page_title: Vacuum cleaner
section_title: Domestic vacuum cleaner
hierarchical_section_title: Vacuum cleaner / History / Domestic vacuum cleaner
caption_attribution_description: Early electric vacuum cleaner by Electric Suction Sweeper Company, circa 1908, predecessor of Hoover vacuum cleaner (1922). Exhibit in National Museum of American History, Washington, DC, USA.
context_page_description: A vacuum cleaner, also known simply as a vacuum or a hoover, is a device that causes suction in order to remove debris from floors, upholstery, draperies and other surfaces. It is generally electrically driven.
  The debris is collected by either a dustbag or a cyclone for later disposal. Vacuum cleaners, which are used in homes as well as in industry, exist in a variety of sizes and models—small battery-powered hand-held devices, wheeled canister models for home use, domestic central vacuum cleaners, huge stationary industrial appliances that can handle several hundred litres of dust before being emptied, and self-propelled vacuum trucks for recovery of large spills or removal of contaminated soil. Specialized shop vacuums can be used to suck up both dust and liquids.
context_section_description: The first vacuum-cleaning device to be portable and marketed at the domestic market was built in 1905 by Walter Griffiths, a manufacturer in Birmingham, England. His Griffith's Improved Vacuum Apparatus for Removing Dust from Carpets resembled modern-day cleaners; – it was portable, easy to store, and powered by "any one person (such as the ordinary domestic servant)", who would have the task of compressing a bellows-like contraption to suck up dust through a removable, flexible pipe, to which a variety of shaped nozzles could be attached.
  In 1906 James B. Kirby developed his first of many vacuums called the "Domestic Cyclone". It used water for dirt separation. Later revisions came to be known as the Kirby Vacuum Cleaner. In 1907 department store janitor James Murray Spangler (1848-1915) of Canton, Ohio invented the first portable electric vacuum cleaner, obtaining a patent for the Electric Suction Sweeper on June 2, 1908. Crucially, in addition to suction from an electric fan that blew the dirt and dust into a soap box and one of his wife's pillow cases, Spangler's design utilized a rotating brush to loosen debris. Unable to produce the design himself due to lack of funding, he sold the patent in 1908 to local leather goods manufacturer William Henry Hoover (1849-1932), who had Spangler's machine redesigned with a steel casing, casters, and attachments, founding the company that in 1922 was renamed the Hoover Company. Their first vacuum was the 1908 Model O, which sold for $60. Subsequent innovations included the beater bar in 1919 ("It beats as it sweeps as it cleans"), disposal filter bags in the 1920s, and an upright vacuum cleaner in 1926.
  In Continental Europe, the Fisker and Nielsen company in Denmark was the first to sell vacuum cleaners in 1910. The design weighed just 17.5 kg (39 lb) and could be operated by a single person. The Swedish company Electrolux launched their Model V in 1921 with the innovation of being able to lie on the floor on two thin metal runners. In the 1930s the Germany company Vorwerk started marketing vacuum cleaners of their own design which they sold through direct sales.
caption: Early electric vacuum cleaner by Electric Suction Sweeper Company, circa 1908
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