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Vacuum Cleaners are Ridiculous! · Ridiculous History

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  Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to
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  Speaker 1: the show, fellow Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always so
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  Speaker 1: much for tuning in. Let's hear it for the man
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  Speaker 1: the myth our super producer Maxwell Hoover Williams, but not
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  Speaker 1: Hoover the.
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  Speaker 2: Way you think, Max Williams.
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  Speaker 1: And for an episode about things that effectively suck. We
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  Speaker 1: want to be clear and say that Max, you do
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  Speaker 1: not suck. You are really cool.
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  Speaker 2: We're glad you're here. Yeah. I remember that bit from
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  Speaker 2: Wayne's World where there's the guy that's got the vacuum
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  Speaker 2: clean our haircut device called the suck cut, and he
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  Speaker 2: goes it sucks as it cuts, and then Wayne goes
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  Speaker 2: it certainly does suck. I do vaguely. I gotta I've
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  Speaker 2: got to rewatch Wayne's World held franchise, it holds up.
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  Speaker 2: It was back during.
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  Speaker 1: The that Halcyon age where if you had a good
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  Speaker 1: enough character on Saturday Night Live, you automatically got a
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  Speaker 1: movie deal. For the weirdest things Wayne's World.
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  Speaker 2: I occupy some rarefied air, though, and it was a
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  Speaker 2: real precursor to a lot of the third wall breaking
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  Speaker 2: kind of absurdiest humor of the day of today. Really
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  Speaker 2: Big Fan two is not quite as good, but it's
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  Speaker 2: still great. But Man, Wayne's World Classic is a banger. Ben,
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  Speaker 2: we're talking about vacuums today.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, it's Wayne's world and we are living in it.
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  Speaker 1: I am Ben Bullen. You are Noel Brown.
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  Speaker 2: And this is a.
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  Speaker 1: Spiritual descendant on that hit of that hit piece we
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  Speaker 1: did earlier on uh not lawnmowers.
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  Speaker 2: But leaf blowers. Jeez, Ben, I barely even remember that
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  Speaker 2: we did that because it must have just been such
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  Speaker 2: a cathartic cleanse. And yet I still and I think
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  Speaker 2: you feel the same way as do u. Max not
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  Speaker 2: a fan of the humble leaf blower?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I don't think it's humble. I think it
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  Speaker 1: insists upon itself. But you guys both have vacuum cleaners,
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  Speaker 1: correct I do.
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  Speaker 2: I am a fan. I am not a dice in man.
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  Speaker 2: I am a shark. Man. I like a shark because
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  Speaker 2: I think it's just as good as a dice in.
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  Speaker 2: And I am a fan of a corded vacuum because
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  Speaker 2: I don't know if they've made leaps and bounds in
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  Speaker 2: vacuum battery life. But back in the day when this
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  Speaker 2: dice battery powered dicens first came out. You could literally
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  Speaker 2: get maybe like fifteen minutes out of it, and I
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  Speaker 2: just that's not enough for me.
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  Speaker 1: I've got a collection of vacuum cleaners.
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  Speaker 2: I'm a fan of even one in the car. Nice
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  Speaker 2: I like a quarded vacuum and canister vacuum. You get
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  Speaker 2: into her bag list. What about you, Max?
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  Speaker 3: I last year switched to the to the stick the
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  Speaker 3: bat like it's not a battery pack, but it's like
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  Speaker 3: you charged it directly into the thing, and it's fine.
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  Speaker 3: It's not as power. I just find it's not as powerful.
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  Speaker 3: I bet you if you get like one of like
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  Speaker 3: the three hundred something dollars Dyceons, that'd be great.
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  Speaker 2: But sure the Ferrari of the vacuum world.
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  Speaker 3: I don't drive a Ferrari in my life. I'm not
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  Speaker 3: gonna get a Ferrari of a vacuum.
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  Speaker 2: No. I think people are sleeping on Shark. I'm just
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  Speaker 2: saying we're not sponsored by Shark. But shark is is
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  Speaker 2: very comparable to the dcon. And then the one I
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  Speaker 2: have is a stick and I find it does a
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  Speaker 2: trick quite well. And I also to your point, Ben,
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  Speaker 2: I do love a handheld vacuum also from Shark that
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  Speaker 2: I used to clean up kitty litter and just you know,
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  Speaker 2: round about behind things, crumbs and the like.
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  Speaker 1: It's a little scoopy doupe, little little light work vacuum. Folks,
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  Speaker 1: what my compatriots said is true. We are not brought
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  Speaker 1: to you by Big Suck, but we have we're.
