When the music boxes were no longer in demand, the vacuums continued to be made, but not in large numbers. They began to make the two-person pumpers mentioned above, but they sold poorly. In 1902 the company dropped the words “music box” from their name and began to diversify. Regina thrived in the music box business until the phonograph put them out of business (sort of) in 1922. Initially, they imported the boxes from Germany, but in about a year, they found they were so successful that they leased a building in Rahway, and within a few years they were manufacturing their Regina music boxes entirely in the U.S. In 1892 they decided to branch out to the United States and established the Regina Music Box Company in Jersey City. The history of Regina began in 1889 when Gustav Brachausen, along with Paul Riessner, created the Polyphon Musikwerke. The early non-electrics are often referred to as being “two-person pumpers,” because one person had to pump while the other directed the nozzle. These were developed in the 1860s with the first motorized examples invented around 1899. There were first manual vacuum cleaners that used bellows to form the vacuum. Just to be clear, a vacuum cleaner is a mechanical device that employs an air pump (a centrifugal fan in all but the oldest models) that creates a partial vacuum that is supposed to suck dirt particles off the floor and other surfaces. The vacuum cleaner has a rather long history that predates the piece in today’s question by a wide margin. Sure, they are better than an old fashioned broom, but not by all that much. These necessary pieces of modern household equipment are deeply hated by children and teenagers who have to pull and push them around the house as part of their domestic chores - and adult homemakers of both sexes also hate them for the same reasons. We would like to know if this is a collector’s item. It was made in Rahway, and is a bit rusty but the information is still readable. When my brother-in-law passed away, we found this Regina Pneumatic Cleaner Model “F” in the garage.
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