The first Swedish household vacuum cleaner was manufactured in 1912 at Lilla Essingen by Elektromekaniska AB. It had been developed by the Swedish sales genius Axel Wenner-Gren and engineer Sven Carlstedt and was named LUX 1. Though the LUX 1 was a revolutionary step forward for household vacuum cleaners it was neither light nor cheap: it weighed 14 kg and cost around 300 SEK, equivalent to 14,000 SEK or 1,300 EUR today.
LUX 1 was manufactured in collaboration with AB Lux. AB Lux had production facilities at Lilla Essingen and was known for its gas lamps, the so-called Lux lamps, for outdoor lighting. For example, lighthouse lighting for the Suez Canal was produced by them.
In 1919 AB Lux merged with Elektromekaniska AB and formed a new company - Electrolux (initially spelled Elektrolux) with Wenner-Gren as the managing director. The vacuum cleaner became a bestseller, and was followed by refrigerators, household assistants and dishwashers. Electrolux remained at Lilla Essingen until 1999.
Photo: 1908, Stockholmskällan
Stockholm City Museum wanted to protect the entire area as a building monument because the facility was the last one in Stockholm "that reflects the development of a company from a small genius industry at the beginning of the century to a worldwide large company almost 100 years later". It did not happen exactly as they wished due to the new residential development but some older, culturally valuable buildings from the AB Lux and Electrolux era were preserved. The neighborhood names such as Lux, Gjuterihuset (The Foundry House) and Köksfläkten (The Kitchen Hood), Luxparken (The Lux Park) and Luxviken (The Lux Bay) remind of the industrial past. Six buildings on the eastern part of the factory area were preserved and converted into housing, a restaurant and offices. The properties were Q-marked in the detailed plan, three of them are blue-classed by the City Museum.