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  Speaker 2: Gonna keep it. That'd be a great name for like
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  Speaker 2: a podcast, the Big Suck. Oh. I don't know what
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  Speaker 2: it would be about, hopefully not only vacuums, because that's
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  Speaker 2: not that does not that's not enough material to comprise
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  Speaker 2: a whole podcast series, but it is certainly enough for
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  Speaker 2: an episode, an episode researched by you, Sir ben Ah.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you, Sir Noel. Look the how the household vacuum
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  Speaker 1: cleaner is pretty common now. It's maybe not considered a
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  Speaker 1: crucial household item the way that refrigerator would be or
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  Speaker 1: the way that air conditioning would be, but it definitely
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  Speaker 1: makes life easier to your earlier point, especially if we
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  Speaker 1: have children or kids in the household.
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  Speaker 2: It is a convenience, to be sure, and you can
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  Speaker 2: certainly get by with the old trusty classic broom and dustpan,
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  Speaker 2: but not so much on a carpet. Bom brooman dustpan
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  Speaker 2: is not going to help you out on a carpet
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  Speaker 2: because all those little little bits of crud they get
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  Speaker 2: stuck in the fibers of the of the carpet. And
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  Speaker 2: a lot of modern vacuums even have like little rotating
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  Speaker 2: drums of little little brushies that kind of help dislodge
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  Speaker 2: some of that stuff. Again, shout out to shark, that's
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  Speaker 2: a good weird just alive. They can have that, they
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  Speaker 2: can have it.
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  Speaker 1: That's a good phrase. It eats dust alive. So this
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  Speaker 1: is pressing it here, nol. Because the modern vacuum cleaner
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  Speaker 1: comes to us via similar earlier inventions. Picture picture like
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  Speaker 1: a steampunk eighteen hundred's version of a made for TV
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  Speaker 1: ad where someone is sweeping carpet and saying there has
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  Speaker 1: to be a better way.
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  Speaker 2: Well, there is a better way, Ben, And it came
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  Speaker 2: along in the form of the handy dandy, long handled
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  Speaker 2: roly thingy called the carpet sweeper, which, to me, Ben is,
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  Speaker 2: in a lot of ways the equivalent of the analog
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  Speaker 2: lawnmower that sort of operates by locomotion alone. If I'm
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  Speaker 2: not mistaken, The carpet sweeper is very similar. You got
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  Speaker 2: to push. It does not have any electronics whatsoever. It
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  Speaker 2: sort of sweeps as you push based on the force
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  Speaker 2: of it, you know, moving forward. Yeah, folks, we.
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  Speaker 1: Can all agree that using an old fashioned broom on
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  Speaker 1: any kind of carpet is for the birds. It's inefficient,
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  Speaker 1: it takes forever, and after a certain point, your broom
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  Speaker 1: action will just be spreading stuff around instead of making
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  Speaker 1: it easier to clean. And this is where we enter
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  Speaker 1: onto the stage. One of our first inventors a guy
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  Speaker 1: named Melville R. Bistle of Grand Rapids, Michigan. There's something
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  Speaker 1: about Bistle that makes me think of nominative determinism for sure.
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  Speaker 2: Don't know what the what it. Yeah, it's just got
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  Speaker 2: it's kind a certain vibe. And I want to bristles.
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  Speaker 2: It's a slant rhyme with bristle. That could well be
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  Speaker 2: that you nailed it, Ben. And I want to say,
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  Speaker 2: while the Bistle vacuum is certainly not, you know, the
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  Speaker 2: go to kind of flagship vacuum that you see today,
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  Speaker 2: I want to say they are still around and like
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  Speaker 2: it's sort of like almost like a like a throwback
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  Speaker 2: kind of thing. It's like what you see in theaters. Oh, geez, Louise,
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  Speaker 2: Now I recognize the logo. Of course it still exists.
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  Speaker 2: It's got the little triangle, a little red triangle logo.
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  Speaker 2: And they make stick vacs along with the rest of
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  Speaker 2: them pet hair vacs. They are very much a growing concern.
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  Speaker 1: They're still in the game. Melville Bissle patented his design
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  Speaker 1: way back in eighteen seventy six. Now he was not
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  Speaker 1: the first guy in the carpet sweeping phenomenon. That is
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  Speaker 1: probably a guy named Daniel Hess out of West Union, Iowa.
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  Speaker 1: But Bissile improved the earlier concepts. These were all mechanical, right,
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  Speaker 1: because electricity wasn't really a thing for most people. They
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  Speaker 1: had a series of belts and gears or rulers instead
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  Speaker 1: of electric power. You can see him around a lot today.
