Did You Know?!?

The birth of the vacuum cleaner is due to a number of advancements in science and technology brought about by the Industrial Revolution. By the mid 1800s factories were producing tens of thousands of manufactured items along with tons of pollution. Dirt and soot were everywhere. About that time scientist Louis Pasteur made several significant discoveries which led him to theorize that infectious diseases were caused by microorganisms or “germs.” Thus the development of the germ theory and the reaction against industrial pollution caused people to focus for the first time on hygiene and cleanliness.

The first vacuum cleaners had to be operated manually. Two persons were needed for sume machines were to large, one to operate the bellows and the other to move the mouthpiece over the floor. The dust was blown into the air. Prior to the introduction of "electric suction cleaners", most housewives used brooms and dust pans. Many of the mid-Victorian homes had large and small rugs and carpets on the floors of principal rooms. In order to remove dirt, dust and animal dander from the nap of these floor coverings, the rugs and carpets were removed from the home and beaten with a device similar to an oversized fly swatter called a rug beater.

In the late 1870s, Melville Bissell began marketing his invention, a carpet sweeper with revolving brushes which picked up the dust and dirt and deposited it inside the sweeper housing. It depended on the rotation of the wheels to drive the sweeping mechanism and only removed debris from the uppermost regions of the carpet nap.

Best known for the vacuum cleaner that bears his name, Jim Kirby's life goal was to reduce or eliminate drudgery wherever it existed. After watching his mother's cleaning effort result in the dust settling back onto everything in the house, he developed his concept of a vacuum cleaner. His first cleaner, invented in 1906, used water for dirt separation. In 1907, displeased with the unpleasant task of disposing of dirty water, he went back to work and designed a system that used centrifugal action and cloth to filter the dirt.

James Murray Spangler, an inventor and janitor in Canton, Ohio, patented (889,823 June 2, 1908) the first portable electric suction cleaner, making life a bit easier and cleaner for the homeowner. An asthmatic, Spangler wanted a smaller vacuum to help keep down dust on the job. Using a variety of items — a broom handle, a pillow case, a tin soap box — he created a device that used motor-driven fan blades to create suction. In 1908 he sold the vacuum’s patent to his cousin’s husband, William Hoover, and became a partner in Hoover’s Electric Suction Sweeper Company. Soon many new vacuum companies sprang up, taking advantage of the growing popularity of electric appliances and of people’s fear of germs.

Detroit businessman Fred Wardell starts the Eureka Vacuum Cleaner Company, in 1909. Unlike their competitors’ vacuums, which were heavy, difficult to maneuver, and unreliable, Eureka’s vacuums were versatile and lightweight. The company offered several helpful attachments to clean upholstery, walls, and bare floors — even a blower to dry hair. Eureka’s vacuums were so well designed that they won an award at the San Francisco International Exposition in 1915. By 1919 Eureka was able to make 2,000 vacuums a day in their sophisticated, 3.5-acre manufacturing plant.

David Oreck starts Oreck Corporation as a company manufacturing upright vacuum cleaners for the hotel industry in the U.S. The concept was to design a lightweight yet powerful and durable vacuum that hotel housekeepers would prefer to the very heavy models available to them. The idea proved so successful that now over 50,000 hotels throughout the world use Oreck vacuums. After a short time, hotel personnel asked to buy the machines for their own use, which gave the Oreck Corporation the idea to sell its unique products to the general public.While Whirlpool was unable to make a success of its upright vacuum cleaners, Oreck believed that with a redesign of the machine, he could give it a new lease on life. So Whirlpool gave him exclusive rights to market them throughout the United States. The company also gave Oreck free reign to redesign the machine and then produced his prototype for him under the RCA Whirlpool label.

The vacuum cleaner is one of the greatest household aids ever invented. It’s right up there with sliced bread and the flushable toilet. Its speed and efficiency allows more time for leisure and less for cleaning. It’s obvious that the vacuum has an important and impressive pedigree. This reducer of pollutants, eliminator of germs, and status symbol shouldn’t be hiding in the closet, but should be proudly displayed in a place of honor in our homes!