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The first Royal vacuum cleaners were made by the P.A. Geier
Company in 1905. This makes us one of the world´s oldest vacuum
cleaner manufacturing companies. Mr. Geier started producing his
Royal metal cleaners by hand in a backyard garage in Cleveland,
Ohio. Soon the company grew and moved to a four-story building on
105th Street where it operated two divisions, a cleaner division and
a machining division. Besides Royal vacuum cleaners, the company
produced mixers, hair dryers and washing machine units.
Vacuum cleaners, though, remained the key product, as the company
introduced the industry´s first hand-held vac, the "Royal
Prince," in 1937. Royal joined most manufacturing companies
across the country and switched over to military production during
World War II.
Royal vacuum cleaner shipments remained strong up to 1953 when
the P.A. Geier Company was bought by an investment group, the Walter
E. Schott Organization. The Schotts renamed the company Royal
Appliance Manufacturing. However, the new owners were not wholly
committed to the company and decided to dissolve it soon after its
acquisition. Royal was then purchased by a group of employees,
headed by Stan Erbor, in 1954. The company thrived under Erbor´s
leadership, moving to Highland Heights, Ohio in 1969 where it
expanded and refined all phases of operations. Erbor was active in
the company until his death in 1981 at age 80. Introducing Dirt
Devil
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