madman
Well-known member
So like I said in the supermarket thread, on a whim I made a low bid on this pair of vacs, from a live auction, but bidding online. I was the only bidder, so for $30 and some change, I got these beauties. (Though I did have to wake up early and drive an hour to get there.)
They're both fairly beat up, and well used, but mostly complete. Wheels are decent. bags have holes. Both motors spin freely.
The Lincoln, I've heard, is a rebadged Royal. The back of the motor kinda looks like it, too. See pic #2. It's model number 1941, serial 190-8889. It has a neat 'stationary' brush, that's suspended by a leaf spring, and it has a disabling lever that lifts it up and locks it. See pic #3. It has an interesting concept in handle operation, it freely* moves up and down, but has a lever to lock it in a couple different positions. The same lever has to be lifted up to allow the handle all the way down.
*I say it's free, but it really looks like it's supposed to have a torsion spring to keep the handle upright, the spring is gone, but the place it goes is telltale. See pic #4. Do more modern Royals have the same type of spring?
The Eureka is just numbered J1847831. It looks like it uses oil wicks for lubrication, like an old fan motor. See pic #5. Those look like oil cups on the bottom that get unscrewed and filled with oil. First time I've seen that on a vacuum.
It seems to be missing the correct component to hold down the nozzle. It looks to have the original screw and spring, but the thing there now is just a random piece of metal. I would assume it's supposed to be a rotating lever or something to make it easy to remove the nozzle. See pic #6. Anyone know what that's supposed to look like?
Now for some comparisons to my first old vacuum cleaner, the Cadillac... the Eureka uses the same cord hooks. The Lincoln uses the same bag clip, and the Eureka uses the same bag clip as my handheld Cadillac. I wonder who got them from who, or where those parts sort of 'off the rack' type of things available at the time. Both of them have that pocket inside the bag to catch the dirt (a Cadillac/Clements patent), and the Lincoln uses a height adjustment that's a blatant knockoff of another Clements patent. Clements sued Kirby, Eureka, and someone else, for various patent infringements, but I'm not sure if any cases were about these.
That's about it. I won't be restoring these any time soon. I'm still in the middle of my Cadillac's restoration, and I've got a lot of stuff on my plate as it is.






They're both fairly beat up, and well used, but mostly complete. Wheels are decent. bags have holes. Both motors spin freely.
The Lincoln, I've heard, is a rebadged Royal. The back of the motor kinda looks like it, too. See pic #2. It's model number 1941, serial 190-8889. It has a neat 'stationary' brush, that's suspended by a leaf spring, and it has a disabling lever that lifts it up and locks it. See pic #3. It has an interesting concept in handle operation, it freely* moves up and down, but has a lever to lock it in a couple different positions. The same lever has to be lifted up to allow the handle all the way down.
*I say it's free, but it really looks like it's supposed to have a torsion spring to keep the handle upright, the spring is gone, but the place it goes is telltale. See pic #4. Do more modern Royals have the same type of spring?
The Eureka is just numbered J1847831. It looks like it uses oil wicks for lubrication, like an old fan motor. See pic #5. Those look like oil cups on the bottom that get unscrewed and filled with oil. First time I've seen that on a vacuum.
It seems to be missing the correct component to hold down the nozzle. It looks to have the original screw and spring, but the thing there now is just a random piece of metal. I would assume it's supposed to be a rotating lever or something to make it easy to remove the nozzle. See pic #6. Anyone know what that's supposed to look like?
Now for some comparisons to my first old vacuum cleaner, the Cadillac... the Eureka uses the same cord hooks. The Lincoln uses the same bag clip, and the Eureka uses the same bag clip as my handheld Cadillac. I wonder who got them from who, or where those parts sort of 'off the rack' type of things available at the time. Both of them have that pocket inside the bag to catch the dirt (a Cadillac/Clements patent), and the Lincoln uses a height adjustment that's a blatant knockoff of another Clements patent. Clements sued Kirby, Eureka, and someone else, for various patent infringements, but I'm not sure if any cases were about these.
That's about it. I won't be restoring these any time soon. I'm still in the middle of my Cadillac's restoration, and I've got a lot of stuff on my plate as it is.





