Well...since ive been on a Royal kick..Modern Hygiene

kenkart · Apr 11, 2011

This is a beast, unfortunately the tools were made off with when the friend who had it put his stuff in storage, so all I have is the hose and curved wand.

kenkart · Apr 11, 2011

HEAVY!!!

I bet this would stand up to the rough treatment so many machines see today!

kenkart · Apr 11, 2011

I bet!

If you had it built today you would have a pricetag of at least 3000.00 dollars or more!

aeoliandave · Apr 11, 2011

Gorgeous machine designed by Clifford Brooks Stevens.

More Style over Substance, the tools are beautiful polished items but the vacuum itself is the great fake out of 1949.
The elongated shiny aluminum end caps are essentially empty space. Both the motor and dustbag fit within the length of the central cylinder and the bag cap has an extension tube to reach the bag.

None the less, a stunning piece of serious sculpture and I adore mine. Charles has a terrific write-up about it on his site.

Dave

kenkart · Apr 11, 2011

That!!!

Is the tool set! I know where they are but cant prove it! but you can bet if I ever see them again I will get them back! " This all happened long ago and no one here was involved!" The friend who had this let me have it, but some of his stuff went to another person for "Storage" but it was strange the attachments were seperated from the machine!!!..But you are right, it was styling over substance, the Royals were much more practical!!

kenkart · Apr 11, 2011

Its odd!

But I have a ad for that thing in 1954 so they made it for quite a few years!

aeoliandave · Apr 11, 2011

Yup, major unused space - if it wasn't such an intact gem this would be the elongated chassis to add a second set of turbines to...so its performance could live up to what its looks promise.
I use Compact bag liners in mine to preserve & protect the cloth bag. Compact's cardboard ring is a perfect fit. Or you can stick any suitable open ended bag over the inlet tube and clamp it with an O ring spring.

kenkart · Apr 11, 2011

I use a cut down Hoover Handisac

With one end closed with paper clips!

luxg · Apr 11, 2011

Beautiful machines guys, Dave just wondering what the clear plastic rectangle next to the rug nozzle is?

compactelectra · Apr 11, 2011

That Was The Machine

Used by Hazel on one of the early shows when she went over to help the new neighbors!

Fred

aeoliandave · Apr 11, 2011

"the clear plastic rectangle next to the rug nozzle"

In fact Terry, that is a 1/4" thick soft unsupported felt pad with a silver painted wood shape that snaps inside the floor nozzle. Not so much a deep polisher pad - not stiff enough - as it is a 'swiffer-like' dust bunny collector. Turn the machine on and it does pass little suction (unlike the snap-on felt pad with open slots the Filter Queen uses). I think it was mainly meant to be vacuumed clean after a swipe along baseboards and a quick buff around the waxed hardwoods for 'Company Coming'.

I was lucky with this M-H. Most of the tools were wrapped in their wax paper as was the bufferpad, and the hose holds 90% suction still. I then got a second Micro Upholstery tool from the famous NC57 auction you may have heard of. ;-)
No Owners Manual to make it truly complete, unfortunately, so if anyone has one they could scan...?

Dave

electrolux~137 · Apr 12, 2011

Oh, I've got a Modern Hygiene instruction manual story that'll make you cry.

There was a M-H on eBay back in December in pretty good condition, incomplete attachment set -- just the rug nozzle and crevice tool, and a red replacement cord [yes, I asked the seller about it - she said the plug had a Kirby logo on it].

BUT... it had the original hose that appeared to be very nice, and a very cool advertisement, AND, according to the seller's description, the instruction manual!!! I watched the auction and to my surprise the machine did not attract even a single bid.


So I wrote the seller saying, "Sorry your M-H didn't get any bids, but I have an offer for you. I'd be willing to buy just the hose and the literature. I don't need the machine since I have one in mint condition. But it would be great to have a spare hose for it, and I'd love to have the paperwork. I also don't need the attachments, so you wouldn't have to bother with sending them." The seller agreed and I PayPal'd the money to her.

