It should be known that Electrolux wasn't the first vacuum cleaner to introduce a motor driven power nozzle, as my sources point to the Lewyt "Big Wheel" to get that award. A little digging (well, a lot of idle surfing when I had nothing better to do) brought me to this ad for the "revolutionary! New! Lewyt Electronic Vacuum Cleaner".

This Lewyt Big Wheel vacuum ad shows a rather advanced power nozzle, complete with headlamp. The quality of the image prevents me from reading the text, but I can guess some of the features from the pictures: A motorized revolving brush, a headlamp, and - unusual for a canister vacuum of this era - a power nozzle that stands up.

The information I have points to a low voltage current for the Power Nozzle, and it is very possible that the the wand-hose connection had a quick disconnect system similar to the Electrolux design that appeared almost a decade later. The two larger inserts seem to illustrate going from floor cleaning to casual dusting with ease, though a plug and socket system might have been considered easy, too. 

But this isn't the beginning-



The cartoon at the right is from an ad dating circa mid 1950 and shows an interesting concept in home care. At first I thought this might have actually been an early power nozzle, but Patrick Coffey wrote to me after visiting this site and tells me that he remembers Lewyt having a convertible carpet sweeper in that era. Looking at the illustration, we can see how much the 'nozzle' resembles a simple carpet sweeper.

Further surfing on the internet brought me to the photo on the left, an add for a beverage featuring Alex Lewyt himself. I'm assuming that this photo was taken in his personal office, probably around 1955.

What got my attention is the vacuum cleaner in the glass case behind him- the very vacuum system I've been looking for. Enlarging that section of the photo we can easily see this very first 'power' nozzle.

According to Mr. Coffey, the sweeper works by itself as a regular carpet sweeper, with a couple wheel driven brushes to pick up the dirt. This sweeper, however, had a trick up its sleeve- or rather its handle: The handle was a hollow tube that can be attached to the Lewyt vacuum. When attached to the vacuum, the sweeper could be used as an ersatz "power" nozzle, the power for the revolving brushes coming from the wheels of the sweeper.

This isn't the first time a "carpet sweeper" type brush was added to a vacuum, either, as there were several upright vacuums from the early 1900's that had this set up. In fact, the very first patented vacuum cleaner, circa 1860, was a carpet sweeper with a bellows mechanism powered by the wheels to provide suction.

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