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  Speaker 1: It's funny that you were in my head too, man,
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  Speaker 1: on the difference between a push lawnmower and a gas
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  Speaker 1: powered one, because it all needs manual human muscle to operate.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, man, you mentioned steampunk. I don't think we said
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  Speaker 2: it out loud in the dock here, but I can't
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  Speaker 2: imagine what a manual vac must have been like. It
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  Speaker 2: really does strike me as a bit of a bellows
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  Speaker 2: driven steampunk concern. Right, oh yeah, yeah, we've got a
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  Speaker 2: picture here in the research you could create the vacuum
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  Speaker 2: action through as you said, crows or fans. It looks
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  Speaker 2: like a musical instrument. This is very far from perfect.
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  Speaker 2: A ton of people tried desperately, ardently to improve the design,
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  Speaker 2: people from the US, from Britain, from France. This is
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  Speaker 2: where the picture we're looking at here is something called
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  Speaker 2: the Baby Daisy love it. I said, it looks like
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  Speaker 2: a musical instrument because with the bellows and everything, it's
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  Speaker 2: got kind of accordion vibes or the harmonium, which is
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  Speaker 2: another bellows based instrument popular in Indian raga music for
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  Speaker 2: creating drones. And also the film composer who did all
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  Speaker 2: the Paul Thomas Anderson stuff, whose name is totally escaping
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  Speaker 2: me right now, uses that instrument a lot, and it
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  Speaker 2: actually featured in the plot of A Punch Drunk Love,
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  Speaker 2: the pt Andersen movie. But yeah, it's a it's a
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  Speaker 2: wooden box and you blink and you'd miss it. Ben,
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  Speaker 2: But there is a very grimy looking stick coming up
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  Speaker 2: out of it. And I am grimey of course, as
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  Speaker 2: we're looking at a vintage example and then it appears,
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  Speaker 2: is that a crank on the side or is that
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  Speaker 2: part of Now that's that's part of another piece of
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  Speaker 2: equipment and the thing. So how how would it actually operate? Oh,
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  Speaker 2: it's positively something from the world of Doctor Seuss. Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: you need two people to operate it. So yeah, one
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  Speaker 2: person stands at the base of those bellows we mentioned earlier,
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  Speaker 2: moving the bellows back and forth. The the other guys
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  Speaker 2: what I'd like to call the hoseman. The hoseman is
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  Speaker 2: you see.
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  Speaker 1: The manual vacuum power from the hose to suck up
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  Speaker 1: stuff that goes into a cotton bag inside the device.
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  Speaker 2: Oh who gets to be the bagman? That's my question.
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  Speaker 1: That's crazy because they did have to empty this out
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  Speaker 1: after pretty much every use and then clean it and
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  Speaker 1: then let it try out and then replace it.
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  Speaker 2: So I imagine you'd take turns alternating between who's the
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  Speaker 2: hoseman and who's the bagman.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, it feels like between the bellowsman, the hoseman, and
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  Speaker 1: the bagman. The bagman was kind of a short straw situation.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, because that's the one that's got to deal with
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  Speaker 2: all the ichy the ichy bits don't breathe that into deep.
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  Speaker 2: Even to this day, Man, emptying a vacuum is is
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  Speaker 2: no joke.
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  Speaker 1: I know I've got I've got a vacuum right next
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  Speaker 1: to me all frame as we're recording, and I realized
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  Speaker 1: that I have to empty it after this. So maybe
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  Speaker 1: that's motivation for our episode. Come on, though, baby Daisy,
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  Speaker 1: Baby Daisy, it's a cool name.
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  Speaker 2: There were a lot of fat that's my main and
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  Speaker 2: Mario Kart, oh yeah, your baby Jaysy. Baby Daisy is
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  Speaker 2: absolutely a playable character in Mario Kart.
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  Speaker 1: We also know that a lot of these manual vacuum
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  Speaker 1: cleaners had similar catchy names. They started popping up in
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  Speaker 1: the eighteen sixties. You see the first motorized designs towards
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  Speaker 1: the end or the turn of the twentieth century. So
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  Speaker 1: as we get into the nineteen hundreds, this is where
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  Speaker 1: we have to ask how on earth did vacuums become electric?
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  Speaker 1: And to do that, we've got to introduce two more inventors.
