With the use of carpeting, came the invention of the vacuum cleaner. But most people do not realize just how long ago the vacuum cleaner was invented. Here is a little bit of history about the vacuum cleaner that you just might find to be very interesting.
After the introduction of carpeting in homes and businesses, the logical next step was something to help us keep them clean. This "something" was the vacuum cleaner. It may come as a surprise to many that the vacuum cleaner was actually first built in the mid 1800s. In fact, the original vacuum cleaner was invented prior to the US civil war. In 1860 a man by the name of Daniel Hess was granted a patent by the US patent office for his "carpet sweeper." This was the first device of its kind to use suction to clean carpets. While, this was a welcome alternative to the burden of manually sweeping carpets to clean them, it was indeed a very crude design that would need much improvement to become practical.
In the years that followed, there were some other designs, but the first real success story comes about 20 years later. That is when Melville Bissell invented his push version of the vacuum cleaner for his wife. The Bissell name is still going strong to this day. Melville's device was so popular that he started Bissell as a company and later his wife ran it and became one of the most success women in business in her day. Bissell's design was an improvement and was successful, but it still wasn't quite what you think of compared to what we use in our homes today. But it was pretty impressive for the 1870s.
Over the following years there were several attempts at making a better vacuum cleaning device, but it was James Spangler in 1907 that finally invented a device that resembles the models that we use in our homes today. It was portable, used suction, had a bag for the dust and debris that was sucked up (made using a pillowcase), and had a rotating brush to help loosen and lift the dirt from the carpet.
Unfortunately for James, he was a janitor by trade and not a businessman. He did not have the resources to pursue his invention and decided to sell his invention to his cousin Hoover who became very rich from the invention. Hoover is still going strong in the vacuum cleaning business and remains one of the most recognized names in vacuums to this day. It was also James that we can thank for helping with the invention of the disposable bags that we use today as well as the upright model of vacuum cleaner.
Today there are many different designs and so much technology involved that vacuum cleaners have literally become modern marvels. There are even models that use robotics to clean your carpets and models that float above your carpet and clean. We take many things for granted these days since they have been around for as long as we have been alive but it is always interesting to learn a little bit about the origins of some of the things we use every day. And if you own a carpet, a vacuum cleaner is one of those things.
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