Vactric and Apex-Vactric electric home appliances : advert issued by Vactric Ltd., Stanmore, Middlesex in "Help Yourself! 1938" Annual
The "Help Yourself!" annual was publsihed as 'the official organ of the "Help Yopurself" Society', that had been formed in 1927 by the Stock Exchange Dramatic & Operatic Society to raise funds for theor charitable donation of funds to recognised hospitals and charity organisations. The annual, quite a lavish affair, was contains articles, cartoons and stories that were, I suspect, donated by the various authors and illustrators, as well as containing adverts for various concerns who again seem to have been assisting int he publication. There's also a very long list of companies and individuals who donated gifts to the Society and that were seemingly raffled or donated to the various hospitals noted for fund raising. The list in interesting - not just because of the gifts such as a hamper of kippers and smoked fish - but because of the descriptions of the companies that is itself quite illuminating.
This advert is for Vactric Ltd, a company formed in around 1923 to start to profit on the growing market for domestic electrical appliances as the demand grew in post-WW1 years. By the 1930s they were based in the growing suburbs of Middlesex at Honeypot Lane in Stanmore - surrounded by the very sort of new suburban dwellings whose owners would have relied on such 'modern' electrical technology to 'lighten the load and lengthen leisure' as seen here. You often see the Vactric vac advertised, less often the other "Apex-Vactric" goods. Oddly I have read that they'd discontinued fridges in 1934 but here they still are.
In post-WW2 years the company did a flit in 1946 to Newhouse in Scotland but the domestic appliances business did not fare well - a move into control systems and similar technologies kept them afloat for a while. I suspect that by the 1950s with the big electrical manufacturers such as Hoover, GEC, English Electric etc smaller concerns could no longer compete - by 1961 the rump of Vactric had been acquired by other concerns.
Vactric and Apex-Vactric electric home appliances : advert issued by Vactric Ltd., Stanmore, Middlesex in "Help Yourself! 1938" Annual
The "Help Yourself!" annual was publsihed as 'the official organ of the "Help Yopurself" Society', that had been formed in 1927 by the Stock Exchange Dramatic & Operatic Society to raise funds for theor charitable donation of funds to recognised hospitals and charity organisations. The annual, quite a lavish affair, was contains articles, cartoons and stories that were, I suspect, donated by the various authors and illustrators, as well as containing adverts for various concerns who again seem to have been assisting int he publication. There's also a very long list of companies and individuals who donated gifts to the Society and that were seemingly raffled or donated to the various hospitals noted for fund raising. The list in interesting - not just because of the gifts such as a hamper of kippers and smoked fish - but because of the descriptions of the companies that is itself quite illuminating.
This advert is for Vactric Ltd, a company formed in around 1923 to start to profit on the growing market for domestic electrical appliances as the demand grew in post-WW1 years. By the 1930s they were based in the growing suburbs of Middlesex at Honeypot Lane in Stanmore - surrounded by the very sort of new suburban dwellings whose owners would have relied on such 'modern' electrical technology to 'lighten the load and lengthen leisure' as seen here. You often see the Vactric vac advertised, less often the other "Apex-Vactric" goods. Oddly I have read that they'd discontinued fridges in 1934 but here they still are.
In post-WW2 years the company did a flit in 1946 to Newhouse in Scotland but the domestic appliances business did not fare well - a move into control systems and similar technologies kept them afloat for a while. I suspect that by the 1950s with the big electrical manufacturers such as Hoover, GEC, English Electric etc smaller concerns could no longer compete - by 1961 the rump of Vactric had been acquired by other concerns.