first central vac??

[caligula]

Hi rugsucker.

If you knew me, and my writing style, it would drive you crazy,  and often does me too)! I usually take dictation from my mind, where there is a wealth of information stored away. Transferring this to paper, or a monitor is fine, but then I find the typos. And this history is loaded with them. Usually I go through three drafts before printing, but this was a work in progress that I started right after the 05 convention in Los Angeles. As my partner Charles, (no not Charles Richard Lester) was going through some serious medical issues, and I was his fulltime caregiver and nurse, I simply tabled it.


 


Once I got access to the internet last year, I opened that file, and tacked on the ending, keeping the date of original publication intact. But clearly, this is not up to my standards. And yes, I am my own severest critic!!


 


Then I met a few fellow collectors who were interested in history, and asked to read it unedited, so I  forwarded it to them as is. However, the history of the non electric was left unfinished, and needs a lot more work.   As for the C-A, I know the inside story on that, and will address it in the next post, but it was Electrolux that designed it.


 


Alex Taber.

[this post was last edited: 1/2/2014-15:20]

 

[caligula]

Hi rugsucker.

If you are talking about the book by Carroll Gantz, I haven't read it yet, and I understand I'm mentioned in it. However, my name is spelled wrong, it's Taber, not Tabor! As I was not consulted, and could have contributed a lot of information, as I did on a book called 'Collecting Household Antiques,' and then having my information altered, I'm a bit gun-shy here.


 


My mind is a sponge that soaks up facts, be that vacuum cleaner, or other things like the history of the Titanic, the Great Chicago fire, San Francisco earthquake and a myriad of others. When the time is right, I share these, but checking facts is not as easy. People who were there to corroborate vacuum cleaner facts are gone, and in most cases Wikipedia offers no help.


 


As I mentioned earlier on this thread or another one, the idea of a book on the vacuum cleaner was brought up at the first meeting of the V.C.C.C. in May of 85. Back then, we didn't have enough data to work with. Besides, other than Hoover, vacuum cleaner companies would not turn over facts. I learned that in 1979, when I wrote to Electrolux about info on the C-A, and was told it never existed! Weeks later I got a letter from Charles McKee, who told me that the top brass of Electrolux held a board meeting to answer my questions, and he included the instruction book for the C-A. Yes, I was impressed. But he also said that Electrolux and other companies are not interested in history, just sales! Sure, I have a lot of information that I gathered over the years, but we at the V.C.C.C. knew we could cover that in the newsletters. Which, by the way, I wrote, with all Hoover information being covered by John Lucia. Merely digging up ideas to keep the newsletters going was mind boggling! Today, those notes are packed in boxes, but what's in my head, can and will be shared with Vacuumland.


 


Now about the C-A. Here's the inside information. The man who was directly responsible for it was an Electrolux salesman from Wallingford, Connecticut, and his name was Quinto Escary. Sometime in the early 1940's he was talking with Alex Rowan, house director for Choate School (now Choate/Rosemary Hall), and Alex asked him if Electrolux could design a machine that could be rolled up and down stairs, so the maids wouldn't have to carry the model XXX. Since Quinto was frequently at the Electrolux factory, which was only an hours drive from Wallingford, he spoke to Gustaf E. Lofgren about it, though it took years before the idea was realized. The person responsible for it's invention was John J. Kowalewski, who filed patent #3,172,743 on November 30, 1961. And yes, Choate got the first one to roll off the production line. By the way, Alex Rowan was my maternal grandfather, and I got to play with that C-A.   


 


 


 

 

[rugsucker]

CA to CB

Good to get above info from people who were there in the area and at the factory.And as McKee knew the only thing that will continue a companies history is next weeks sales!(But the lack of historical interest often goes to far.I think it was Chrysler that scrapped old data sheets on thousands of cars when they were in bankruptcy.)In either the sales folder or instruction book for CA there is a drawing showing the advantage of the CA design over the round bucket type comm vac with motor on top.And then came the CB which was a round bucket type comm vac with motor on lid!Was the CB a White design and was this why Elux bought White?From conversation with the older Elux mgr White seems to have been a key part of Electrolux's comm vac sales.--And at a later time to continue some discussion of the central vac the Elux version came from Canada which has a much higher % of homes with built in vacs.

 

[caligula]

Hi rugsucker.

I was only a kid of ten or eleven when the C-A came out. At this point in my life I was way too young to be interested in history, but loved to see vacuum cleaners in magazines, and if my mom or grandmother went to Sears, or any other department store, they left me in the vacuum cleaner department and did their shopping. Yes, in the 1950, and 60's life was easier and safer! but that was the extent of my involvement with vacuum cleaners.


 


Yes, I did know Quinto, everybody did, not only did he sell Electrolux's to our neighbor Jeanette, (the lady who had that model LX, and inadvertently created my obsession) but to nearly everybody in Wallingford. He also happened to live next door to my paternal grandparents, so I knew him quite well.  


 


Shortly after Quinto brought the C-A to my grandpa, I got to play with it for a day, and have wanted one ever since. But aside from getting the story of the C-A's history from my grandpa, which was confirmed by Quinto in 1968 when I worked for the Hamden branch of Electrolux, I never knew why they switched to the C-B. I've heard it was an electrical thing with a defective ground plug, but not sure that was the reason. However, it was the only wet/dry Electrolux. But one thing I can tell you, the White division did not make any Electrolux products.


 


Alex Taber 


 


 

 

[dysonman1]

Electrolux also made the CA as a "White" for the White Mop Wringer Company. I have both instruction manuals that I got when we went to the Electrolux Factory back when I was President of the VCCC. This is my complete Electrolux CA (including Power Nozzle) that I got from my friend Evan Rogers many years ago.