dare i say it Titanic

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anthony

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 16, 2011
Messages
854
Location
leeds uk
With all the interest in [that ship ]again this week i wonder if anyone knows where there any vacuum cleaners on board
 
I can't imagine a ship at that time would settle for anything less than a Hoover. They were the best, and most advanced machines at the time. Brush rolls were still under their arms, and accessibility was vast. They were the largest vacuum company in the world at the time.

This is an interesting question. 100 years later, its about time someone researched that.
 
The only date reference I can find is of the model 183 Hoverette from 1912.

The machines would have likely been from this list. Possibly the model 2, from 1911.

brandon_w_t++4-14-2012-13-36-50.jpg.png
 
Titanic

Brandon- Where did you get the cut sheet on the early Hoovers? Very neat! Would you consider posting that literature in the "Library" section of this website...it is invaluable information to anyone interested in vintage Hoover machines, especially those before 1920. I know quite a bit about the Titanic and her sister the Olympic, and have most of the technical journals covering them at the time of their building, but I have never seen a reference to any sort of vacuum cleaning system or machines used on board to clean the carpets, and she had acres of the stuff aboard...interesting to speculate if The Hoover was there!
 
Hi

Hi, Interesting thought what vacuum cleaner they might of had on board the Titanic.
I'm not convinced the Titanic had Hoover vacuum cleaners on it as I believe Hoover did not come over to the UK till 1919. But I'm sure someone in the UK who knows more about Hoover than I do can confirm that.

James:o)
 
James you're right! WOW! I completely forgot about that! The possibility could still be there, perhaps.

Maybe Goblin?

brandon_w_t++4-14-2012-14-15-2.jpg.png
 
Finally, something I ACTUALLY know...

The short answer is no. Until the mid to late 20's ocean liners did not carry their own vacuum cleaners. Between sailings out of their home ports cleaning crews would be sent onboard to, among other things, vacuum rugs and upholstery. Most of the vacuums used were large tank-type. I think there was a thread about very early vacuums and someone in England had an American built tank-type from around 1910ish??? That is the kind of thing that were used. It was much later that vacuums became cheep enough for the shipping lines to buy them in bulk and add vacuuming to the list of chores that the maids and stewards had to do between sailings.
I read this info in a book called The Only Way To Cross by Bill Miller.
Justin
 
Justin:

No WONDER everyone wanted to sail on the Titanic - she was probably the only ship afloat at that time with clean carpets!

I'm sure they swept while at sea, either with brooms or carpet sweepers, but I still cannot imagine how yucky carpets would have gotten in a week.
 
She....

wouldn't have had electric vacuum cleaners. Since there was at least one crewman for every passenger (i.e., steward and/or stewardess per cabin),  they would clean a cabin's carpet by hand with a whisk and long-handled dustpans. Same with any lounge areas that had carpets. Large, luxurious throw rugs were more common than anything else. Cabins in first & second class were made to look like small, warm country estate rooms.


 


Kevin
 
1958's A Night to Remember is on Turner Classics right now.

My favorite of all the Titanic films because it features stories from all four classes - First, Second, Third (Steerage) and Crew.
This must be a cleaned up print because the image is spectacular.
There was really no need for Cameron to re-make it, imho...
Dave
 
Dave:

The Cameron film does offer one thing that "A Night to Remember" doesn't, and it's there in generous measure, thanks to CGI special effects that didn't exist in 1958.

Cameron made the RMS Titanic LIVE again. We not only see her interiors quite accurately depicted, we see her sail. We see passengers strolling her decks, we see her bow cutting the water, we see other craft being buffeted by her wake. We get views that help us grasp her size, her speed, her incredible grace once she's out past Queenstown (now Cobh) and fully under way.

I have issues with Cameron's film, don't get me wrong. But at least you come away from it with a very fair sense of what the ship was like during those five brief days of her service life.
 
For Me....

....Cameron's big achievement with "Titanic" was to make audiences understand what the ship represented in its time. The Edwardians prided themselves on their mastery of the physical universe; the RMS Titanic was a technological wonder for 1912. It had ship-to-shore radio communications, water distilling equipment, on-demand electric heat in staterooms, electric lighting in all classes, telephones for crew communication and - rather ironically - ice-making equipment. These were amenities many hotels on land still lacked. It was unthinkable that the newest, largest and greatest moving object ever built should be lost to a glancing blow from an iceberg.

It would have been bad enough had RMS Titanic been in service for a time, but she was fewer than five days into her service history. Old Rose in "Titanic" sums it up: "I can still smell the fresh paint. The china had never been used. The sheets had never been slept in."

After seeing Cameron's movie, you grieve for the people who died, of course. But you also grieve for the beautiful, graceful and elegant creation that was the RMS Titanic.
 
