to August 2002 - Unchanged from 1987, except for a warning that encircles the bottom half of the plug, which reads: CAUTION: MOVING PARTS - UNPLUG BEFORE OPENING (on units made from April 1987 to March 1988, this warning was represented on a small decal applied below the AOR plug and above the Royal label on the nozzle). Many colors for this design were available: besides red and light blue, we also have dark blue, burgundy and black (the lattermost, so far, was only used on the model 5000NA sold by Stark's Vacuum in Portland, OR). From 1993 on, the metal pull knob version of the plug is discontinued, which left us only with the black plastic pull tab version, initially introduced in 1987 for the commercial models.
September 2002 to present - With TTI's acquisition of Royal, the AOR text gets a new makeover. The red color is no longer used on the commercial models, instead it's black, which ultimately becomes the only color of AOR plug by 2006 (for a few years there was still the dark blue and burgundy plugs).
~Ben
