Learn About the History of Vacuum Cleaners
If you're a vintage vacuum collector or are thinking about it, you really should know more about the history of vacuum cleaners. There is a lot of interesting information available out there and you just won't believe how much history is actually involved.
Once you start doing research on the vacuum it gets very intriguing and addictive at the same time.
Imagine your vacuum cleaner so large it has to be operated by two people outside of the home; a heck of a lot of work just to remove some dust, wouldn't you agree? In 1902 a fellow by the name of H. Cecil Booth created the first power operated vacuum cleaner called the "Puffing Billy." It was powered by an oil engine that used large hoses that had to be fed into the house through doors and windows. Obviously this unit was really huge and probably not all that powerful but it meant a great time for the neighborhood as it must have been such a strange noisy site.
All of a sudden, somewhere between 1850 and 1900 patents were being issued for vintage vacuums in abundance. Several continents had decided to get in on this new contraption, from Germany, France, America and Britain, just to name a few. You probably already know most of these names but just in case you don't; it was a very long time ago. There was the Dust Killer, Little Giant and of course one called, Apparatus for Removing Dust; not very original but it did state the facts so you knew exactly what you were getting.
So there were hand powered vacs, the old bellows system, gas powered, oil powered and even foot powered. It certainly was a lot of work just to clean a carpet. How would you like to push a hundred pounds of machine around a couple times a week. Who needs exercise when you have house work to do that is sure to knock a few pounds off.
Sometime in the early 20's these vintage vacuum cleaners were coming of age. They were more light weight, more powerful and a little more pleasant to operate. Now we have robotic vacuums that can run unsupervised in our homes. We've come a long way baby and I wonder where it will go from there. Maybe a system built into the home that runs constantly or maybe a "dust deflector apparatus."
This is what makes a vacuum so interesting; they are very rich in history. If you want to delve further into the history of vacuum cleaners just do a search for, "history of vacuum cleaners" in your favorite search engine.