My very small collection

[eurekaprince]

Hi Dave! Thanks for that post - I have to agree with you that the Dial-a-Matic was certainly not the best carpet cleaner. It took Panasonic to improve the configuration to the point that these "bag first" uprights could compete with the classic fan-first uprights in terms of carpet cleaning. We all know that a classic fan-first upright can deep clean carpets far better than the clean air versions without all the extra plumbing and high amperage motors. I think it was Kirby that always touted the benefits of having a short pathway from carpet to fan.

That being said, I think I remember reading somewhere that the Loewy Singer actually did not perform very well compared to a Hoover of the era. The two fans also seem to make twice the noise.

Thank you for the close-up look at that beautiful GE Sillouette. In terms of upright evolution, it indeed marks another important point in history: whereas the handle on the Singer was connected to the top of the motor housing, GE took the revolutionary step of making the motor part of the handle. If I am not mistaken, this GE motor seems to be the first to rotate with any movement of the handle! Which is a feature we find in the DAM debuting only a few years later. Placing the motor all the way back "under" the handle allows for a really svelt power head. It also probable reduces the strain on the bag as the bag connection now rotates with the handle.

What a great history lesson here: you can really see the evolution of upright vacuum design from Loewy's Singer to the GE Sillouette to the Hoover Dial-a-Matic to the ubiquitous Panasonic upright design that was bought from Hoover, and even on to the contemporary Hoover WindTunnel uprights that finally succeeded in improving the air flow problems in the DAM's agitator cavity.

By the way, I am also drooling over that Sunbeam Michael!! What beautiful attachments!!!

 

[caligula]

Hi Michael, nice collection.

Welcome to the club.

I understand you live in Vermont. Where? I have some very famous friends in Stowe.

Alex Taber.

 

[vacman27]

Lewyt

That is a gorgeous restoration on the Lewyt. I never knew they had a power nozzle. What year is that? By the way, that lamp you have above the Lewyt is very valuable.

 

[Vodhin]

Dave,
The GE's motor attached to the handle is an interesting design, though I notice that the underside reveals what I would think is a poor plenum between the fans and the brushroll. The sharper angles are points of energy loss and turbulance. The Singer S series seems to have a much smoother flow.

The Westinghouse looks like it was designed by a Plymouth engineer who had been fired for lack of style... It's one that I think I would pass up with little thought - just my opinion and not meant to ruffle any feathers. Thanks for sharing the nice old ads, though.

Loewy's floating brushroll was a neat idea and I think it's placement in line with drive shaft is needed to prevent the torque of the belt from dragging the assembly down when running. Standing the vac on end and switching it on proves that the brushroll's position is not influenced by the pull of the belt. I'm not sure if moving the pivot point closer to the front would upset this balance, but I'm sure that moving it behind the motor's axle would.


Jimmy,
Thanks for sharing all that info. I've never seen an above-floor kit for the Singer. Do you know if ever one was offered? I've always thought that the Hand-vac/Magic Mite was their solution to above floor cleaning (I remember an ad somewhere demonstraiting that for the same price as another brand's accessories you could het a second vac and have help with the cleaning: it showed a mother and daughter team cleaning the house).


Brad,
Thanks for the compliment. Funny you should ask about the video: I work in TV production for a local access station here in Vermont. I could make a video, but I'd end up turning it into a production. Hmmmm...... I think I've already got a jingle in my head.


Brian,
The Singer is actually very quiet: When you lift the nozzle off the carpet there is defintley a roar from the rushing air. When using it normally it has a very nice purr.

The Singer's exhaust is set back from the handle and also angled to match the handle while usingthe vac. It seems that stress on the bag is minimal in any handle position and the space between the exhaust and the handle allows the bag to inflate fully.


Alex,
I'm in Rockingham, Vermont, not too far from Stowe. So, who are your famous friends you're hinting at?


