@eurekaprince: I don't believe the change was that sudden, or perhaps a generic type remained in production? I say this, because I know of someone who lives in a house with a central vacuum system which was installed when the house was new in the mid- to late '80s. It has the curved wand you mentioned. I have also been told that Eureka made attachments for Rainbow, NuTone, and perhaps some other companies.
Besides the name change from Eureka-Williams would you say the quality increased, decreased, or stayed the same? Did Electrolux change the designs of the cleaners right away, or was it a gradual process?
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Here is some company information I found and made into a timeline:
Eureka Company Historical Highlights
(source:
http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/the-eureka-company-history/)
1909 – Real Estate Auctioneer Fred Wardell of Detroit, Michigan, acquires several patents for the emerging vacuum cleaner technology and starts The Eureka Vacuum Cleaner Company (the namesake being from the Ancient Greek word meaning "I have found it!"). Its headquarters are in a 3.5-acre factory in Detroit’s downtown district. Like other companies, it relies on a robust door-to-door sales force. The company also rented space in retail outlets.
1910 – Mr. Wardell incorporates the company in Michigan.
1913 – Six different models of Eureka cleaners are manufactured along with a multitude of cleaning attachments for walls, upholstery, and bare floors.
1940 – After years of retreating from its dependence on door-to-door sales mainly due to The Great Depression, direct sales are discontinued altogether.
1937-1939 Annual losses average $199,000. Around this time, Henry Burritt, the chief of sales for the Nash-Kelvinator Company is persuaded by Mr. Wardell to take charge of the ailing Eureka Company.
1942 – 1945 Due to WWII Eureka’s factory produces only war materials. Burritt and his managers strategize how to take advantage of the surge in consumer spending that was expected to follow the war. The company decides to diversify its offerings of consumer appliances and decentralize operations.
1945 – Eureka merges with the Williams Oil-O-Matic Heating Corporation and becomes the Eureka-Williams Corporation. Operations are now based at the Williams plant in Bloomington, Illinois.
1946 - By this time the company is distributing its vacuum cleaners through 5,500 dealers, with 55 distributors, 12 of them company owned.
To broaden its array of consumer goods and distribution system Eureka-Williams purchases the Chicago-based National Stamping & Electric Works in 1946 for $640,000. The company makes electric toasters, irons, and other appliances under the "White Cross" label, with sales of $500,000 a year.
1947 – There are now 8,500 dealers and 9,000 retailers.
A line of electric disposal units, the Dispos-O-Matic, is introduced.
1953 – Eureka-Williams is purchased by Henney Motor Company. Henney, based in Freeport, Illinois, is controlled by principal stockholder C. Russell Feldmann. It is now a division of the Henney Motor Company.
1959 – Eureka-Williams observes its 50th year. It merges once again; this time with National Union Electric Corporation, a heating and air-conditioning manufacturer of which Feldmann is both chairman and president.
1974 – Eureka-Williams is purchased by AB Electrolux of Sweden. Its name changes to The Eureka Company.
1983 – In an effort to cut cost production a new plant to make uprights in El Paso, Texas is opened.
1984 – Eureka observes its 75th year. Another plant in Juarez, Mexico is opened. The manufacture and assembly of canisters are consequently consolidated at its plant at Normal, Illinois, while headquarters and other manufacturing operations remain at Bloomington. Eureka reported that it spent $2.2 million restructuring its plants in Illinois.
1990s – After a loss in market share to number three-ranked Royal, Eureka sets out to take a more aggressive and proactive attitude toward product introduction and advertising, expanding its national advertising revenue by 300 percent. It also lowers its prices. The strategies work, and by the mid-1990s Eureka holds about 20 percent of the $600-million full-sized cleaner market, as compared with Hoover's 35 percent.
1993 Eureka’s first handheld, the Corvette is introduced. The Corvette name, on license from General Motors Corporation, is used to lure car owners who would be attracted to cleaning their car with it. The product is instantly successful.
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Tom Gasko's Eureka Vacuum Cleaner history is here:
http://www.vdta.com/Magazines/SEP11/fc-gaskoSep11.html
