Vacuum Cleaners Discussions

The 'Freedom' and 'Slalom' uprights, and the 'Xarion' cylinder cleaner. All employ 'Airvolution' technology.

You'll have to wander about the Argos site yourselves, as I can't be bothered battling with the silly formatting of pictures on this forum, and the website linking didn't work either.

mole wrote:

Hiya Mole,

From the very beginning, the vacuum cleaner was named erroneously. Why?  Because this machine actually only uses a partial vacuum to accomplish its work. Even in that case, if you're a stickler for words, it's probably still not rightly named because I have never set out to clean a partial vacuum with one of these machines.  Dust collector or something like that would probably be the more correct. 

The title "vacuum" I assume taken as we usually shortcut to a linguistically easy way out regarding reference to just about everything -- is like going from automobile, to auto, to car.  Imagine uisng a mouthful like, "Excuse me Joe, I have to go partial vacuum clean the living room rug," to get yourself off the phone.

The sweeper, the vacuum, the cleaner, "the machine" and any number of references to the vacuum, including "it," seem to depend a lot on what neck of the woods you're from and how you "gerundize" (please forgive me Daniel Webster) the name of an object  or its use.   "Sweep the rug," usually means get the vacuum cleaner and clean the rug -- not go for the broom.  "Sweep the floor," is a wide open field for interpretation  unless you have an understanding of the context of the command.  "Have the girl pass the machine in the hall," in Brooklyn's earlier days, meant have the cleaning woman vacuum the hall -- not walk by the vacuum. And so we sweep, clean, "go over" and vacuum.

Most interesting to me is how those in the UK came to use Hoover as noun and verb and whether there use of similar terminology in regard to other devices.  I'd be glad to learn how many brand names have been used here in the U.S. as a noun and verb.  The only example I have, which must have been more advertising influenced asI never heard it used by anyone, is Osterizer and Osterize.

Have a fun holiday.  Doing anything special?

Venson

HARDSELL wrote:
Hi H.S.

You know your probally correct in your assumption,I know of many dealers who just refer to oreck as just oreck,and not a vacuum cleaner,

Heres another one for you to ponder why is a steam cleaner called a steam cleaner,when it uses hot water injected into the carpet and does not create steam. Why is a rug shampooer called an rug cleaner?

Venson more than likely knows why.

Hi Venson ,were going racing this weekend,Hope we have enough money left for gasoline to get home.........

Take Care

MOLE

Venson wrote:
Hi Venson,

Not so much verbs, but I've heard brand names used as general nouns many times.  I've heard older generations refer to the refrigerator as the "Frigidaire" before.  Same with "Disposall" for garbage disposer and "Mixmaster" for mixer.  And, while not appliance related, there's of course the ever-popular "Kleenex" used as a general term for facial tissue. 

Ironically enough, I've also seen the phrase "Dyson Hoover" many times on websites across the pond (such as eBay UK).

-MH

Hi MH,

Thanks!  You're absolutely right. I'd completely forgotten "Frigidaire" and "Mixmaster."  Though I was born long past the them it was in use, my grandfather referred to our refrigerator as the ice box and I picked it up from him.  It took years for me to graduate to a more sophisticated "fridge."  Only goes to show that you can take 'em out of the country but you can't take the country out of them.

Best,

Venson

Venson wrote:

Selling and delivering blocks of ice was a pretty good business back in the day before refrigerators.

BTW, many of the old movies [read 20's and 30's] refer to vacuums as electric sweepers.  In fact even some of the ads for vacuums in the magazines of that era do the same.

Carmine D.

The Royal Warrant upon British appliances had Hoover referring to "vacuum cleaners", and Electrolux described them as "suction cleaners".

Hello Trilobite:

Your post refreshed my memory.  I want to further clarify my earlier post.  Early Hollywood movies used the term 'electric sweepers' for upright vacuums not tanks/canisters [cylinders for the UK].  

I suspect with 'carpet sweepers' around long before the advent of household electricity [thanks to companies like BISSELL and catalogue retailers like SEARS] , referring to electric rug/carpet sweepers was a natural transition for the electrified version of the previously hand powered device. 

CarmineD.

Speaking of carpet sweepers, you refreshed one of my memories.

My grandmother once told me that her mother had a machine called a 'Whirlwind'. This apparently looked to all intents and purposes like a Hoover, but did not use electricity. Instead it had a friction-drive and gearing, to turn a fan to generate suction.

Apparently relatives were visiting my Great Grandmother, and were surprised that she didn't have a Hoover. She later got a Hoover 'Junior' 375.

Trilobite wrote:

Hello Trilobite:

A similar make/model in the USA is probably called the "Tuec."  Hand powered with a fan for suction.  Very rare.  One vacuum collector, Jim Kirby, [related to the founder of the famous vacuum and who unfortunately no longer posts here] made mention of it to me privately and on several vacuum Forums.  It was indigenous to Ohio, if I recall correctly, much like the pre-electric hand pump sweepers were indigenous to local areas with metal factories/foundries across the US in early 20th Century.  And too, many of the non-BISSELL hand powered carpet sweepers which were made/marketed out of wood in local geograhical areas throughout the USA in the late 1800's and early 1900's.

BTW, in the USA, HOOVER did not use the term Junior [which appeared on the name plate of the UK HOOVER]. Instead 'Baby' and 'Apartment size' were the terms used by HOOVER going back to the first baby HOOVER model in the 20's, the 105.  And for the model 115 in the USA made in 1949 [US version of the UK model 119].

Carmine D.

Hi Carmine and Trilo,

The "friction" vacuum cleaner got carried into at least the 1960s as I recall.  I remember a relatively modern looking UK-made machiine with a houndstooth check dustbag being sold in a Philadelphia department store around 1963.

AND -- if it was ever totally gone from the market -- the friction vacuum may be coming back.  A Mr. Tom Mannington has developed a working model that is said to produce about 6,000 RPM, about half the speed of a leaf blower.  Why would we want a non-electric vacuum? 'Cause its green.  See the following link:

http://www.gizmowatch.com/entry/sleek-friction-vacuum-cleaner-runs-sans-electricity/

Best,

Venson