A Closer Look at Rexair

A great invention in vacuum cleaner history

By TOM GASKO, Curator of the Vacuum Cleaner Museum at Tacony Manufacturing

Vacuum collectors consider there to have been four “great inventions” in vacuum cleaner history. One is the Air-Way, which has been covered in previous articles. One is the Rexair. One is Electrolux. One is Hoover. This month, we'll focus on Rexair.

In 1922, Mr. John Newcombe invented a mechanical “separator” for separating particles from the air stream -- for use in commercial applications. He received a patent but did little with the invention. In 1928 -- together with a “finance man” named Leslie Green, Newcombe released his first vacuum cleaner that made use of his particle separator instead of a bag or filter. It was called the Newcombe Bagless. No loss of suction, no back pressure, no clogging. The hand-held vacuum worked like a charm, and in short order they released an upright version (the first “Dyson”).

The end of 1929 started the Great Depression. Money (and sales) were in short supply. Mr. Green bought out the rights to the patent from Mr. Newcombe and in 1930, hired an engineer named Clarence Brock to refine the machine. The first thing Mr. Brock did was to throw out the upright design in favor of a canister design. The canister vac was in two sections (like a Fantom Lightning) -- with the motor in one side and the dirt container in the other. The separator was at the top of the unit, and as the incoming dirty airflow hit the lid of the machine, at a tangent, it created a cyclone within the vacuum. Centrifugal force separated out the large dust, and the whirling separator element separated the fine dust, throwing both into the dirt container, which was easily removed for emptying.

Together, they applied for a patent (U.S. patent number 2,188,031). This cleaner was the world's first vacuum that used neither a bag (cloth or paper) nor a filter to remove dirt from the air stream. "No Loss of Suction" was the claim, in the day when all vacuums (except Air-Way) used a cloth bag that had to be removed after EACH USE and shaken clean out of doors. The Rexair did not, and was heralded as “the new idea” in vacuums.

In 1936, Mr. T. Russ Hill was hired away from Air-Way (he was the branch manager in Detroit and knew how to sell “sanitation”) to head up the sales of the new Rexair. The name Rexair means "king of the air" and the logo was a flying lion (the king of the jungle becomes the king of the air).

Mr. Hill's advice was to throw the two sections together, with the motor on top, making the Rexair the very first canister type portable vacuum in history.

Since most people heated with coal or wood, and the Rexair was in all likelihood the first vacuum someone would buy, the fine dust was not effectively separated -- fine dust went straight out into the air. Had Rexair continued with the original design, it would have worked like a dream.

In December of 1936, Rexair's Board of Directors met in the Leland Hotel in Detroit to discuss the future of Rexair. People were returning their Rexair cleaners in droves. What was needed was some kind of filter that wasn't a filter, a bag that wasn't a bag, some way of filtering the air without blocking the airflow. Mr. Hill knew the separator would separate water from the air stream (the Rexair was the first wet/dry pick up portable vac in history) -- so they tried the idea of using a half-filled dirt container with water in the container -- to trap dirt from the air without a bag or filter, making the Rexair truly unique (as if it wasn't already so). Sales took off. Between 1937 (when water was introduced to save the company) through April of 1940, Rexair sold almost 200,000 units of their "Series A" cleaner

82 Rexair Model C

The models A, B, and C were functionally the same. The machine received its UL listing before the introduction of water, so they did NOT have to get a new UL listing AFTER the water was put in (the machine was metal, and NOT grounded). The color of each model was different, but they used the same motor, pan, hose, cord, switch, etc. In 1955, Rexair launched their model D (the first use of the word Rainbow), in gold, with brown accents. This model was sold until 1961, when the color was changed to chrome and copper. They sold this unit, in the same form, until 1974, when the model was changed to "D2" with the only difference being the power nozzle outlet to support the newly launched power nozzle (private labeled from Eureka). In 1980, the first plastic model (D3A) was launched, with a new by-pass motor and new Aqua-Mate shampooer.

Rainbow Model D Chrome Dome

In 1986, the model D4 was launched, the first major redesign of the cleaner's motor since 1955. It was a huge change, and was considered (and still is by most collectors) to be the best model Rexair ever made. In 1998, the model "E" was launched. The "E Series" was a response to a less than stellar review by Consumer Reports noting that greasy dust passed through the water and was not trapped. The "E Series" had a Hepa filter on the exhaust, preventing fine dust from escaping

In 2005, the world of vacuum cleaners was startled with the launch of the new "E2" series. It made use of the world's first Switched Reluctance Motor in a vacuum cleaner -- no carbon brushes, no commutator, no windings on the armature, four field coils and a circuit board that allowed the motor to run at the highest speed of any Rainbow ever -- over 90 inches of water lift. The "E2"'s unique motor will run “forever.” Dyson would launch their "Digital Motor" soon after, as did LG Corporation -- a response to the success of the Rainbow's Switched Reluctance motor.

Just when we think there is something “new” under the sun, we must remember that the clogging effect of bags on the efficiency of a vacuum was something that engineers tried to overcome for decades -- by 1937 the world's first uncloggable vacuum cleaner was launched, first wet/dry pick up, first quiet and easy-to-use canister, the world's first combination vacuum cleaner/air purifier -- the Rexair Series A.

The Tacony Museum has one of each model Rexair with the exception of the model A (I parted with mine when a vacuum collector made a Series A his “dying wish” -- it made him happy in the last days of his life but now I don't have a Series A). The black model "B" was Rexair's most popular model ever -- ironically the serial number plate listed the Canadian Patents as dates rather than patent numbers (1937, 1938, and 1939) -- so many people mistakenly think they have a “first run” model A when, in fact, they have a model B (black) or model C (grey/red).

Reprinted from Floor Care Professional, January 2010