On Powerheads....
I guess that in this instance there is no real winner as to who was the first with the powernozzle they all came out within a shade of each other Lewyt/ Sears Kenmore-Whirlpool/Electrolux. I agree with you totally Tolivac that Air Way had the first twin motor upright cleaner as there is total evidence to this. I have seen AirWay's brush mandrel and agree again totally that it was far different from Hoover's, but they infringed just enough on Hoovers patents where after a lengthy and costly battle, A High court in Ohio sided with Hoover nad also sided with Air-Way. There is a small story that I have been told with similar points, and theirin lies s a small story attached to this post..
The story is this....The final confrontation with Hoover v.s Air-Way as I have been told from various vacuum collector sources tell it this way... It came with the intorduction of the Air-Way DirtMaster Model cleaner introduced in 1937. This was the first single motor and ONLY single motor Air-Way upright that was ever manufactured. It's design was startingly similar to the then late model Hoover 150 from 1936. It had a revolving brush with two plastic beaters that were metal tipped with several brushes going straight across the mandrel, but were spaced in different loactions around it. It of course used Air-ways superior Cellulose paper bag as well encased in a simple to use leatherette casing that made bag changing almost painless. It had a Headlight the first and only Air-Way to have this feature, a six position height adjustment and so on.
It also featured a similar side inlet fot the suction attachments like the 150, which employed a mechanical changer device to direct the full suction from the twin fans from the agitator cavity to the suction inlet, which even Hoover couldnt claim. Their side inlet machine leaked air and had fairly poor airflow to their attachments. The handle was far different from previous model uprights being very Hooveresque' in the respect that the handle was not hollow, but very similar to the Hoover having a rear mounted switch and the cord coming out in a similar place.
Another unique design of this machine was the fac that it employed twin fans that were mounted high and to the rear using twin rubber belts to drive them, and then a single belt ran down from the motor on the left right hand side facing the machine, to the brush from the horizontal motor. I really cannot perfectly describe how this setup looks, and my Dirtmaster owners manual dating 1939 doesnt show the entire mechanism.
Anyway the machine was VERY good in fact too good for Hoover's taste , as in the past Hoover merely "winked" at potential violations of their principals where AirWay was concerned. And of course, they as well as most manufacturer's bought competitior products and tested and tore them apart and found that DirtMaster model Air-Way was close, too close as ever to beating them in their game....
In fact becasue of Air-Way's exclusive "cellulose" paper bag feature it was substantially better than the Hoover 150 in terms of filtration and ease of use in that area. For a quick minute starting with the latter Hoover 1940 model 60 which was the prewar Hoover model 61 (postwar), this Hoover came with the first version of the HandiSac. Hoover did this as a "nudge" to Air-Way in response to Air-Way using their beater bar principal that they obvioulsy invented with the Hoover model 700 in 1927. Air-Way in turn "Winked back" to Hoover by cranking up production of their DirtMaster, and subsequent Dual Motor Scout models until the unfortunate court proceedings came about..
Hoover then being #1 in the industry, was a much more stonger influential company in that time and had resources and lawyers who fought Air-Way tooth and nail,after deciding that they were done with Air-Way's flagrant misuse of their inventions decided to take it to court. There the company proved that ANY machine that used a beater bar was OBVIOUSLY infringing on their patents, and that Air-Way's proved that their patents were also being infringed on as well...where the court basically said...Air Way no more beater bars, and Hoover No more paper bags.
What really was the case was that the smaller Air-Way firm decided to drop all their uprights completly in 1941- and concentrate on their newly designed "vertical cansiter"....the Sanitizor with the model 55. They figured that the canister market was only intact because of Electrolux, and that no one else was really in that market at the time. By 1955 they were having second thoughts becasue that market was also crowded, and Air-Way's patent on the paper bag ran out in 1952 so everyone had it by that time. However, the verdict was in and Air-Way soldiered on reguardless.
And of course it was 25 years before Air-Way had a motorized brushroll again with the 88 Mark II, appropriatly nameplating the nozzle, whilst not built by themselves "RugMaster" in lieu to a market that they abaondoned long ago...the upright market. And they have never to my knowledge reappeared in this market and Steve Tomberlin in a long conversation he had with me several years back when I had called him personally told me he wans't interested in cracking that market again...and in his slow southern drawl, said why would I tinker with somthing that has worked well and continues to do so for the last 62 years ( him refereing to the Sanitizor). He also pretty much agreed with the story that I have had told to me and he said that while a few things were tweaked for "lore" it was pretty much as happened and told.
As far as the Vibra-Beat from what I can tell it appeared about 1957...I have had a Prince II Eureka built canister a few years back about 1997 which at that time I had dated to approximatly 1966 as to build year according to Eureka. It came with the Vibra Beat,plus a regular nozzle as well as all the other attachments in a caddy... and found that while viscious sounding...like a small jackhammer it diddn't do a bad job, just an unpleasnat one like Kevin noted. And that because of it's violent shaking, Eurekas then twist tight wands would uncerimoniously come apart while using it, which happened to ME numerous times while sing it. And that there was IMHO the main reason that it was dicontinued as soon as they brought forth their own electric nozzle in 1972. The other obviously noted problem was that after vacuuming with that machine about five times the beater really diddn't function as well becasue...well the suction was dropped enough to make a noticeable difference.
Anyway that's my dollars worht for now...
Chad
