Now here's something I've never seen before!

[electrolux~137]

<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms,geneva; font-size: medium;">An Emdeco-branded Compact?! </span>

<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms,geneva; font-size: medium;">EMDEKO was the name of the company that manufactured the Filtex vacuum cleaner. I have a hunch the name came from someone's initials + "CO" -- e.g., "M.D.Co." But I can't swear to that. I do know that the company's president was a woman -- a real first back in the 1930s when it was founded. They may be her initials, I dunno. </span>

<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms,geneva; font-size: medium;">Originally the company was located in downtown Los Angeles, on Spring Street, but isn't there any longer. The company is technically still in business but only making central vacuum systems. The company name changed at some point to M&S Systems and then M&S was acquired by Linear Corp. of Carlsbad, California. The central vacuum is now called the AirVac but its "great-grandfather" was the Filtex.</span>



http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=200613770637

 

[electrolux~137]

 


 


 


<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms,geneva; font-size: medium;">Here's the AirVac web page.</span>



http://www.linearcorp.com/central_vacuums.php

 

[sleepdoc]

Patents

Charles, I'm not as familiar as I could be with this general vintage and variety of vacuums, but it's apparent that a number of vacuums have copied the Compact design, in this case right down to the point of being a perfect replication. Has there never been a challenge to the duplication of Compact's design? I realize that Compact authorized Interstate and became Tri-Star, but some brands even take Tri-Star bags but do so with apparent impunity. Is this simply a matter of expired patents?