Retired UK couple still use their 88-year-old vacuum cleaner

[JohnyCanuck]

Still going strong: Retired couple still use their 88-year-old vacuum cleaner that doubles as a paint sprayer, coffee grinder and even a MEAT MINCER

While many Britons will have unwrapped gleaming new household appliances as presents this Christmas, one retired couple would not dream of replacing their 88-year-old vacuum cleaner - which also spray paints, grinds coffee, and even minces meat.

Mary Waite, 61, and her husband Ivor, 63, have been using their Piccolo multi-purpose appliance since it was given to them as a wedding present in 1976.

Remarkably, the plastic-and-metal gadget, which does four household chores in one (although presumably not at the same time), was built in 1925 but is still going strong today and has never broken down.

Mary, a retired cleaner, from Halesowen, West Midlands, recently won a competition to find the oldest working appliance in the Black Country.

The prize-winning device, which is showing no sign of its age, used to belong to an salesman uncle who had kept the unused Piccolo in storage for decades before it was eventually given to the couple as a wedding present.

She said: 'My husband’s aunt gave us the Piccolo as a wedding gift.

'It was almost brand new and still in its wrapper so obviously had not been used very much.



http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2529848/Retired-couple-use-88-year-old-vacuum-cleaner-doubles-paint-sprayer-coffee-grinder-meat-MINCER.html

[NaturalHigh]

1. They don't make 'em like they used to!

[geomon666]

2. It does 4 different things?

Vacuums, sprays pain, grinds coffee beans, and minces meat. That's just amazing to me, though I think I would have reservations about using my vacuum cleaner on stuff I intend to eat and drink.

[Jesus Malverde]

4. Really just sharing a motor among appliances..

It's similar to a compressor powering many different tool.

Amazing they have kept it in such good shape. The tool accessories look unused.

Would have liked to hear a little about what happened to the company that built it.

[Jenoch]

32. The reason the accessories are in such good shape is because they

probably rarely used them.

My grandmother had a Kirby vacuum cleaner that had an grinding attachment for sharpening knives.

[Jesus Malverde]

3. Very cool...nt

[ProfessorGAC]

5. While Impressive. . .

. . . i'm curious about the energy efficiency. Might be spending enough on electricity to have bought a new one. And, there is no doubt that newer systems generate a higher negative pressure and filter the airstream better.

But, it's their house and their money. Just wondering about that.

[cthulu2016]

6. Hmmm... Check out the instruction manual there. Typical 1925 clothing.

Since the instruction manual is from 15-25 or more years after 1925, and the product design unlike any consumer appliance from 1925, there is something wrong here.

I would guess the company might have been founded in 1925 and somebody is misreading something, somewhere.

[GReedDiamond]

7. Yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking...

...for another example, the picture showing the guy grinding on his car - that is no 1920-30s era automobile.

[cthulu2016]

9. For most folks, "olden days" all runs together

I wouldn't be able to spot an anachronism involving 1810 versus 1830, so it's all relative. To somebody in their teens, perhaps 1925 and 1940 are both impossibly ancient.

But, c'mon... I am surprised that a *number* of people would fall for this error, every step of the way.

I guess they don't get Boardwalk Empire in the UK. (A masterful depiction of material culture circa 1925)

[mahatmakanejeeves]

25. My guess: '60s-vintage Opel Rekord

http://www.cargurus.com/Cars/1960-Opel-Rekord-Pictures-c14763_pi35714492?picturesTabFilter=EXTERIOR#&pictureId:27122040

http://www.picstopin.com/800/opel-rekord-p1-motoburg/

/

[lumberjack_jeff]

17. It's not improbable that the instruction booklet is newer than the base appliance. n/t

[cthulu2016]

19. I considered that, however...

in that scenario we are not talking about a modest upgrade in the instruction manual. We are talking about an in-depth instruction manual with color printing and such being created for a supply of manufactured, boxed products that have been in warehouse for 10-20 years.

Since that is rather absurd, it makes more sense to look to more likely explanations... like that the motor uses a feature that was patented in 1925, or that the company was founded in 1925 or for some other reason somebody was confused about when the thing was manufactured.

There was no modern plastic in 1925 appliances, and very little primitive plastic (celluloid and bakalite type stuff) The object pictured has little in common with norms of industrial/product design from the 1920s, but appears typical of the era of the car and the clothes.

