First beater bar?

[northwesty]

I looked in the archives but didn't see this or could not find it. Does anyone know who came out with the first rotating brush in the head?

I've just seen a really old hotpoint, it looks like it is from the teens but it looks like it has a rotating brush in the nozzle. Thanks.

 

[super-sweeper]

Hoover had it all the way in 1908, they patented it, too! they held that patent until the 1940s, Hoover ruled the floorcare department back then! 

 


some uprights could get away with putting a rotating brush in the nozzle, but only if the brush was spun by moving the vacuum, not spun by the motor! Hoover usually sued those who dared to violate the patent, most notably Air-Way and their DirtMasteR and Twin-Motor uprights! 

 

[aeoliandave]

Let's be clear here...

Hoover's lawsuit failed because Air-Way's brushroll was spun by a second dedicated motor on top of the floor nozzle and the DirtMastR used a single horizontal motor with fans on each end and an extended shaft to turn the brushroll 'backwards'. Hardly an infringement on Hoover's patent, 'tho Lawyers argued themselves Canton Red in the face trying to prove otherwise.

As Tom noted in the Air-Way Musings thread:

"Air-Way was at least fifty years ahead of their time, unlike say Kirby, who was always late to the game. Note the 1934 patent drawing shows a tandem-air upright - 70 years before Tacony "invented" it. The DirtMasteR also featured Twin-Fans, fifteen years before Singer would "invent" that feature too (if one were to believe Singer's 1949 Advertising). By the way, Hoover by 1929 had infringed on Air-Way's patents on the disposable bag. The model 725 featured a disposable bag called the Hygienasac, over which Air-Way promptly sued Hoover. The lawsuit over the beater bars was a 'revenge' lawsuit."

That lawsuit was over beater bars and again, Air-Way's were engineered entirely different. Hoover was simply being the petty Big Bully. 'Business as Usual'

See link:

http://www.vacuumland.org/cgi-bin/TD/TD-VIEWTHREAD.cgi?27122_6~1

 

[super-sweeper]

Thanks for clearing that up, Dave! It's been a while since I heard that story!