I....

had the privilege of sailing on the SS United states as a boy....a Caribbean cruise out of NY Harbor.  Docked in a slip next to the SS United States was the SS France. The SS France was just a few cabins bigger.  And before someone tries to correct me by saying the United States was not a steam ship, it was. It had 8 boilers and 4 steam turbine engines. It was a lot for a boy to take in, but I managed somehow.
smiley-tongue-out.gif
The magnificence of the United States will always be with me. I've been on luxury cruises since then, but no ship ever even close to the United States. Sad story today....rotting away in some harbor after several failed attempts to restore her.
smiley-frown.gif



 


On to vacuums.....


 


Kevin
 
Frankly I'm sick to death of Titanic - the film, the music, everything that is associated with it - I don't know why the Americans take great pleasure in celebrating Titanic or going mad for a ship that smacks in the face of the British for not testing it properly. Still we see the film every year, still we have to keep being pestered by anniversary celebrations. It is a sadness for those families who lost actual victims. I don't see 9/11 being boosted so much - or is that too close to home?
 
HOOVER BOOK

Hi I am Danny ryan from Hamilton onterio Canada and I have those PICTURES.
As well Danny.
 
vacs on hat ship

yes the film was fabulous when it came out the special effects but the icing on the cake would have been to see someone vacuuming the acres of brand new carpets . In the years since the films realease i have often wondered why no one has ever built a replica of the ill fated ship and sailed it back and forth across the pond people would be falling over themselves to travel on it the owners would clean up [excuse the pun]of course this one would have to have radar ?
 
Well....

for one thing Anthony, it would be incredibly 'bad luck' to make a replica and sail it across the Atlantic-sailors are notoriously superstitious about such things. Quite frankly, except for its old-fashioned luxury appointments and the English ill-fated 'class society' concept, there were better and more interesting passenger ships made after the Titanic and the Olympic.


 


Kevin
 
Well, MY thoughts

It WAS a beautiful creation. It WAS a tragedy, for all of the lost lives, etc. We just saw the 100 th anniversary of it all.
As far as 9-11 being too close to home... it happened 2 hours from my home.I know people who just missed death. Our own member, Joe Kassock lost his partner in it. I drove to Newark 4 days after. I saw the "glow" from the fire. I smelled the "burning". Some think it should be seen more, others, it's too much.
Someday, they'll make more movies about 9-11. All Titanic survivors are now gone. We reflect, remember, and are still fascinated by it all.
The World Trade Center, The Pentagon, and the PA site are very new, very real, and the U.S. pain is very deep.
One also must remember that 9-11 was an act of terror. The Titanic wasn't. The fans of Titanic aren't blaming anyone. Just my thoughts on it all. As far as 100th anniversaries: we gathered in North Canton to celebrate HOOVER'S century birthday. We stood in a factory that had JUST closed. That was sad, too. But, we remember, reflect, rejoice, and lament, all at the same time. We can only imagine the horror that night on Titanic.We heard of some of the horrors in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania. We dream of what those people could have done with their lives. Sad, indeed.
 
The....

Titanic was thoroughly eclipsed by the Queen Mary, the Queen Elizabeth, the QE2, the SS France and the SS United States just to name a few of the greater ships made after. Ships that had decades of illustrious history/service, including service in WWII and beyond. To capitalize on the Titanic 5day, ill-fated cruise into ruin and tragedy is to ignore all the wonderful ships that came after her. If anything, the arrogance of its owners and the flaws of her design led to much safer ocean liners and cruise ships for future generations to enjoy, myself included.


 


Kevin
 
So true....

So many improvements, etc, were made because of that terrible disaster.
Think about how much safer the travel of the President is because of that fateful day in Dallas in 1963. NONE of that would be allowed today. Of course, there is danger. But, these events, and others, have made improvements and helped safety for so many others "after".Thank God.
 
lessons learned

Speaking as someone who has been fascinated by Titanic since childhood, there are many reasons it holds our attention. To begin, the tragedy of Titanic spelled the beginning of the end of Edwardian class distinctions. The ship herself was a marvel of her time. Yes, she was later eclipsed, but her beauty and attention to the first and second class details were the epitome of luxury in 1912. There was even electric lighting in steerage, unheard of at that time.

Personally, I think a large part of the reason we are still thinking about Titanic is the drama of the night. There was heroism and cowardice. Lives saved and too many lives lost. And, let us not forget Captain Smith, who went down with his ship. Or the Strauss couple, who refused to be parted and perished together. These are the events and people that we remember and honor--not "smack in the face of the British", at least to my reckoning. May the lost souls rest in peace, but not forgotten!
 

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