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  Speaker 2: Sorry, man, I briefly went down a Google rabbit hole
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  Speaker 2: just looking for some really hoping for some fun names
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  Speaker 2: for early vacuums. Yeah, they are are not nearly as
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  Speaker 2: fun as I was hoping. I was hoping for something
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  Speaker 2: more in line with like the whiz bang or the
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  Speaker 2: you know, the the wang Dang doodle or something like that.
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  Speaker 2: But we're looking more along the lines of what you
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  Speaker 2: might see with modern appliances like the whirlwind or you've
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  Speaker 2: got here one called the Regina, the Regina pneumatic cleaner,
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  Speaker 2: which was I guess another name for a vacuum I
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  Speaker 2: like the Golden Rod vacuum cleaner as well. The two
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  Speaker 2: inventors we were teasing their names are Hubert Cecil Booth
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  Speaker 2: and David T. Kenny.
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  Speaker 1: So in nineteen oh one, Booth unveils his creation that
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  Speaker 1: turns heads, It raises eyebrows. It is a huge, gas
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  Speaker 1: powered vacuum cleaner. It's not anything you would put in
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  Speaker 1: your home unless you are a Saudi billionaire.
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  Speaker 2: It is horse drawn Jesus. Yeah. It parades through the through.
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  Speaker 1: The streets like Livesdale's to pull that, yeah, like a
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  Speaker 1: steampunk carnival show. And it sucks up dirt from homes
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  Speaker 1: and businesses or the you know, the the front sidewalks
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  Speaker 1: of those places via these long hoses. Its street name
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  Speaker 1: is and we kid the not folks, the Puff and Billy.
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  Speaker 2: Not to be confused with Trip and Billy by the
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  Speaker 2: Dave Matthews band, which is a stone cold banger, and
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  Speaker 2: clearly about this vacuum absolutely been no question about it.
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  Speaker 2: This was I'm a little confused up and so they
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  Speaker 2: paraded through the streets. It was more of like a
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  Speaker 2: I don't know, like a just like a street sweep,
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  Speaker 2: a street sweeper. But then how do they get into
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  Speaker 2: people's houses with those horses? They didn't. This was for
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  Speaker 2: municipal vacuuming basically, so instead of just sweeping stuff around
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  Speaker 2: in these dirty streets, it would suck up the detritus
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  Speaker 2: and the debris and probably a lot of horse poop
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  Speaker 2: and uh yeah, which they contributed to the to the
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  Speaker 2: to the equation right.
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  Speaker 1: People were uh, this was divisive. People were not, you know,
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  Speaker 1: quite yet to the atomic age. Some members of the
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  Speaker 1: public absolutely hated this thing because of the noise or
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  Speaker 1: the fact that it scared the shit out of horses.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you for the beat, Max, Yeah, I mean even
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  Speaker 2: the horses pulling it probably weren't loving it none too much.
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  Speaker 2: And Booth, you know, had his fair share of court
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  Speaker 2: cases jamming up his business until he finally convinced a
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  Speaker 2: judge and a jury that his machine was the only
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  Speaker 2: vacuum cleaner at the time that actually worked. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, pretty good, because now he's becoming like a Colonel
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  Speaker 1: Kurtz of vacuum cleaners.
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  Speaker 2: He's saying, you might not agree with my means, but
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  Speaker 2: my ends create results. Now, Ben, I'd got to wonder,
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  Speaker 2: we've talked about the Great Stink of London and how
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  Speaker 2: nasty things used to be in the olden days. How
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  Speaker 2: you know which Sometimes you look at a picture of
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  Speaker 2: those of that era and you can almost you can
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  Speaker 2: smell it. The pictures you can smell. So I've got
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  Speaker 2: to wonder if the argument being made for this had
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  Speaker 2: historical precedent in terms of, like we need this for sanitation.
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  Speaker 1: I think that's a really great point, because the Great
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  Speaker 1: Stink of London was eighteen fifty eight. London is still
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  Speaker 1: a very dirty place foot yeah, by nineteen oh one,
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  Speaker 1: So yeah, that makes sense. That was probably part of
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  Speaker 1: the court case public health. He said, it's worth the noise.
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  Speaker 1: You know, again, I'm speculating here a little bit, but
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  Speaker 1: with all of that soot in a time where it
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  Speaker 1: was absolutely cold powered everything it would be. You could
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  Speaker 1: definitely make the argument that it would be good for
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  Speaker 1: the greater good and worth perhaps the startled horses and
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  Speaker 1: the you know, interrupted naps. Yeah, they were cleaning everywhere.
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  Speaker 1: The puffing Billy after the court cases got deployed everywhere
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  Speaker 1: from Buckingham Palace to the Royal Mint and Crystal Palace.
