The Henry Vacuum Cleaner

[arh1953]

My sister, brother, his wife and her sister just returned from a 17 day visit to England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. My sister had mentioned seeing a Henry vacuum cleaner somewhere on their tour, after I had mentioned the members in the British Isles. She was wondering if it was the first or last name of the company founder, since our last name is Henry. Anyone here have one of these machines, or information? Thank you.
Alan

 

[ian88]

I had one of these, they're a domestic model of a commercial/industrial line of machines by a british company called Numatic, they're probably the last true british vacuum cleaner still in production. They did quite a few machines with faces, Hetty (a 'female' henry) George, James, etc..standard names..

none called Ian or Boris or something though

Ludmilla..

http://www.numatic.co.uk

 

[vintagehoover]

They're all named after British royalty, aren't they? James, George, Charles, Edward etc?? Not sure where Hatty fits in!! Should have done a Diana - I'm sure that would have been popular (although would leave room for all sorts of cynical innuendo!) 'Have I Got News For You' would have had a field day...

 

[hoovercelebrity]

This post of mine really should be on the contemporary forum... but, since the thread is in the vintage forum, I'll go ahead and post it.

Joe and I went on a Carnival Cruise back at the end of April... Carnival used/uses Numatic vacuums on board the ship. I was impressed with how quiet they were, and it was cool because the cleaner has such a long hose, they could leave the machine out in the hallway and vacuum the entire stateroom. Although they were straight suction.. so the carpets were probably full of dirt.



~Fred

 

[ian88]

Ah yes, I suppose Charles would have an "enemy" introduced into the range called Dodi.

Ian

 

[arh1953]

So it's a model name- it's a nice looking piece of equipment. Hetty is cute too. Thanks for the link!

 

[ian88]

The big brothers, the Red one is all metal.

 

[ian88]

Big Bro's 2

 

[arh1953]

My sister said she thought it was newer than I suspected it was. I took a chance posting in the vintage forum not knowing it was a newer offering. Interesting!

 

[ian88]

Well, Numatic have been going since the early 1970s..

they made their first vacuums out of trash cans, washing up bowls, suitcase handles, furniture castors and of course, industrial motors.

I'm not joking

so yeah Alan, you got lucky ;]

 

[ian88]

Behold! the earliest Numatics, left to right, oldest to newest.

(Seemingly the one at the end isn't newest, but hey i'm doing this for FREE you know )

 

[myhooverco]

Fred...

We were aboard Carnival in '03 and saw the numatic machines just as you have pictured. However, they also used really, really beat up Sanitares too. They were the very cheap grey models with the long cords. Those uprights were so loud, who needed a horn to announce when we arrived at port!

--Tom

 

[luxg]

Fred that is very interesting. I took a Carnival Cruise back in 1993. At that time they used all Royal vacuums, uprights no less. They also had uprights set up with the attachments which was also unusual. They were constantly vacuuming on this ship, I was in heaven!LOL

 

[arh1953]

I was corrected last night, my family were in Ireland, Wales and England, and they sent me a pic of the Henry in a hotel in Stratford-On-Avon, which I tried to post, but the image was too large. It's a red one with a black top, and Henry in red letters. The carpet is grey with dark blue swirls on it.

 

[seamusuk]

Why Henry got his name.....

Hey Guys

I cant vouch 100% for this but it defiantly sounds possible....

Going back to before Numatic cleaners had names they went through a spell where they were having loads of returns due to customer abuse.

Some bright person thought if you gave them a name and a smiley face they wouldnt be subject to as much abuse.....

Seamus

 

[seamusuk]

Ian..

The oldest one on the far left- do you think they might have wanted to get over the Do not use for Asbestos bit.....


Seamus

 

[ian88]

I know that lol I'm just wondering about the one at the far right.

Ian

 

[kirbyking]

I love the numatic range,
I always wanted a henry when I was a kid!
Here are the ones I have
My first henry, and George
Sorry about the picture quality, and the state of my loft, which is now sorted out :S

James

 

[kirbyking]

When I used to go to my Dad's old work [a college]
they had a company called "evergreen" who used green Henry's.
I always wanted one of their machines. They had a "evergreen" sticker over "henry" on the power hood.

After years of waiting, my dad finally managed to get one that they where going to throw away!
It works perfectly!

I also have another red one, that my parents use, but no picture of it
James