I had her send the package down to my church. It's safer to get parcels there than at home where they sit on my front porch all day. I didn't find the package until I was ready to leave after choir rehearsal one Wednesday, fairly late at night. The office mgr had forgotten to email me that I had a box in the office waiting for me. I happened to go in there to make a copy of something before I left, and there was the box. 

I opened it up and yes indeed, the hose was [key word "WAS"] beautiful, nearly perfect. She had also sent the two attachments with a note saying there may be more attachments around the house. If she found them, she said she'd send them to me. (It was her grandmother's vacuum cleaner and she had taken very good care of it, but the attachments had somehow gotten scattered all over her house.)



~~~ And, My Oh My OHH MYYYY ~~~

There was the beautiful two-color 8.5"x11" instruction manual! I nearly swooned on the spot. I had been looking for one for so many years, and there it was!!!!!


As I was leaving the church to go home, I placed the box a few stairs up on the stairway leading to the organ loft, intending to finish unpacking it when I came back on Sunday and then take the contents home. I felt perfectly safe leaving the box there - the organ loft stairway is in the back of the sanctuary and no one but me EVER goes up there. The top half of the stairway is locked because of a little incident I had with a crazy person a few years ago, but I leave stuff on the stairs all the time and no one has ever bothered it. Didn't even give it another thought.

When I returned to the church on Sunday, I went inside and immediately saw that the box was gone. Now WTHeck?? (wouldn't say 'WTF' in church of course hahaha!) I looked high and low for the box. Asked the pastor and office manager if any of them knew what could have become of it. No one knew.

When the custodian arrived, I asked him about it. "Oh yes, I took the box," he said. "I needed it to put some stuff in. It was empty except for some old vacuum hose and some packing materials so I didn't think you wanted to keep it. It looked like a box of trash to me."

O... M... GoSH.......

I am sure I turned many shades of red, then purple, then green. I got dizzy and lightheaded and felt like I was going to throw up. HOW COULD THIS HAVE HAPPENED?


I asked, trying very hard to remain calm and not get hysterical, "Now WHY would you have taken something from the organ loft stairs? I've put things on there many times in the past, including boxes, and no one has ever bothered anything, including you. And it just so happens that the box contained a set of very old, very rare household items and an even rarer instruction manual. I had been looking for a copy of that manual for more than 20 years, and now it's gone, and finding another one EVER will be very unlikely."

He did not seem the least bit contrite. He just kinda shrugged his shoulders and said, "Well, if whatever was in that box was so valuable, why did you leave it sitting there?"

What could I say. He was perfectly right, of course. It's just that, wouldn't you know, the ONE time I put something on the stairs that IS of GREAT VALUE would be the ONE time someone would see it and decide they "need the box."

What luck, eh.

electrolux~137 · Apr 12, 2011

btw here's my Modern Hygiene web feature:

http://www.1377731.com/modern

countryguy · Apr 12, 2011

I've noticed that the Modern Hygiene along with the older Filter Queens and Royal tanks have similiar rug nozzles, wands and hoses with the rubber at the ends.....were they all part of the same company at one time?

Gary

kenkart · Apr 12, 2011

No. well not exactly...

Filter Queens were built by Royal for Health Mor until about 1949 or so, so the attachments had some very close similarity,Most people dont know it but Eureka manufactured the Air Way sanitizer starting in 58 with the model 88, but Electro Hygiene, Modern Hygiene, Royal, Royalaire , ETC were all built by Royal.

electrolux~137 · Apr 12, 2011

I had vague recollections of seeing a vacuum cleaner on "Hazel," but had thought it was a Lux XXX. We used to watch the show when I was a kid.

portable · Apr 13, 2011

Charles -

I'm sorry, but I woulda strangled the son-of-a-gun, especially after his smart-ass remark about not leaving it lying around. The NOIVE!!

arh1953 · Apr 13, 2011

He might have been right about where the box was

But, I think he could have just put it somewhere else, and asked about it later.

kenkart · Apr 13, 2011

As aunt Esther would have said!

Twist his head until it un screws sisters!!! I have no patience with people throwing things away just because they thought it was just!!

Well...since ive been on a Royal kick..Modern Hygiene

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