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  Speaker 1: In they did provide some sanitation benefits. In the Crystal Palace,
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  Speaker 1: the puffing Billy removed twenty six tons of dust from
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  Speaker 1: the girders during a First World War outbreak of spotted fever.
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  Speaker 1: So this is helping people. Sorry horses, Ben, I think
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  Speaker 1: the puff and Billy is actually truly is kind of
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  Speaker 1: a steampunk reference. Oftentimes, locomotives were called puffer billies. There's
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  Speaker 1: a song I'm talking about seeing the little puffer billies
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  Speaker 1: all in a row, something about the engine driver puff, puff,
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  Speaker 1: two toot and off we go. Guarantee that this was
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  Speaker 1: referencing something that people were familiar with. Oh yeah, which
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  Speaker 1: is what you always want to do with creating a
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  Speaker 1: new product, right, Yeah, that's a great point. On the
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  Speaker 1: other side of the property line. Okay, let's say we're
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  Speaker 1: very wealthy, and we have our estate. We don't have
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  Speaker 1: a large enough area for a puffing billy which is
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  Speaker 1: still horse drawn to work. That's where Kenny comes in.
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  Speaker 1: He creates a vacuum cleaner powered by an electric motor.
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  Speaker 1: And this means you can, if you're very wealthy, you
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  Speaker 1: can take this thing and you can use it at
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  Speaker 1: your house. It is stationary, it weighs four thousand pounds,
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  Speaker 1: it is steam powered. It's got pipes and hoses reaching
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  Speaker 1: to all parts of the building, so it's a lot
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  Speaker 1: more like a vacuum cleaner version of central air condition.
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  Speaker 2: I want to say Ben that in some older buildings,
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  Speaker 2: in places like New York City, you can actually still
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  Speaker 2: see receptacles on the wall left over from these types
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  Speaker 2: of systems. Fascinating.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, that makes sense because it would be a
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  Speaker 1: flex for you as a landowner to have one of
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  Speaker 1: these bad boys. Since a lot of folks still didn't
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  Speaker 1: have electricity, the vast majority of household chores were the same, old,
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  Speaker 1: back breaking drudgery. This is a true story. It reminded
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  Speaker 1: me of you guys. Back in the nineteen hundreds, these
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  Speaker 1: gadgets were considered so impressive that people would throw what
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  Speaker 1: they called vacuum cleaner parties. He's yeah, like pineapples. The
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  Speaker 1: social ie, the socialites of the day would say.
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  Speaker 2: Fellow one percentas, please come witness my vacuumry. It's like
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  Speaker 2: a paintent party, marbouch, that's so funny, or like a
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  Speaker 2: tupperware party. Okay, yeah, So it was a bit of
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  Speaker 2: a flex almost like a salon. Oh just so.
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  Speaker 1: And now again, so we have a big horse drawn
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  Speaker 1: thing that is helping people avoid disease. We have a
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  Speaker 1: massive internal infrastructure really for a fancy pants house. The
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  Speaker 1: first hortible electric vacuum cleaner comes around in nineteen oh seven,
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  Speaker 1: and this is courtesy of a very interesting guy named
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  Speaker 1: James Murray Spangler.
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  Speaker 2: Yep, James Murray Spangler was a janitor at a department
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  Speaker 2: store in Canton, Ohio. James got us a bit closer
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  Speaker 2: to what we think of today when we think of
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  Speaker 2: a modern vacuum cleaner that you might have around the
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  Speaker 2: house as a custodian, which I think is the preferred
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  Speaker 2: term the janitor, perhaps, right, and a guy with asthma.
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: Again to the point of the whole cold dust and
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: particulate matter of it all, and how this is an
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: issue that isn't going to be dealt with nearly as
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: well with a traditional you know, broom and dustpan. He
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: was super interested in cleaning technology. Oh, there are reasons,
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: and he was a bit of a tinkerer. M hmm. Yeah.
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: The concept of a portable cleaning device was revolutionary because
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: it made cleaning more accessible, It made it easier, it
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: made it practical. It also made it more affordable. His
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: design still has this cloth, filter bag and cleaning attachments.
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: His design is also purchased by a guide named William
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: Hoover in nineteen oh eight, which leads to something called
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: the Hoover Company.
