Vodhin's Friendly Vacuum Cleaner Accessories

The Age Of Combination Tools
and
The Launch of Paper Bags

In the early 1940's, the war effort practically halted production of vacuum cleaners as well as new innovations for accessories. Electrolux's Old Greenwich factory, along with just about any other factory in the US, had been geared up to produce parts for the armed forces. While no new vacuums were manufactured at the peak of WWII, parts for existing machines were allowed to be made.

The engineers at Electrolux and many other companies did, however, learn a thing or two from this new role, and would soon come out with some fantastic changes to their product lines.

The model XXX remained the dominant, top of the line model for Electrolux until 1952, when the Model LX was introduced. The LX was a completely new machine in two major ways: It uses new paper "wrappers" (bags), and it automatically ejects the bag once it was full. I've heard that 8 feet was an unofficial world record - must've been pretty exciting! (Hold it right there, mister! I've got a vacuum and I'm not afraid to use it!). We'll get into the new paper bags later, so hang in there.

With the LX came a gamut of accessories - from standard rug and floor tools to sprayers, vaporizers and turbine powered polishers. Talk about accessory heaven! This did have one draw back, however. With all these metal tools carried in a caddy strapped to its back, along with its nice, shiny cord winder, it weighed a ton. Lurking on the horizon was - thankfully - a new, smaller and lighter vacuum; the Model E.

The Combination Floor Tool

With the introduction of the Model E were completely redesigned accessories. The new model offered as its standard compliment only two attachments: A new reversible duster/upholstery tool and the new reversible rug/floor tool.

The Model E was not intended to replace the LX, but as an economy model and didn't offer the new automatic features of the LX. It didn't take long for it to surpass the LX in popularity and sales, as the public loved the little E and its price.

By 1956, the Model E had been revamped with automatic features like a cord winder and automatic shut-off, and replaced the LX as the cat's pajamas of vacuums.

With the Model E came the combination Rug/Floor Nozzle, a great accessory for rooms with hardwood floors and area rugs.

The secret is in the one sided detachable elbow, which clips into the nozzle housing. No more hunting for one nozzle or the other, just flip it over and keep going.

The big improvement that the combination rug/floor nozzle offers besides its ease of use is a bit more difficult to put into print: the noise, or rather, the lack of noise.

The previous rug nozzles or floor brushes were noisy with the rushing air, especially the rug nozzle when it was used upside down (or, as many of you may have experienced, when you pick it up and it swivels around a bit, sounding like a tornado fighting its way out of a tin can).

The first combination Rug/Floor tool was made of metal, in hammer-tone blue, and had no rubber bumpers to protect your furniture. The elbow had a friction fit coupler, like rug and floor tool, with a plastic label on it to identify which side was up. The lettering on this label was hard to read and was eventually replaced with a metal label a year later.

In 1956 a spring loaded clamp was added to the elbow, which did a better job holding the tool to the wand or hose nozzle than the previous friction fit coupling. Eventually, rubber bumpers were added to protect baseboards and furniture legs.

The gleaner on the rug side of the nozzle is pretty much the same as on previous rug nozzles, and stays that way through the late 1960's and early 70's.

The gleaner can be turned on or off, depending on the type of carpet or the kind of mess you're cleaning up. On most carpets, though, having the gleaner on makes the nozzle very hard to push.

Eventually the gleaner gets updated after about 35 years of service, being replaced by an immovable metal bar with fine ribs spiraling along it. The new gleaner seems to do a much better job with fine pet hair than its predecessor, though the jury is still out.

The Combination Duster

Here is a tool unlike any other, with its strange flaps sticking up.

The hose nozzle can be connected on the "wing" side for dusting with the brush, or in the brush side with the wings open for cleaning upholstery and small areas.

Since the wings are hinged, the shape of the nozzle can easily conform to curved or irregularly shaped items in the home.

It also uses a channel design similar to what can be found in the earlier tear-drop upholstery tool, good for keeping suction evenly distributed over the surface area.

The plastic certainly is lighter, and the art-deco design is rather stylish in its own way. Like the earlier dusters, this duster was made with the soft bumper inside, a feature that is missing from today's generic versions of this tool.

This multi use duster is still around today - 50 some odd years after its inception.

Launching the Paper Dust Bag - Literally!

The general public bought the "Touch
No Dirt, Breathe No Dirt, See No Dirt"
ad campaign hook, line and sinker

Since the beginning, the vacuum cleaner has had some kind of cloth bag or filter to collect the dirt that was vacuumed up.

Canister vacuum makers had experimented with paper filters and bags, but usually met with disastrous results. This kept the cloth bag in the forefront for the first half of the 20th century.

Aside from having rather poor filtering capability, cloth bags were tricky to empty without making a new mess, or getting yourself dirty. Dumping a cloth bag usually meant stepping outside or holding it out a window, and then shaking vigorously - hoping that the wind didn't suddenly change direction.

The Electrolux Model LX was the first of its kind, having been designed for the new paper "wrappers" and its engineers made a rather unique, if not risky, bit of modern mechanical mayhem. It was the first - and only, as far as I know - vacuum cleaner with a bag ejection system.

It's a pretty simple concept, in theory. By purely mechanical means (a spring or two), the suction in the hose inlet is measured against the suction draw of the motor. When the bag fills up with enough dirt to reduce the airflow, a spring releases the catch on the bag compartment's door.

What happens next can be quite exciting, especially if your machine is in great shape and aimed right! The door folds down and a spring loaded catapult launches the dust bag out of the machine - sometimes more than just a few feet.

This wouldn't be possible if the engineers at Electrolux hadn't come up with a way to automatically seal the bag. Think of the cloud of dust.

The solution to this problem comes from adding a thin, very flexible rubber membrane to the bag's opening. The seal has a slit radiating out from its center so the membrane can stretch open when the door is closed. This membrane also provides an excellent seal to keep dust out of the vacuum's innards.

The first paper bags were made from only one-ply paper, and tended to clog up pretty quickly. A multi-layer bag was introduced in short order which solved the clogging problem and greatly improved the air filtering.

The public was soon introduced to the "Touch No Dirt, Breathe No Dirt, See No Dirt" advertising campaign and we bought it hook, line and sinker. The 'Germ Grabber' disposable bags were a hit, and provided a new, hitherto untapped line of revenue for Electrolux.

The bags also provided a neat spot for advertising, with many cute characters reminding the owner to buy only genuine Electrolux wrappers.

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