By George Moore
St. Louis, Missouri, inventor John S. Thurman applied for a patent on his invention, a “pneumatic carpet renovator” on November 14, 1898; the General Compressed Air Company had commissioned the gasoline-powered carpet cleaner. Thurman marketed his invention by driving around St. Louis with the equipment in his horse-drawn buggy and offering to clean household carpets for $4 per visit. In 1906, Thurman began installing central vacuum systems that ran on compressed air. While some consider his invention to be the first vacuum cleaner, others disagree since the cleaner blew the dust into a separate receptacle rather than sucking it up into the machine itself.
H. Cecil Booth of London is considered by many historians to be the inventor of the motor-driven vacuum cleaner as we know it today. After watching an inventor demonstrate his machine blowing dust from furniture and floors, Booth thought it would be more efficient to create a machine that could suck the dirt up. He performed a simple test to see if such an idea was worth pursuing. He laid a clean handkerchief on a dusty restaurant chair and used his mouth to suck up the handkerchief. After seeing the dirt that collected on the underside of the handkerchief, he knew his idea was worthwhile and began to design his first vacuum.
Mr. Booth’s first vacuum had an oil engine, while later models used electricity. The machines were large and Booth did not try to sell them. Instead, he sold a cleaning service, his uniformed operators traveling around London in bright red vans with the name British Vacuum Cleaning Company painted on their exteriors. The operators fed hoses through windows and doors to reach all the rooms and then started up the machinery.
Refinements to the vacuum continues to this day. Today, you can buy self-propelled vacuums, computer-driven robotic models that do not need anyone to guide them. They are available in upright, cylinder, drum or shop, wet/dry, backpack, and handheld versions, to name just a few. No one knows what the future versions of vacuum cleaners will be able to do. One intriguing idea is a robotic vacuum that can dust tables and other surfaces above the floor.
About the Author
George Moore is the owner of Moore’s Sewing Center. Their five locations in California specialize in the sale and service of high-quality sewing machines and vacuum cleaners.
RSS Feed