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: And the rest is vacuum cleaner history. Hoover, of course,
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: basically becoming a verb for vacuuming things up today like
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: I say, I'm a hoover that up, you know, one
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: hundred percent? Yeah, it's an epononymous trademark. I always forget
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: that word, Ben, Thank you for always being so kind
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: as to remind me. By the nineteen twenties and thirties,
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: vacuum cleaners were starting to become something you might see
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: in a household rather than just in industrial situations. Hoover,
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: of course, on the front lines of this, recognizing the
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: potential of this booming market. This is, of course, the
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: time the age of the atom, you know, are starting
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: to get into like the you know, Sears catalog of
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: it all, the you know, the American Dream and all
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: of that, when things were kind of starting to take
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: on this patina of like futuristic and that what's more
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: futuristic than a cleaning robot? Exactly. Yes, Hoover did something
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: really clever. They said, we look, we can make a
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: little bit of money or a significant amount of money
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: pedling to the upper crust, or to be honest, to
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: the household cleaning staff of the upper crust. But our
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: real money is in economy of scale. If we can
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: make individual vacuums affordable to the average person, then we
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: can sell millions of those. And this is where we see.
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: I want to give a shout out to one of
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: my favorite websites for this. They're a little biased, Edison
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: Vacuums dot com. They're a Tennessee based company. By the
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: nineteen forties, as Edison tells us, we see the improvement
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: of the upright anister vacuum. Now it's more than just
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: a status symbol, more than just a cleaning tool. It
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: represents the future. It's Jetson's level at this point. Yeah,
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: and Ben, I dropped, and that's the one you meant
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: you referenced to. Edison Vacuums dot Com has some incredible
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: images of some designs of these canister vacuums. I think
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: one of my favorite ones, Ben, you'll see couple down.
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: It looks like a like it looks like it's like
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: an R two D two situation. It's like a globe.
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: It looks like a planet. It's got like ring around
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: the ring around the edge like Saturn. And it's light
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: blue and has these very mid century modern kind of
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: wheel design with a really cool kind of telescoping hose
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: that comes off of it and wraps around with an
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: attachment at the end. This is all a result of
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: post war technological advancement that led to more compact designs
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: in both the upright and these canister models. And I
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: guess today, but when we think of the canister models,
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: we think more of like shop vacs, you know, the
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: ones that roll around or dry wet vacs. But I
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: think typically you know that's not true. I have I
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: have seen some cleaning companies that use backpack mounted uh
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: vacuums that would be considered a canister version, but typically
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: I think the ones we see or we have as
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: individual households would be more of that upright back. And
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: there's a lot of propaganda to it. You can see.
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: You can see clearly staged pictures of white American families
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: where there's one in the Edison Vacuum site that shows
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: a lady sitting down and watching in amusement as her
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: husband is using a canister vacuum, and the idea is now,
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: cleaning is so easy that even your dumb hubby can
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: do it.
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: And he just looks like a real, real, real special boy.
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: He's like he's vacs like a missionary. Yeah, there's a
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: couple images when you're talking about it's clearly staged for
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: an advertisement, and this one probably is too, But there's
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: one of a dude on his own vacuuming up the
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: tray underneath a bird cage and with just the dopiest
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: grin on his face like he's a yeah, he's having
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: a ball, and the bird is in the background looking
• 24:19
  Speaker 2: at this as probably as frightened as the horses were
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: of the puffing a bility. Oh, more so, man, can
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: you imagine what that thing would do to a tiny
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: little parakeet.
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: And we see that these improvements continue over the massive
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: economic boom the dawn of the atomic age, which mentioned
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: earlier there. In post World War two America, we begin
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: to see the movement toward disposable culture. Vacuum cleaner bags
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: become disposable. They're not great for the environment, but they're
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: more convenient and arguably more hygienic for your household because
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: now you don't have to, like, let's say you suck
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: up something nasty or grody that could maybe be a
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: health hazard, and then you have to take your cotton
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: bag out and you have to wash it in your sink.
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: That could be a vector for plague or infection. Now
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: you just throw it away. It's the trashman's problem.
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: You know. It's interesting, Ben, I actually also own a
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: baged whatever you call it, a vacuum that uses a bag,
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: a dispossible bag by a company that you may remember.
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: I think Rush Limbaugh chilled for this company back in
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: the day. Ork Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. It's so kind
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: of popular, But I think they're more popular with older
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: folks who remember the good old glory days of vacuum
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: cleaners because vis belonged to my mother. Uh and I
• 25:50
  Speaker 2: inherited it, you know, from my mother when she when
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: she passed. So I have this rac but you got
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: to order the bags. You need the bags. It will
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: not operate with that. And I am a bagless man.
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: As we're going to get into. I think that's where
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: you were heading, Ben, that there is a bagless revolution
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: on the horizon.
