"IBM" Vacuum Cleaner

[cadman]

I must admit, I'm not really into the vacuums as much as I am other small appliances, but when I spotted this IBM Vacuum I had to pull the trigger (early computing is one of my other interests). Right now it's in transit, but I've attached a pic. Any idea on who the real manufacturer is? -Cory

 

[danemodsandy]

I Wonder.....

....If that's a piece of equipment issued to IBM techs to use on service calls?

Nobody loves a dusty mainframe!

 

[countryguy]

Why is there no plug on the end of the cord?

 

Gary

 

[cadman]

Sandy, it's gotta be! Imagine the paper dust from the high-speed chain printers and the chads from the keypunch machines. And the poor tech, I mean, 'Customer Engineer', donning his white shirt and black tie, vacuuming up this muck.

Gary, my only thought was cutting the plug off was an easy way of dispositioning obsolete equipment. Who knows, maybe it's DOA.

 

[danemodsandy]

Gary:

"Why is there no plug on the end of the cord?"

Because you're supposed to stick the cord in your ear and THINK.

*ducks and runs*

 

[petek]

The answer looks to be there right in the picture... A Douglas. They made a plethora of hand vacs mostly for automobiles that I recall

 

[cadman]

Thanks Pete-

Never heard of Douglas. Guess we'll see how well it works!

 

[applianceguy47]

I agree with the statement that it was made for the Techs.

Now, how would it look for a techie to be hauling around a Hoover?

 

[gansky1]

When I was 16, I had a summer job for a office products company that sold copiers, word processing equipment, etc. They had Hoover Porta-Power vacs that were marked with the Ricoh name - the brand of copiers they sold.

That was a fascinating summer, I still love those Olivetti designs.

 

[tolivac]

Douglas is a division of Scott&Fetzer-same group that owns Kirby.Sometimes you see Douglas hand vacuums sold under the Kirby name.

 

[paulg]

Douglas

I have a Douglas canister vac. Used a water-rise vacuum gauge and it was one of the strongest vacs in the house! My Douglas Equalizer Readivac is essentially the same as the Oreck Ironman therefore I buy my parts and accessories through Oreck. I use the Oreck air-driven turbine brush attachment which works well.
Perhaps the vacuum experts on this site would know what brand (Oreck, Kenmore, etc) would yield equivalent bags, filters etc for you in the future.
Copier companies put their names on vacuum cleaners at times. Generally they are used for toner pickup.