Federal Electric Birtman Magnetic & Federal Electric Cleaner?

[chicagomike]

Hi, does anyone have any knowledge on the dates these vacuums were made and know the model numbers of the machines? Any insight you can provide would be appreciated and if you have a suggestion on where to get carbon brushes for the machines it would be appreciated.

I started to restore both of these machines today and would like to learn a little about them, thus my questions. dysonman1 (Rolla, Missouri) said in a previous post from 2014 "The Federal Electric Company is Chicago's electric company. As in the electricity you use for lights and such. The Federal vacuum cleaner was just a private labeled machine that the Federal Electric Company sold to its customers (on time payments - the monthly fee was included with your electric bill). There were two manufacturers of Federal machines, one was Birtman and one was Hamilton-Beach. Mine is a Hamilton Beach."

P.S., the machines are almost identical from the motor area back.

 

[vacerator]

Mike,

Amazing something so old was still around. A whopping 2 amps. Folks just had small area rugs.

 

[kirbyclassiciii]

chicagomike

Mike,

There was also a Federal Electric upright vacuum cleaner made by Royal. This one dates to 1974 (eBay auction picture), based on the model 606 Heavy Duty Commercial (3-wire) cleaner.

~Ben

 

[louise]

Federal Electric Company

Federal Electric Company did produce their own residential vacuum cleaners in 1909 (see "Electrical Review and Western Electrician, Dec 11, 1909, pg 1158), and continues to make industrial vacuum cleaners, albeit likely from another manufacturing company they purchased over the years. Federal Electric was part of Chicago's main electricity supplier (Commonwealth Edison) for a brief period in the 1920s but split from Edison in the 1930s as Federal Sign and Signal. Today the company is known as Federal Signal.

I have a brown cloth bag with orange lettering, "Deluxe Attachments for the Federal Electric Cleaner, the Complete Power Cleaning Plant of the House" along with one long piece and one short piece of metal tubing (painted black), a black painted metal crevice tool and an aluminum bodied (with removable brushes) upholstery nozzle. Anyone interested? I will post pictures if interested.

http://https//books.google.com/book...EwjTzee2ybbLAhVFWz4KHR-YBDgQ6AEIHzAB#v=onepag

 

[dysonman1]

Federal Electric models were made by Birtman. Your straight suction upright is a Bee Vac Model G. Made in the mid to late 1920's. There were two model G's, one was sleeve bearing and the later was ball bearing. Yours would be from around 1928 or 1929. Some of them have a date stamp on the armature stackings.

This is the corresponding Bee Vac ball bearing model G. Note the stationary brush swings away, so it's out of the way when not in use.

 

[dysonman1]

Hamilton Beach made the Federal Electric motor driven brush upright. This is the later ball bearing model (there was an earlier sleeve bearing model that looked very much like this one but with sleeve bearings). The exhaust spout from the fan case to the bag is HUGE.

 

[dysonman1]

Fedelco (Federal Electric Company) straight suction upright "Bee Vac" from Birtman Electric (supplier of vacuums to Sears, which was also in Chicago).

 

[chicagomike]

THANK YOU for all the information Louise and Dysonman