Jeffery,
Lewyt was the first canister vac with a revolving brush in a production model (I think). The first design was actually a carpet sweeper set-up: the brush revolved by being turned by the nozzle's wheels. The handle of the sweeper nozzle was a wand and you could use the nozzle without the vac as a regular carpet sweeper or connect the wands/handle to the hose and the vacuum would suck the dirt out of the sweeper's dirt tray.

I noticed that lamp too. It looks like a FLW or at least in his style.

 

[caligula]

Hi Michael.

The Von Trapp Family Singers, the real family of 'Sound of Music' fame. I was on a first name basis with the real Maria, and spent many summers up there at the family lodge on Luce hill. The colors in the fall were breathtaking, and while I don't ski, loved it in the winter. As I was born and raised in Connecticut, Stowe was not that far away.

 

[aeoliandave]

Michael, I like and recognize the way you think things out, same as I do.
I agree with every one of your astute observations.

I began taking things apart to see how they worked when I was 5 years old and opened up my Christmas present helicopter that flew through a hand cranked cable. I improved its performance. I was forever doing this with machines of every type from typewriters to vacuums to clocks & watches and always - mostly - was able to put things back together. I recall opening up my cousin's Chatty Kathy doll on Christmas afternoon suspecting I'd find a miniature phonograph inside. That didn't go over so well but I had it back together by dinnertime

With my parent's baffled blessings and encouragement, because I had a good track record, that's why I became a mechanical engineer.
-----------------------------
Change the mount point of the Singer brushroll arms and yes, you will introduce out of equilibrium forces that must be counter acted upon. Like a Subaru Boxer engine the Singer/Loewy arrangement is in perfect balance and gently presses the brushroll into the carpet surface. Btw, it takes a round belt and a Hoover is a perfect fit.
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Smooth unrestricted air pathways are essential to prime performance (and that is why I find the Dyson type bagless plumbing routes so perplexing - no wonder they have such screaming powerful motors to overcome the twists, turns and diameter changes).
----------------------------
Hearsay is just that, secondary and repeated information that becomes fictional 'truth'.
This morning up in the bedroom I vacuumed up goose-down feathers, from changing my pillowcases, using the Singer. When the phone rang I was easily able to chat without ear-strain while running the vac. No, the double fans are not doubly noisy being solid metal 3" impellers on each end.
The Hoover of 1949 is not a viable comparison, as it has a large powerful pancake motor, a huge single impeller and the beloved lovely low frequency hum & thump of the Beater Bars.
There's really nothing that compares to the 1949-1960 Singer S (until the GE Silhouette and DAM made their debuts after the 14 year patents expired) other than maybe an upright Air-Way (and they are not all that noisy either considering the motor is totally exposed.
------------------------
I have yet to see any strain damage or tearing on a Singer S bag. The Hoover, on the other hand...
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The Arts & Crafts lamp is one of my favorite rescues from ~15 years ago. All original, I found literally discarded and discounted in pieces in a box under a table at a lighting store that specialized in Brass parts and restored fixtures only. The brass socket had been removed but that was easy to replace. More scrounging turned up the undamaged glass triangles for the shade (which is missing a 1-2" border edge).
I stripped, cleaned and reglued the pieces with Hot Hide Glue, ran a cloth-wrapped brown cord down the base and as an accent lamp I put a 1.25" 25 watt globe bulb on top. It actually bright enough to read by.

There were no official maker's marks on it other than some rough hand-tool marks on the inside surfaces and a few unmistakeable coping saw errors in the cutouts but a few years later I came across a pre-WW1 Mechanix Illustrated article on making your own Mission-style table and floor lamps. This design was one of many patterns so I assume this is a home handyman project of the time. A few years ago I took pictures of the lamp down to the Roycroft Campus Museum in East Aurora NY. They tried very persuasively to acquire it from me but I just couldn't. Likewise David Rudd of Dalton's American Decorative Arts shop wanted to add it to his inventory at an astonishing consignment price and again, I had to say no...

