September 16, 2018

052 - The History of Vaccum Cleaner

32 minutes

Vacuum Cleaner

A vacuum cleaner, also known as a sweeper or hoover, is a device that uses an air pump to create a partial vacuum to suck up dust and dirt, usually from floors, and from other surfaces.

Basically, it is a device which sucks your home tidy.

Timeline

2300 B.C. - First rudimentary forms of broom and cleaning tools came into existence

1797 - Levi Dickenson devised a broom with the use of sorghum bristles. The sorghum broom business exploded and by 1860 sorghum got the name broomcorn.

1858 - Hiram Herrick patented a carpet sweeper which was the first American patent for a carpet sweeper. The device consisted of a rolling broom and dustpan.

1860 - Daniel Hess produced a carpet sweeper which used suction through a rotating brush and bellows. It was completely manual and that is probably the reason why it was not successful. It was the first rudimentary design of a vacuum cleaner.

1869 - Ives W. McCaffe came up with ‘Whirlwind’, the first manual vacuum cleaner which was upright. The belt driven, hand-powered device was sold for a retail price of $25 which would be around a whopping $450 in the present. This proved to be the reason for the unsuccessful run of the device.

1898 - A gasoline powered blower was developed by John S. Thurman, which had to be horse-drawn to locations due to its bulky nature. It was a moderately successful device which relied on blowing the dust into a receptacle instead of suction.

1901 - Hubert Cecil Booth from England manufactured the ‘Puffing Billy’ which was also a bulky device but relied on suction. The gasoline-powered machine was later upgraded to electric power. It used a cloth filter to collect the dust. Puffing Billy was extremely successful and hotels started installing it in their compound. It was once also used to clean West Minister Abbey.

During the same time, David T. Kenney came up with a vacuum cleaner which was powered by steam engine. But it did not succeed in getting much business due to its weight of 4000 pounds.

1906 - Walter Griffiths came up with the first portable vacuum cleaner which used bellows and flexible pipe for suction.

1906 - Jame B. Kirby developed a vacuum cleaner that used water for dirt separation instead of a filter. It was called ‘Domestic Cyclone’.

1907 - James Murray Spangler, a janitor from Ohio devised a vacuum cleaner with the use of a broom, electric rotating motor, and a pillowcase for dust collection. Because he did not get the funding, he sold the patent to William Henry Hoover in 1908.

1926 - Hoover redesigned the vacuum cleaner by adding a steel box for sturdiness and disposal filter bags to collect dust. It became a mainstay in the market

1997 - A Swedish company came up with ‘Electrolux Trilobite’, the first autonomous cordless robotic vacuum cleaner. This was made available to the consumers in 2001.

2004 - A British company came up with ‘Airider’, a vacuum cleaner which uses the technology of hovercrafts to float above the floor.

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