TUESDAY TECH TALK: The Pre-Electric Vacuum Cleaners of the Early 20th Century

Premiering via YouTube youtu.be/6ycrU7pPyJw

This talk will focus on the myriad of fascinating pre-electric vacuum cleaners that burst onto the market starting around 1905, and lasting for about 10 years before being supplanted by electric models.

Because vacuum cleaners were a brand new concept at this time, inventors crawled out of the woodworks to try their hand at breaking into this exciting new technology. As a result, many different, and sometimes odd, designs emerged. A number of these early vacuum cleaners, some of them extremely rare, have been fully restored, and are on display at the museum. This talk will focus on the history, design, and function of these different models, and will include demonstrations of the machines in action.

Dave Fox is a semi-retired electrical engineer who enjoys restoring antique mechanical devices back to working order in his spare time. He is attracted to both the beauty of their design as well as the simplicity of their function. Among other types of devices, antique manual vacuum cleaners are one of his favorites. Restoration of these devices is truly a labor of love, with the ultimate goal of returning these devices to their original splendor, as well as making them functional again in order to truly understand how they worked, and bring back to life both the sights and sounds of these devices in action.