Decades before when Roycroft Campus was nothing more than a derelict bunch of second-hand junk shops (before being discovered, spruced up and turned into a Tourism Destination and before the Roycroft Inn was restored) I picked up quite a few Mission bits and pieces for peanuts. A number of Stickley style chairs and tables among them; I certainly couldn't afford them today, once Barbara Streisand drove prices to the Stratosphere.
Back then you could pick up a Stickley armchair for $200.

Dave



http://www.daltons.com/

 

[eurekaprince]

I am curious as to why the Singer / Loewy design did not last more than decade or two.

I know that it evolved into the commonly-seen Singer/Lewyt/Kenmore Twin-Fan upright. These later versions seem to be quite noisy if you listen to some of them in clips on YouTube. Theoretically, it seems like a good idea to have two fans to spread out the suction to both edges of the powerhead. But for some reason, the concept was dropped - even in commercial fan-first uprights. Not sure why this twin-fan concept disappeared. It seems to have only survived in the Tacony "tandem air" uprights, in a modified form.

 

[Vodhin]

Alex,
I've heard that Maria Von Trapp lived here in Vermont in the Stowe area. The family runs a small Inn somewhere on the outskirts of town. I haven't thought about looking up more information on them but I will do so now.

Dave,
That project lamp, though maybe made by an avaerage Joe, points to a time when people actually did things that could be handled - unlike the virtual accomplishments of today. Both of my grandfathers used to do little projects from the various "popular Mechanics" type magizines. Grandpa Elkins had actually made a color-separation glass plate camera back in the 20's that got him a job in the New York Daily News: His modifications made plates that were ready to go to press for printing full color pictures for the Sunday magizine. The plates are long gone (they got erased/reused) but we still have lots of negatives ofall the Broadway & Movie stars from the late 30's to the 60's.

Sadly, I only ever met him once or twice when I was too young to appreciate who he was; but he did give me a Premiere hand vac one of those times, and I remember playing with it and taking it apart and putting it back together. I think it went out in a garage sale a few years later when I was about 12.



Brian,
Things change for several important reasons. The most obvious is that there is a finite consumer base and you need to sell your product over and over again or you will go out of business. "Planned Obsolescence" dates back as early as 1932 with Bernard London's pamphlet "Ending the Depression Through Planned Obsolescence" but I've read that the phrase was first popularized in 1954 by industrial designer Brooks Stevens who titled a keynote talk using the term.

I believe that in the Vacuum Cleaner Industry, the PO concept didn't kick in until Mr. Lewyt adopted the practive in the mid 1960's. Until then the Industry relied on the next generation product being superior and - hence my website's focus - all kinds of new accessories to go with the latest model.


Another important factor in the demise of a model is the factory itself: These are machine parts made by machines that wear out themselves. Factories need to be retooled after making X number of parts, so I guess that many companies figured-in new model designs into their plans.

There was a flow of money around model design, too. Many plants got private and government stipends for employee hiring as well as for tooling a factory, all of which created jobs and companion industries which probably had private investors in inside the plant's themselves.

Of course everyone wanted a bigger piece of the pie. I won't get into what that turned into... We already know...

 

[rugsucker]

"if ever an above floor kit was offered"?

You mean like in a grey cardboard caddy with a place for everything similar to the caddy for hand vac and atts?You mean like the one in the antique/thrift store nearby that I was in about 1983?In the back,in the basement,behind the furniture,next to the books?Near the vintage magazines that had full page color ads for Hamilton Beach Hat Box vac and more?Across from the first Nero Wolfe mysteries by Rex Stout that I read?You mean like the kit for an upright I didn't have at the time?You mean like the one I thought I might get next time?And then next time the books were upstairs and the basement was EMPTY as a dealer with a truck cleaned it out!You mean like that?--Yes,a kit was offered.

 

[gottahaveahoove]

My late aunt had that Singer.

She worked for Singer. She replaced it with a HOOVER 1076. I GAVE that GE to Mike Pletcher in Allentown. It was given to me. Yes, I DO give things away, sometimes.

 

[stricklybojack]

Great thread

Love the Singer video on Vodin's site. See link

http://www.vodhin.org/Vacuum/