Morphy Richards Cleaners

[chestermikeuk]

MR

Understand what you are saying Al, I just pulled together a few pics from which I thought where similar - have asked the question a few times who made what for what and no conclusive data - perhaps MR / GEC did make a UK exclusive afterall!!

The other similar one is this

 

[vacbear58]

Confusion

I agree Mike, its hard to keep track of who did what to whom. This might help

 

[kenkart]

I don't know!!!!

Who that swivel top is a copy of...but I do know I WANT ONE!!!!!!

 

[portable]

<span style="font-family: verdana,geneva; font-size: medium;">Hans -</span>


<span style="font-family: verdana,geneva; font-size: medium;"> </span>


<span style="font-family: verdana,geneva; font-size: medium;">I was thinking of you when I saw this discussion and looked at the round canister, which looks an awful lot like an.....APEX. Do we know whether Apex ever manufactured in Britain, and under what name?</span>


<span style="font-family: verdana,geneva; font-size: medium;"> </span>


<span style="font-family: verdana,geneva; font-size: medium;">John</span>

 

[eurekaprince]

It looks like Morphy Richards actually copied the design of the 1950's Eureka Roto-Matic canister (a red and silver one is shown above). This design was used by Eureka to manufacture the contemporaneous Singer version as well. The Australian Pye Rotovac must be a result of that company purchasing an Australian copyright for the design from Eureka in North America. This corporate transaction must have also been used by Parnall to make a British version of Eureka's famous Mobile Aire canister vac (pictured above).....

 

[vacbear58]

Apex

John

There are a couple of instances of Apex designs being sold over here. Pre war we had the Apex Airflow sold over here as the Vactric TOL cleaner. Whether they we built here or imported is not known although i suspect the latter is more likely

 

[vacbear58]

Post War

and actually in the early 1950s Apex cannister designs were manufactured by a company called Bylock. Rather than the Morphy Richards I think THIS is an Apex design - I think it was manufactured by Bylock too although not branded as such

 

[vacbear58]

Brian

I cannot be sure but I think it is based on the GE Swivel top rather than Eureka, the Parnall is an almost exact copy of the Eureka right down to the tools. As I wrote above there is a later version of the MR with a rug nozzle identical to the later GE version

 

[collector2]

I would suspect the M.R. tank type machine was made, under contract by Byloc to M.R.'s specs - as the handle and switch are the same as used on the Byloc machines and the hose connection is the same as that used on the earlier models.

 

[eurekaprince]

Alistair,

You may be quite right about this. As a matter of fact, I am inclined to believe that Eureka copied the swivel-top canister concept from General Electric. My beloved Eureka company had a tendency to "copy and improve" vac concepts and features over the years. I wonder if anyone can confirm that the first GE Swivel Top came to market before the first Eureka Roti-Matic.

 

[collector2]

Hey Brian:

The GE AVC 815 and the Eureka 800 both first appeared in 1952 so very hard to say which came first.

 

[kenkart]

Bylock Tank!

Those attachments pictured are almost EXACT copies of Apex!!

 

[eurekaprince]

Thanks for that info, Doug - very interesting!

 

[vacbear58]

Bylock

Seems like time for another thread The attachements, at least in the earlier 1950s models ARE exactly the same as the Apex tools, later on not so much so - seems like the cleaners evolved somewhat from the earlier, Apex designed models.

Just out of interest, when DID Apex stop manufacturing?

Al

 

[collector2]

Hey Hans - the only difference between the Apex and Bylock (or President in Canada)attachments was that the Apex machines parts were 1 1/4" and the Bylock parts were 29mm (1 1/8"). The President machines, which were made for State Vacuum Stores in the US and Canada were made by Apex for the US Stores with the larger parts and by Bylock for the Canadian stores with the smaller parts.

 

[kenkart]

Apex..

Stopped manufacturing cleaners in 63 I believe, the Apex attachments i have are slightly smaller than 1 1/4, in other words an Electrolux wand will not fit into an Apex attachment.