Huskyvacs, I ID’d your handheld!

[hoover300]

Niagara Junior made by Neupert.

 

[huskyvacs]

Good lord! I am dumbfounded! How ever in the world did you find that out???????

Also is this thing for sale? I'd love a "mint condition" copy.

Man oh man that has bugged me for all these years I was thinking maybe Singer or Montgomery Ward or something - or even something homemade from like Popular Mechanics because what is very strange about it is that it is assembled in 2 halves and you can disassemble its halves.

That is truly incredible man, I thank you so much!


and lol Neupert - what a wacky weird name of ever a vacuum cleaner could be

 

[hoover300]

Thanks! I bought it today from a honey hole with thousands of vacs. I saw it poking out on shelf along with a couple of graybar handhelds I got also. I will absolutely post pics after it is cleaned and rewired. Not for sale yet. I am wondering, because it is labeled Junior, is there an upright out there?
I heard from a friend that Neupert made a few other home appliances, mixers I think?

 

[huskyvacs]

Alright no problem, if it ever comes up for sale in the future please think of me. Months, years, decades, no pressure at all.

I at least have closure now and can properly name and date this fella. We can be known as the only two collectors that has one I guess, lol

 

[huskyvacs]

From a book called "Antique Electric Waffle Irons 1900-1960" by William George (2003)

 

[hoover300]

All cleaned up! The spring in the bag broke due to rust so I cut it out and put a similar spring around it. Runs pretty quietly, but a relatively finicky motor to work on. Also, the flange that holds the motor in the casting is wood lol

 

[huskyvacs]

Yup - that is correct. Mine also has a wood motor gasket. I thought someone had bodged it. Now I know that is original.

 

[huskyvacs]

Cross-posting an earlier thread from 2015 for reference:

https://vacuumland.org/threads/niagara-jr-hand-vac.30297/

 

[huskyvacs]

Fun fact: The Neupert Mfg. Co's main business operations was making water pumps for the Ford Model T. It seems the Great Northern Prod. Co. was formed as a partnership or outlet for domestic appliances. All I could find was evidence that they made a stand mixer and thats about it. Looks like this company was in business from the teens to the 20s.

Neupert was located at 82 Lark St. in Buffalo NY in 1919.

The area is residential now, and the building is long gone, but you can still see the footprint of the building in the property line boundaries.

 

[centralsweeper63]

Interesting, made miscellaneous and seemingly random things. Cool!

 

[huskyvacs]

Now have year ID obtained. Never forget to search Google Books itself!

Underwriters' Labortories List of Inspected Electrical Appliances: Supplement 1937 Edition - Page 7 and Page 29

There looks to be a "Model 90" out there in addition to the "Model 95". Also there is a Niagara Jr. camera and a Niagara Jr. flashlight, so I think this is just a brand name rather than like what Hoover did with the Junior/Senior connotations.

 

[centralsweeper63]

Cool. Very much a vintage machines!

 

[cheesewonton]

Roper got their name by virtue of how they used a piece of rope as a seal in water pumps. The modern viton lip seals we take for granted are a recent thing. I'm old enough to have rebuilt a car engine where the only seals available were leather. That's why cars leaked so bad 40 -50 years ago. Chryslers used these strange "Ball and Trunion" universal joints that had a big leather bag around them to keep the grease in and the dirt out. So seeing a wooden bearing seal is not surprising. They didn't have the material science to make a modern oil seal. Old vacuum motors had shield bearings for the same reason.

 

[centralsweeper63]

Cool, Very cool.

 

[huskyvacs]

Roper got their name by virtue of how they used a piece of rope as a seal in water pumps. The modern viton lip seals we take for granted are a recent thing. I'm old enough to have rebuilt a car engine where the only seals available were leather. That's why cars leaked so bad 40 -50 years ago. Chryslers used these strange "Ball and Trunion" universal joints that had a big leather bag around them to keep the grease in and the dirt out. So seeing a wooden bearing seal is not surprising. They didn't have the material science to make a modern oil seal. Old vacuum motors had shield bearings for the same reason.

Lots of antique tractors, their carburetor seals were cardboard! You would think with the oil exposure and fuel they would just dissolve away, but they evidently didnt!

 

[cheesewonton]

Lots of antique tractors, their carburetor seals were cardboard! You would think with the oil exposure and fuel they would just dissolve away, but they evidently didnt!

You had to use a bunch of gasket sealant when you installed anything on these old cars. That made what should be a simple chore like a valve adjustment on an old Plymouth, or a carb clean an all day ordeal. You had to scrape all that gasket sealer and old torn up gasket material stuck to the engine block and whatever cover you removed and remember to buy new gaskets to use when you button everything up. Today with modern gaskets you just wipe everything down and replace the gasket. About the only place I ever have to use any kind of sealant is over the camshaft cut outs. On my old BMW K100s they were built with a paper gasket under the timing cover. Now, when you put them back together you just squeeze a thin bead of high temp RTV sealant and good to go. No gasket. Sealants have come a long way too.

 

[huskyvacs]

You had to use a bunch of gasket sealant when you installed anything on these old cars. That made what should be a simple chore like a valve adjustment on an old Plymouth, or a carb clean an all day ordeal. You had to scrape all that gasket sealer and old torn up gasket material stuck to the engine block and whatever cover you removed and remember to buy new gaskets to use when you button everything up. Today with modern gaskets you just wipe everything down and replace the gasket. About the only place I ever have to use any kind of sealant is over the camshaft cut outs. On my old BMW K100s they were built with a paper gasket under the timing cover. Now, when you put them back together you just squeeze a thin bead of high temp RTV sealant and good to go. No gasket. Sealants have come a long way too.

lol yeah the tolerances were just eyeballed "good enough" and then seals and gaskets carried the team.

 

[centralsweeper63]

And efficiency struggled because of how inprecise manufacturing could be.