Hi collectrolux.
Dear Mary, what a great mom you are!
Your son and I have a lot in common, I was only 2 years old when I first saw the Electrolux model LX, and it was brand new, it was introduced around October of 1952. When I first saw it eject, the bag which was called a 'wrapper' back then was thrown across the room. Like your son, I also said I'd become a vacuum cleaner salesman. And did! However, my strongest interest was and still is the history of the vacuum cleaner. Years later I went to work for Electrolux, and then in the early 1970's acquired the first of several non electric vacuum cleaners, which are pictured here and date back to 1890. The oldest vacuum cleaner goes back to June 1869, that's 144 years ago! It was called the Whirlwind, invented in Chicago, and mass produced in Boston by the American Carpet Cleaning Co.
For many years I was a private collector, then in 1981, was put in touch with John Lucia, a fellow collector who lived in California. Together he and I went to the Hoover Historical Center, and learned that there were several other people who collected vacuum cleaners. Result was that John and I formed the Vacuum Cleaner Collector's Club, and I designed, wrote and published the newsletters beginning on January 2, 1983 until I retired from the club into private life in May of 1995.
While members need to be 18 to join the club, you and I can work together and I can pass 63 years of vacuum cleaner history on to you and your son. For that I'd rather do this privately via email. However, as I've walked that road, I welcome the chance to teach both you and your son the history of the vacuum cleaner.
Robert Alexander Taber.
