Vacuum cleaner

[DavidB]

I was looking around the Louwman Motor Museum in The Hague when I saw this exhibit. I was surprised to see the date as my mother had one of these in the 1950s. She used it to clean the stair carpet and father to clean inside the car.
Does anyone else remember this or some other 'antique' item which stood the test of time. I think I remember mother's vacuum going in to the 1960s when we moved house.
ps. The Louwman is well worth a visit if you are in the area. Fortunately my daughter lives not far away.

 

[Richard Gawler]

Oh yes. My grandmother had a Hoover Junior 119. The last Hoover machine (at least, last domestic machine) with a diecast body. Later plastic models used the same motor, so spares were available for a very long time. When Granny grew older, she found the 119 too heavy and gave it to me. It stood in the corner of my living room for years until I gave it to a museum. They had it connected to a push button switch so visitors could start it and hear it run for a short while. The machine was very efficient, in that it used a mere 200W motor, but it relied on the bag to provide the filtering. As the bag grew older and more porous, more and more of the dust went through the surface of the bag and back into the room

 

[David Waite]

I still have my mothers vacuum cleaner ( don’t ask me why ) it is a Hoover float on air model it is round in shape like alien space ship with a smooth round flange base that the ball shape vacuum cleaner sits on the exhaust air enters the space under the machine and lifts it off the floor and it just glides along behind you, on Carpet or Lino .
Read on
Many years ago I had to replace a fuel tank float assembly in my Holden which is under the boot mat, after removing the unit from the tank I then had to scrape away the cork gasket from the tank which was stuck fast, so not to let any pieces of cork fall into the tank I decided to borrow my mums vacuum cleaner you know the one that floats on air so with a scraper in one hand and the suction hose in the other I proceeded to remove the gasket but then there was a all mighty bang and the vacuum cleaner lifted off the garage floor up level with the taillights of the car with a enormous flame coming out of the vacuum cleaners exhaust what a shock and what a dreadful burning smell I had invented a rocket, what had happened was the fumes in the tank got sucked up and were ignited from the sparks off the brushes in the electric motor no harm done and it still works to this day It certainly cleaned out the fluff.
David.

 

[Tim V]

That was the Hoover Dustette, remember selling the later version in the 70s.