found 2 old mail order cataloges

VacuumLand – Vintage & Modern Vacuum Enthusiasts

Help Support VacuumLand:

The delux Spinney on the 1966/67 page (4 above) was made by Goblin and the low model (blue) was made by Siroma Eng. I'm not sure who made the mid range one though. Both the Golden Spinny and the Spinny hand vac from the 1963 catalogue are also made by Goblin.
 
Catalogues

Anthony

Thanks for taking the trouble to scan these - its great information. Note to readers though, the prices shown are NOT typical prices, catalogues (exception Argos) always have higher prices - its how they funded the "interest free" credit.

In reply 27, I would date that from around 1985 or perhaps 1986 - that freedom model continued until that year, even in the "regular" Hoover range.

I knew Doug would love to see those old Goblins badged as Spinney :) It was an arrangement they kept up into the Housemaid upright series :) As regards the 1966/67 Mid range (middle B) I would venture that to be by Siroma too as it has a designation only one up from the Siroma model. What looks to be the same model (at around the right price too) was tested by Which in 1968 but it was branded as Regina, as in the US company Regina, but manufactured in the UK.

As for 1961, better get those glasses tested mate, as the only thing it has in common with the Connie is the hose! The style of tools shown were first seen on the 402 in 1948. When the 417 was introduced it has the "Aerodyne" style floor nozzle that the later Connie had as well as the familiar hard floor nozzle that carried on from the 638 onwards. From memory it had the same dusting nozzle too, although it did have an upholstery nozzle rather then the general purpose brush that was on the Connie 822 and 822a.

When the Connie was introduced the 417 was "de-featured" becoming a much more budget model and it reverted back to the earlier style of tools although actually there was not much of a price difference between the two models. It was only the next series (the one shown is the 417E, the next one being 417G) that the tools were standardised with the rest of the range although its had a Hooverette style combo floor nozzle until the mid 1960s or so. At some point along the way the colour scheme was updated so the "G" was the same colour - the most obvious difference, apart from the tools, was the use of a red rocker switch in place of the step on switch.

Speaking of Hooverette, for US readers this was our version of the later series Lark, only ours always had a handle and used a Dustette/Pixie sliding switch.

Of course the thing that leaps out is that the Hoover range is virtually identicial, apart from styling differences between 1961 and 1972. The orange 427 is just an update of the earlier model 417. Although it looks superficially similar to the 427 Harlequin (the tartan one) they are completely different, the 427 being physically shorter than the 429.

I could (and probably will!) rant on some more, but that's it for now. Thanks again Anthony

Al
 
before I forget ...

Although the Spinney hand cleaner in 1963 was manufactured by Goblin, I believe this design and tooling was actually bought out of the liquidation of Vactric in 1960 - this design goes back almost as far as the Dustette

Al
 
LOL Al - The picture of the Hoover tank is with the old parts but in the write up it says "The accessories with this cleaner are now the improved type shown and described with item C and not as illustrated with item B" I am assuming that they are referring to either the machine below (no its not mine - just from the web) or the blue version of it. One of them must have replaced the one pictured about that time but they didn't get the picture of it in time to go in the catalogue.

And you're right - I do like the Golden Spinney. Nice colour combination.

Doug

collector2++7-11-2013-23-30-25.jpg
 
hi Vacbear

it was the description i was going on about i read it to say if you bought the Hoover cylinder you would get the tools displayed with the Connie and not the ones in the photo.On the page with the washingmachines did anyone notice the clothes horse with the heater in the bottom my mum had one in the winter she would remove the clothes horse and slide the heater under the beds to warm them bear in mind the beds were quite high up off the floor with steel bars and springs still quite a fire hazard i would have thought.Theres another cat from 1959 i has no photos just very nice drawings if anyone is interested
 
hi Vacbear

it was the description i was going on about i read it to say if you bought the Hoover cylinder you would get the tools displayed with the Connie and not the ones in the photo.On the page with the washingmachines did anyone notice the clothes horse with the heater in the bottom my mum had one in the winter she would remove the clothes horse and slide the heater under the beds to warm them bear in mind the beds were quite high up off the floor with steel bars and springs still quite a fire hazard i would have thought.Theres another cat from 1959 i has no photos just very nice drawings if anyone is interested
 
Cylinder

Anthony,

My apologies, I was so blown away by the pictures I did not read the small print, but I have now :) Well that is partially true except that it had a shorter hose than the connie, no suction valve on the handle and as I say, the smaller Hooverette style combo nozzle, it was not until about 1968 or so that it got the "standard" size combo nozzle as shown in Doug's picture in the Smoked Pine/Swedish Green colour combo.

The little wash boiler was by Burco of course, and I am not sure about the spinner, needs someone like ChesterMike to answer that one.

Just following on from your excellent restoration of the Lux 64, I note there are plastic wands and hose handle on the 64 in 1963.

