Vodhin's Friendly Vacuum Cleaner Accessories

Turbo Tools: Air Powered Accessories

Turbo tools are attachments with air turbine motors, driven by either the suction or the exhaust of your vacuum cleaner.

One of the earliest known (to me, at least) air powered attachments is a design patented by Electrolux that used an air powered piston to beat the dust out of the rug.

Thead on the left shows a similar attachment sold by Eureka in thelate 1950's, the Vibra-Beat. Itis believed to be nearly identical to the Electrolux design, thoughmade with a plastic housing.

Insidethe nozzle was a piston attached to a "foot" that was pressed down by aspring. It is not known to me if this nozzle even made it intoproduction, but if it was it would be a real treat for any collector.

Thesuction of the vacuum cleaner would lift the piston up to a point untilit cleared a valve that released pressure. The spring inside pushed thepiston back down, beating the carpet. The whole process repeated at ahigh rate of speed and must have made quite a clamor!

TurboTools have not been very useful for actual cleaning because these toolsget their power from the airflow through the cleaner. If the dust bagis full of dirt, then the airflow is reduced to a level too low for the tool to be useful.

TheAmerican Electrolux Company developed its rotary "Air Powered Polisherand Scrubber" Over the course of three decades. From the late 1940'sthrough the 1960's, this accessory underwent a few dramatic changes inits aesthetic design, while its mechanical innards remained basically the same.

At the far left is the Air Powered Polisher andScrubber, first offered shortly after WWII. The mid 1950's saw thistool become a more versatile accessory with different attachments:Including Polisher and Rug Washer sets (shown) as well as a drill, sander, rotary saw, and even a hedge clipper!

Bigger is betterin the 1960's as the versatile gizmo doubles in size and its designfocuses on polishing and shampooing, leaving the garden and workshopaccessories in the dust. Eventually, even the intention of polishingfloors fades from its uses as in the late 1960's it adopts it's familiar Rug Washer name.

Electroluxcertainly didn't invent the turbine, and wasn't the first to useone to power a rotary brush. As near as I can tell, the first patentfor a suction based motor was filed in 1934, invented by Bella De Nagy, as shown in the pattent drawing to the left.

Ifound this after researching the Electrolux pattents and coming across a reference to this one. Most of the design elements inthe Electrolux version are evident here, including what looks like an early idea for a spring loaded scrubbing brush.

The drawing andtext behind this accessory clearly show that it was intended to beopperated by positive air flow- compressed air or gas forced into theturbine to drive the tool. The text for the pattent states that a sutible power source would be the outlet opening of a vacuum cleaner.

Thetext also states that the spring is intended to provide positivepressure of the brush or sutible attachment to the surface it isapplied to. It is only later that Electrolux incorporates a very uniqueclutch mechanism that not only allows positive pressure, but ballanced pressure:

If the brush slows down from too much friction, theaction of the spring loaded clutch will raise the brush based on thetorque of the air motor. This ensures an even turn of speed as well as an even displacement of pressure to the surface to which it is applied.

Electroluxalso found that the turbine was more effecient if the turbine wasdriven by the suction rather than the exaust of a vacuum cleaner. Thisis common sense if you think about it- The motor would have to workharder to produce pressure rather than remove it; a vacuum cleanerworks only because the Earth's own atmosphere is pushing in on the unit replace the air pulled away by its motor.

They Suck When They Work

The Singer Company also offered a Revolving BrushAttachment (Right) sold with their "Roll-A-Magic" and Golden Glide Canister vacuums.

This design seems closer to the hand held turbine brush rolls we havetoday. Again, I don't actually have one of these (yet) and can onlysurmise its design from the general shape of the nozzle.

It apparently uses a vertically mounted turbine andwhat must be a very thin brush roll, and may have used a heavy flywheellike the Sunbeam and the Electrolux nozzles. It is also possible thatit takes advantage of a smaller opening behind the turbine, a designused in today's light weight plastic nozzles that slightly increasesthe power of the turbine (Think of a garden hose with and without anozzle). Again, this all relies on how good the airflow is through themachine.

Today's "bagless" vacuums make many claims aboutlow or no suction loss and offer newer, light weight plastic versionsof these early nozzles, typically in the form of the aforesaid handheld nozzle "perfect for your stairs". Hey, you engineers out there:the perfect stair nozzle is one that's bigger than the upholsterynozzle, smaller than a floor brush, has a 2 foot wand, and has atriangular footprint to get into the corners.