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: Oh yes, sir, and Oric did something very clever by
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: making their bags proprietary. It's terrible for the consumer story
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: for the company.
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah.
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: And the bagless vacuums those are the kind with uh,
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: this is embarrassing to check this out there, Yeah, show
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: these are the kinds that have that cup. This thing
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: is called the dirt cup. And you pull it out
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: and you can see how it's got a little trap door.
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: It's got a little trap door. As you're saying, you
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: can also have the advantage of seeing how much junk
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: is accreting in there and knowing when you.
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: Need to empty it. Well that's the thing too, Ben.
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: Both you and I are pet owners and pet dander
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: and the like. If you're not careful, it will significantly
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: hamper the effectiveness of your vacuum. It can get stuck
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: in the hose, it can build up in the filter,
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: So you really do have to kind of keep an
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: eye on that lest your vacuum lose it suck. I
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: think it's cool that you kept the Oric though, man.
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: I have it down here in my studio. I haven't
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: used it once, but I can't get rid of it.
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: My mom loved that thing. You got to get the
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: bags too, right, I got it bags, it's the problem.
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: Got no bags. He's got no bags. He's the bagman though.
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: I'm looking on Amazon right now. Actually, sixteen pack vacuum
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: bags for ORK type CC compatible with all ORC xcel
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: up right vacuum cleaners. Twenty dollars and ninety nine cents
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: for sixteen bags. Sixteen that's not awful. Guy's got full
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: stars too on the reviews. Yeah, they've got a very
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: loyal customer bag. I think that's right. Then. My mom
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: was in that number.
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: Did I tell you guys that not too far away
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: This is gonna sound crazy, you don't have to believe me,
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: But not too far away from the waffle House Museum
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: over an Avondale, where we visited researching our waffle House episode.
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: For a long long time there was a vacuum cleaner store,
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: and ever since Breaking Bad debuted, I was convinced.
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: It was a grift. Yeah, well you gotta think too.
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: I mean, there used to be just stand alone vacuum
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: cleaner repair operations because you needed them. People. These things
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: would break and you needed to take it to an expert.
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: But now it seems like everything's covered under warranty. I mean,
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: how often do you bring It's annoying, honestly, because it
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: is the whole right to repair issue that we often
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: talk about on stuff. They don't want you to know
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: the idea that so many proprietary pieces of equipment that
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: consumers purchase, they're designed in such a way that it's
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: very difficult for you to repair or to have them repair.
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: They want you to send them back to the company.
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah planned opso lescens as well. They want you to
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: buy the new one.
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: But of course, who are we to disparage the good
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: folks at places like Hoover, Aurek or of course the
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: Ferrari vacuums, Dyson and what was it? What was that
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: other one sharp sharp the Sharknado. That's not I think
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: it's the best opportunity though, But yeah, shark, So, for
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: better or worse. Now, ninety eight percent of US homes
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: have a vacuum cleaner, which is a crazy business success story,
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: considering that only thirty percent of homes had a vacuum
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: cleaner of any sort in the nineteen thirties through the forties.
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: It's because they're cheaper now, it's because there are more
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: people in the market. One of the weirdest facts recently
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: that we learned while we were putting this together is that,
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: out of all of the United States, the tiny I
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: called them the tiny Nation, the tiny state of Delaware
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: vacuums the most often.
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: Oh, call back to Wayne's world. Hey we're in Delaware, Aware,
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: nothing to do except vacuum and launder money apparently as well.
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, probably, you know what, It's all starting to make
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: sense now that you say that. Of course, the people
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: who run money laundry are going to be great a vacuum.
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: Delaware residents vacuum the most because they're cleaning that money.
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: If anyone doesn't get their reference, there is a whole
• 30:35
  Speaker 2: thing we've talked about on stuff they don't want you
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: to know about how you'll often see businesses incorporated in
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: Delaware because they have I couldn't tell you exactly the
• 30:43
  Speaker 2: nature of them, but there are some interesting tax laws
• 30:46
  Speaker 2: or just financial laws that, for whatever reason are more
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: let's just say, are a little I don't know, kinder
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: and gentler. Ben, do you remember.
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: Corporate corporate friendly? There you go, they courage investment, and
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: they're willing to have an open conversation with you about
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: your liability or taxes.
• 31:08
  Speaker 2: And they'll sell you a vacuum while they're at it. Hey,
• 31:10
  Speaker 2: we should talk about this briefly. Ben. Remember the days
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: of like, you know, death of a salesman and all
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: that stuff, The bygone era of door to door salesman.
