The next VDTA/SDTA Convention & Show will be in
New Orleans, LA
February 27 - 29, 2012
at the Ernest Morial Convention Center
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The next VDTA/SDTA Convention & Show will be in |
The Air-Way Sanitary System Looking back at models from 1920-1941 By TOM GASKO, Curator of the Vacuum Cleaner Museum at Tacony Manufacturing Vacuum cleaner collectors consider there to have been four “great inventions” in vacuum cleaner history: Hoover, Air-Way, Electrolux, and Rexair. Today, we'll cover the Air-Way upright models, made from 1920 - 1941. After World War II was over in 1945, Air-Way went back into post war production with their canister model (the Sanitizor), abandoning the upright for the rest of their manufacturing history. In 1918, Daniel Benson Replogle met a man named Pratt Tracy. Mr. Tracy was head of a munitions manufacturing company, and was on the board of directors with several Toldeo banks. Mr. Replogle had numerous patents relating to vacuum cleaner inventions that were unique as well as 50 years ahead of their time. What Mr. Replogle needed was a backer. What Mr. Tracy needed was a consumer product for post World War 1 sales -- as the average person didn't buy munitions. The result of their meeting was the formation of The Air-Way Electric Appliance Corporation in Toledo, OH.
The "Indicator" had a celluloid cover (clear film material) so the user could see the dirt stream as it left the rug, so she would know when it was time to finish and move on (the first "dirt finder"). Since all pillows were stuffed with chicken feathers, the Air-Way had a feather renovating attachment which would allow feathers to be cleaned and renovated, at the same time the machine was filling them into a clean pillow tick. Air-Way featured a moth control device which allowed the crystals to become pulverized and the resulting gas blowing forcefully into a clothes closet - preventing moth damage which was so common in days of cotton and wool clothing (before the invention of man made fibers like polyester, which moths don't eat). The self adjusting wheels on the floor tool allowed the machine to go from rugs to bare floors in an instant with no adjustment on the part of the user, and the fiber agitators on the face of the floor tool effectively picked up hairs and threads, opened the nap to the suction, and allowed the Air-Way to clean deeply into the wool area rugs of the day. Oh yes, the Air-Way had one more, small, rather insignificant advantage. (I'm being fascitious about that.) It featured the world's FIRST, patented, cellulose, 14 layer, micro filtration disposable dust container (paper bag). Cellulose is wonderful for bag material, BUT, Mr. Replogle had to invent a machine to MAKE the paper. Air-Way's unique bag had no direct pores and resisted clogging. The air flow had to “weave” its way through, resulting in perfectly clean exhaust air from the vacuum. It also made Air-Way unique in the days of Tuberculosis and other viruses which were inhaled and which killed millions of humans. No bag to empty and shake out. No dust clouds. 12 bags for $1. Hoover finally could stand it no more, and in 1929 they put a disposable bag on their model 725 (the "Hygienasac"), resulting in the now famous lawsuit by Air-Way, which they won. When the patents on the disposable bag in an UPRIGHT were finally expired in 1940, Hoover (and every other manufacturer) would immediately outfit their cleaners with disposable bags. In 1935, Air-Way added a second motor to their upright (The model 35 "Chief") to drive a rotating brush. The world's FIRST power nozzle as well as the world's FIRST twin motor vacuum cleaner. The "Chief" featured a backwards rotating brush bar, meaning the brush would NOT seize the fringe of the rug. (Why isn't that standard today?) The 1936 "Super Chief" added a headlight and brush motor shut off switch, making it the first motor driven brush upright that was “bare floor friendly.” 1938's "Zephyr" model is extremely rare, only one is currently known to exist, and we have it here in the Vacuum Cleaner Museum at Tacony -- it belonged to Stan Kann, the world famous organist and the world's first vacuum collector. By 1937, Air-Way could see the handwriting on the wall and invented the "Sanitizor" canister vacuum cleaner -- very few uprights were sold after that. The "Zephyr" twin motor from 1938 was the most expensive upright Air-Way made, and less than 1,000 were ever sold. Another rare and highly sought after model is the "DirtMasteR". Air-Way gave the DirtMasteR twin suction fans and a side mounted attachment hose opening, together with a full horsepower motor, in 1935. Very expensive for Depression era folks, few were sold. What got Air-Way entirely through the Depression completely "in the black" were sales of disposable bags. Here at the museum, we have one of each model Air-Way vacuum ever made. Upright Air-Way vacuums are rare today but not unheard of. One always seems to show up on eBay at least once a month. It's the twin-motor models that seldom appear. Two specific upright models, The DirtMasteR and Zephyr models, are so rare they are never found on eBay - they would fetch a king's ransom and collectors would mortgage their homes to obtain one. The museum is the only place on earth that I know of where you'd find BOTH a DirtMasteR and a Zephyr standing next to each other, both running and in excellent condition. Air-Way purchased Arrow Motors in 1920, which became Black and Decker when Air-Way sold the motor company after they no longer made upright vacuums. The canister Air-Way vacuums used GE, then Lamb motors. The museum is also lucky enough to have received the mechanical blueprints for Air-Way's 1929 Sanitary System upright -- so if we ever want to make a machine that's still relevant and still ahead of it's time, it would be “no problem.” Next Month: the Air-Way "Sanitizor" canisters. Reprinted from Floor Care Professional, November 2009 |