AL
 
6768

more electrolux with a pic of the elusive Z80 i had one of these but gave it to a friend about 2 years ago who was just setting up home i didnt know how rare it was then [wonder if he still has it must find out]whats that thing sticking up at the front of the Z90 just after the front cover

anthony++7-12-2013-13-04-14.jpg
 
the 67

Hoovers all greeeeeen i remember those hotpoints being a kind of turquoise green or maybe its just the way it was printed.I love the fact that most young people have no idea about old money and keep asking me to convert for them

anthony++7-12-2013-13-10-0.jpg
 
incidentaly

country guy some of those cleaners have wheels fitted into the runners i would imagine the idea being they could slide straight off a carpet onto bare floors . will try to scan the 59 cat for Vacbear but its not in very good condition and its not glossy like later ones but will give it a go
 
Freedom

Chris

The Freedoms (this model) actually go on until into 1986. Anybody know when the Sensortronic range changed from 1,2,3 etc. to 10, 20, 30 .... ? I would have thought the Goblin might have been a bit later than 1983, but this is where my knowledge of dates gets very patchy

Al
 
Front cover missing

By the process of elimination, I thought the Sensortronic began in 1982 and of course early models had honey-beige tools. The photographs here clearly show dark brown and as catalogues always showed out of date photographs, the brown tools must have been available for some time prior in order to be shown here. The reason for out of date photos was, I might add, because they were requested from manufactures a good deal of time ahead, meaning by the time a new product was sold, many changes could have taken place since the original photo was taken. To this end, I would suggest the catalogue is from late 1983.

I have a notion that the Sensortronic changed from 1,2,3 etc. to 10,20,30 and so on around late 1984. I seem to recall owning documentation from this year which mentioned the changes. One thing Hoover didn't do until relativly late in day was to use a static hose on the base models, rather systems 10,20, and others still had stretch hoses on very early examples. These beefy cleaners were very hard to pull round by a stretch hose and the static hose was a welcome change, yet the oddity of these models (and forgive me if I sound surprised that Hoover had yet another quirk, because I'm not) is that cleaners made for the overseas market can be found with the large, singular operating pedal which was present on the first Sensortronics, and yet had static hoses. I am not sure if the static hose was included on overseas models from the outset, or if production of single-pedal models carried on after the UK cleaners changed to two small pedals.

The Freedom Electronic did indeed carry right on into the 1980's, finishing off with a black set of tools during the last production run. It was a very dated cleaner by then and I never understood why Hoover kept it going.

The Goblin cleaner mentioned must have been the last of it's type; earlier and more popular models were cream or green (electronic). This one is of a lower wattage and with no outstanding features, which is why I think it was one of the last. Also, this would have been around the time that Shop-Vac bought Goblin and a lot of streamlining took place prior to new models being built.
 
on non US 230...

Do not wire two hot "legs" up to make 240 as is the practice over here! European plugs are wired with a hot, supplying 230, a neutral, and usually a ground. You need to get a step up transformer used for travel that's capable of handling the current/watts the vacuum will pull.

If you put two 120 volt hot conductors to the hot and neutral of a foreign device, you could likely blow it up or start a fire! As someone else said, it's probably best to not permanently wire something like this in. The travel transformers are usually portable and plugged in where needed. Also, since US, Canada and Mexico use 60 Hertz (Cycles) and most of the rest of the world runs 50, the motor will spin faster on the 60 Hz system than it was designed to. Usually not a big deal, but worth mentioning.
 
@will.

Using the standard 240 in North America will NOT harm a European appliance at all. You do not need a step up transformer. The only difference between Europe and here is that the pole transformer here has the winding grounded in the center to create two 120 V legs where as the transformer there has one leg grounded. Either way 240 Volts is still 240 Volts. The only difference is that most of Europe is on 50 cycles while we are on 60 cycles and that only makes a difference for some electronics or asyncronus motors (like clocks) Vacuum cleaner motors are not affected at all by a difference in cycles as they can be run on AC or DC. The only thing that prevents modern machines from running on DC is the type of switches used.
 
@collector2

Ok, my bad, I was under the assumption that any motor would go faster on a higher frequency, as there are devices to control motor speed by varying the frequency.

I understand how the two systems differ as well, but if something is designed to be supplied by 230-240 volts from a hot and a neutral, supplying it with two hot conductors won't mess it up?

Sorry for any confusion.
 
Hey Will:

The only difference between using our two hot wire 240 Volt system and the European 240 V hot-neutral system lies in the fact that a switch on the machine is designed to break only one leg of the circuit normally. In the case of our stuff this really makes no difference as it still breaks the circuit and we aren't leaving the machine connected. If it were a permanently connected machine though it would require a double pole switch that disconnected both leads to make the item (in this case the motor) electrically dead.

Asynchronous or induction motors, like in a clock, use the fluctuating AC field in the stator winding to turn the rotor so it basically follows the cycles of the AC to make it turn.

A vacuum motor is what you call a Universal AC/DC motor. In this type brushes contact a commutator on the rotor supplying power to the windings on the rotor which set up a magnetic field which is opposite that of the stator. This pushes the rotor ahead, which in turn, brings the next segment of the commutator into contact with the brushes again with the same result, turning the rotor.

Hope that explains a bit
Doug
 

Latest posts

Back
Top