the name "Kobold"
hi friends,
yes, those units always had the name "Kobold" (the original brand name of Vorwerk)
http://www.vorwerk.com/de/kobold/html/eine_geniale_idee.html
Translation:
"wanton makes inventors" was the thought of the Vorwerk corporation. When in 1929 the business for grammophones went bankrupt, Vorwerk had to look for new products. Engineer Gorissen had an ingenius idea: He altered a few things on their grammophone motor and thus it became the core of the little handy and versatile vacuum cleaner.
When the secretary of the chief construction engineer saw the cleaner in action for the first time, she exclaimed "what a nice little goblin that is!" From then on, the new baby had a name and the success story of this handy vacuum cleaner was started."
Watch the little dwarf on top of the page, this logo has always been the label of the Kobold stick vacs. In Italy they call it "Folletto" (= goblin), in the UK they have no brandname (as there is some company with the same name), in France it is called "Optima". Their canister vacuums = Tiger, the carpet shampooer = Teppichfrischer (= rug refresher), the steam cleaner = Hexe (= witch).
Only the units for commercial use did not have the green/white color scheme, they were orange and gray (e.g. the Kobold as a "Viehputzgerät" (= cattle grooming unit). The names were often changed when the cleaner was exported:
Advance in the states = Mighty Maid, Tornado company in France = Cadillac.
You can see the complete history of the Kobold line here:
http://www.vorwerk-museumprivat.de/19301.html
The first electric model no. 30 is the one that resulted from that grammophone motor.
http://www.vorwerk-museumprivat.de/19301.html