Old Westinghouse Upright on eBay

[electrolux~137]

The seller is curious as to the age of his vacuum cleaner [see link], as am I.

I have a similar model - same bag and front plate on the nozzle, however, mine is straight-suction [see photo] and the bag is on the left side instead of the right.

I wonder if mine is earlier than this seller's, or maybe an economy model sold at the same time as the revolving brush model.

I've always really liked the appearance of my Westinghouse with its long, narrow, sleek nozzle. Stan Kann gave it to me back in 1995 or thereabouts. I helped him clean out his vacuum cleaner storage area when he moved from his huge penthouse apartment on Rossmore to a house further down on Rossmore with less space for his stored machines. He gave me the Westinghouse and a couple of other machines as well.



http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110579237353

 

[crevicetool]

Charles,

Your Westinghouse is very interesting. Such an unusually shaped nozzle.

Thanks for sharing.

Rick

 

[portable]

Hi Charles -

Somewhere, buried very deeply, I have the ad for both of those vacuums. The straight suction one is older - approx. 1934. The revolving brush is late 30's - approx '39. I will try to dig up the ads, though it won't be for a few weeks.

 

[ohio_tuec]

If it's never been done before, it might be worthwhile to document when various vacuum cleaner manufacturers made the changeover from straight suction to revolving brush. Most companies switched in the '30's, some (like Regina) as late as the '50's. Some companies, (like Torrington & Ohio) didn't stay in business long enough, others (like Air-Way) had a marvelous revolving brush cleaner and reverted back to straight suction (ala the model 55). Just my two cents.

- Karl

 

[electrolux~137]

Hey John, I'd love to see your Westinghouse ads when you get around to digging them out.

As to straight suction v. motor-driven brush, in quite a few cases both types were sold contemporaneously with the straight-suction type being the lower-tier model.