Take all of that on one side, and on the other side we have a tabloid that publishes fake news every day repeating second-hand someone else's view that the thing was manufactured in 1925.

[lumberjack_jeff]

21. I had a south bend 9" lathe.

It was in continuous production with the design essentially unchanged from the early 1920's to the early 1950's. Mine was actually built in 1936, but my operating manual was from the 1940's.

If this device is anything like a shopsmith (a multipurpose shop tool) the manufacturer probably added accessories and attachments to their catalog over time. If the uncle was a salesman, he might have given them a current manual at that time.

[cthulu2016]

23. Hmmm. Well, the article backs you up... but is probably wrong

It is a German product. The article says that all imports of the product were 1925-1930 (already wiggling on the date... seems like 1930 would be a more responsible guess)

So then a new instruction manual is printed up 1938-1948 for these 1925-1930 German imports that must be stashed in the UK in serious quantity to warrant the new manual.

And this new manual printed for UK customers to sell off a substansial inventory of 1920s product that has never been updated (all imposts cease in 1930) and the newly printed instruction manual still includes the German slogan? In the late 1930s or 1940s?

It is possible, of course, but it is also possible and easier to suppose that the guy quoted in the article is mistaken.

And since the aryticle includes several pictures that cannot be from 1925 without seeming to note the problem (in order to explain it away)...

[Proud Public Servant]

18. Yeah, the "plastic parts" from

1925 also threw me.

[JDPriestly]

24. Check these secondary sources:

http://www.technischesmuseum.at/object/universalhaushaltsgeraet-piccolo-und-werkzeugsatz-mach-es-selbst

http://www.stulz.com/about-us/history/

[cthulu2016]

28. The first identifies it as 1960-1969

while saying that electrical appliances (as a category) came into being circa 1925

The second dates the piccolo in the 1950s and 1960s.

Thanks for the data.

[JDPriestly]

31. Which makes sense if you think the two are in their 60s. They probably married in the late 60s or

early 70s and the vacuum seemed old enough.

The Daily Mail?????

[progressoid]

30. Yeah, something isn't quite right.

Maybe just the motor unit is original? Some of the accessories look relatively modern.

[femmocrat]

8. My mom had an old Electrolux canister that must have been around 50 years old.

It's probably still at her house somewhere. It was indestructible!

[K.O. Stradivarius]

10. The claim is a little misleading.

Yes, it's 88 years old, but it went unused until 1976... 37 years ago.

Granted, appliances made nowadays (or for the last 20 years), would never hold up that long.

[tclambert]

11. Where do they get new dustbags for it?

They must have discontinued the replacement bags years ago. Though with some duct tape and coffee filters . . .

[TBF]

12. It's amazing what you can do with

a little duct tape and/or binder twine!

[cthulu2016]

13. Seriously... how could ANYONE Fall for this? What's with the Daily Mail?

From the article linked in the OP. Is that a car from 1925? Are those clothes from 1925? Is there any aspect of this device that could plausibly be from 1925?

[shenmue]

14. Now that's ingenuity

Give these people a Nobel Prize.

[dogknob]

15. Her husband is conspicuously absent from the many photos...

Did she suck him up... or mince him?

[reACTIONary]

16. Man! That SUCKS! (nt)

[dawg]

20. Beats buying a new Dirt Devil ....

every year.

Love my Shark though.

[HipChick]

22. I hope Mr Dyson sends them a new hoover

[lpbk2713]

26. I just recently replaced a 30 year old refrigerator.

It was still working fine, just wanted to get something more energy efficient.

Tip: clean out the accumulated dust off the coils and the motor occasionally
and it will extend the life of a refrigerator appreciably.

[Hulk]

27. Remember reading a story about "the beginning of the vacuum cleaner".

Something like, we all cleaned and lived happily in our homes, until electricity came along, and then shortly after came the vacuum cleaner. NOW, the electric vacuum cleaner cleans what we used to get with a dust mop, but it uses electricity that dirties the air from the coal powered electric plants and blows the dust all over the house at the same time it sucks it up off the floor. Not really much ahead, but the cycle of "chicken or the egg" comes to mind.

Just thought I'd share. Yeah, yeah, I know...you can't dust mop a rug or carpet, but then, that is another story too.

[cthulu2016]

29. Update: The item is from the 1960s (or maybe late 1950s)

See post #24 above