Speaking of Johnson Wax

[charles~richard]

This polisher is just the greatest! And makes the most amazing sound. Does anyone else in the club have one?

 

[charles~richard]

Then there's this model, that I do not have but am dying to find. Anyone ever see one?

 

[charles~richard]

 

[charles~richard]

They also made industrial size commercial machines! This first one has a 12" brush. I have this model.

 

[charles~richard]

Then there's this one, the "Hernia 115" with a 16-in. brush. I do not have this one!

 

[luxg]

Charles, I sure do remember those beautiful turquoise Johnson polishers. They use to rent them at our local grocery store.

 

[petek]

Never seen those Johnson Wax polishers before. Is that what they were, supermarket rentals only?

 

[charles~richard]

There would be racks of them right inside the door of grocery stores where you could rent them. You could also buy them outright from the Johnson Wax company. Many people around my neighborhood when I was a little kid had them. The various models came in canary yellow, turquoise (several different ones), and gunmetal blue-gray. I have yet to find the blue-gray one. It was the last of them and apparently not made for very long.

A friend of mine in Racine, Wisconsin is a retired employee of the Johnson Wax company and his speciality was polisher repair.

 

[petek]

Don't remember ever seeing them here or in the Port Huron stores either just carpet shampooers, would have been the kind of thing I zoned in on as a kid too after getting past all the gumball and trinket toy machines.

 

[charles~richard]

Well, these machines were no longer made after, hm, 1960 or so. I think the last model was manufactured in 1959; I don't know how much longer after that they were still being rented or sold but eventually they were no longer available. My friend in Racine stayed on with the company until the early 1990s part time, and he said even up to that time they would still get inquiries for repairs and parts, and he did continue fulfilling those orders until he left the company. After that, there was no longer any support at all for the machines. When you'd call the company about it, they would still for a while refer you to him as he did keep up a small inventory of parts, but eventually he went into total retirement and just got rid of what little bit of stuff he had left.