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: I think one of those, very much that we see
• 31:23
  Speaker 2: parodied off in or shown in cartoons or sitcoms was
• 31:27
  Speaker 2: the person that would come to your door with a
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: vacuum and the would like, dump a bag of dirt
• 31:31
  Speaker 2: on your carbon and then you're like, what are you doing,
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: you mad man? Wait a minute, wait a minute, and
• 31:37
  Speaker 2: then they would vacuum it up and you'd be mind
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: blown and you would, of course, you know, shell out
• 31:43
  Speaker 2: and get the get the latest vacuum.
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: Uh huh, Yeah, and given our stereotypes of the nineteen fifties,
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: when the vacuum cleaner door to door salesperson showed up,
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: the people at the house were already way gone on
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: Mother's Little helpers or uh, what were those things, Benny's whatever?
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: Those painkillers were amphetamines. Oh geeze ben They call them
• 32:10
  Speaker 2: popping Benny's but I can't remember what Benny's is short for.
• 32:13
  Speaker 2: But yes, Benzo now benzo diazipens or dopey dopey drugs.
• 32:18
  Speaker 2: I'm sorry. I've been watching the first season of True
• 32:20
  Speaker 2: Detective again, very very good. Uh interesting timing to check
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: it out right now, y'all if you want to, uh,
• 32:28
  Speaker 2: you know, get a view into a different perspective on
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: some things that are going on in the news. But
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: he calls them dopey drugs. Uh, rust coal, but yeah.
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: Traveling vacuum salespeople would represent brands like Kirby, who we
• 32:41
  Speaker 2: didn't talk about, and they were, of course, they had
• 32:44
  Speaker 2: to be showmen. They'd go door to door and use
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: these in home demonstration tactics to sell these high end
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: vacuum cleaners, and of course you would also see a
• 32:54
  Speaker 2: certain amount of pyramid scheminess to Yeah, we have a
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: bit of a pyramid scheme here in our podcast, folks,
• 33:05
  Speaker 2: because we'd like to tease future episodes while we wrap
• 33:10
  Speaker 2: up the first one. Uh, the vacuum cleaner has become
• 33:15
  Speaker 2: an inescapable, if ridiculous invention, it is still very convenient
• 33:20
  Speaker 2: for a lot of people. We'd love to hear your
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: weird vacuum cleaner stories. We'd also love to tell you
• 33:27
  Speaker 2: that we're going to get super into national anthems in
• 33:31
  Speaker 2: our very next episode. Oh my gosh, Ben, would you
• 33:35
  Speaker 2: believe it that there are still vacuum salespeople door to
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: door vacuum salespeople. I'm seeing an article here from let's
• 33:43
  Speaker 2: see six news in Tennessee. Hey, how about that alcoa
• 33:49
  Speaker 2: Alcoa woman regrets purchase from traveling salesmen after long refund disputes.
• 33:55
  Speaker 2: In Tennessee, there's a three day cooling off period for
• 33:58
  Speaker 2: door to door salespeople. In other words, if you sign
• 34:00
  Speaker 2: a contract, you can cancel it within three days. That's
• 34:03
  Speaker 2: what Donald McLendon tried to do. However, recently, she's been
• 34:05
  Speaker 2: getting notices for non payment from her loan company, and
• 34:09
  Speaker 2: these Kirby vacuums apparently cost about five grand.
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: Well, that's how they make the money and that specific
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: business model. It's a strange world out there, folks, but
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: we're glad we are on it with you together. Thank you,
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: as always so much to our super producer Max Hoover Williams.
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: Thank you to Alex Williams who composed this slap and bop,
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: and you know, honestly thanks to the people who invented
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: the vacuum.
• 34:38
  Speaker 2: Holy smokes, nol. I'm looking at it. The vacuum. I
• 34:41
  Speaker 2: just showed you that I have. It is also a shark.
• 34:45
  Speaker 2: I just never checked you. You're a shark man. Hey, yes, Oh,
• 34:49
  Speaker 2: my brother boocome to the club. You didn't even know
• 34:52
  Speaker 2: you were in it. Hughes, Thanks Chris Frosciotis and he's
• 34:54
  Speaker 2: Jeff cot here and Spira and of course Ben, thanks
• 34:56
  Speaker 2: to you for doing the research on this. Absolutely m
• 35:00
  Speaker 2: a of a of an episode on vacuums. Didn't suck
• 35:03
  Speaker 2: it up. We'll see your next eppooks. For more podcasts
• 35:14
  Speaker 2: from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
• 35:18
  Speaker 2: you listen to your favorite shows.