Leesona Moos advertisement in Analog, September 1963

Advertisement published in Analog, September 1963


“Nuclear powered vacuum cleaners will probably be a reality within 10 years.”

—Alex Lewyt, quoted in the New York Times, June 10th, 1955

I remember when I first saw this advert. It was a really hot day, and I was riding in my mum's 1957 Ford (how's that for long-term memory!). I thought, “Fantastic—in a couple of years we'll be able to get rid of those leaky Ray-O-Vacs in our flashlights and go all atomic”! That's how we thought in the Sixties. That's how we oughta think now.

I have been unable to turn up any details of the actual technology used in the nuclear power source here: “The Googles—they do nothing!” From the description, the isotope, and the cited output of 10,000 volts or more, I suspect it is a direct charging atomic battery. I believe the patents cited in the following paragraph describe the actual devices mentioned in the ad, but I cannot confirm this. If you have any other advertisements by Leesona Moos which dealt more directly with the Krypton 85 battery, please scan them (at 600 dpi or better) and send them to me so I can add them to this archive. I will, of course, provide full attribution for any material you provide.

For more details, consult the following U.S. patents, all assigned to Leesona and filed between 1957 and 1962, which appear to describe the devices in the advertisement.