A Short History Of The Vacuum Cleaner
The vacuum cleaner as a technology is only just over 100 years old. Prior to the vacuum cleaner we had to cart our carpets outside and beat the dust out of them, give then an airing then drag them all back inside. It is understandable that this didn’t happen all that often, in fact, this is became part of the spring cleaning routine.
The first vacuum cleaner was actually a blower. It blew the dust out of the carpet, into the air where it gently settled back where it came from, or all over the furniture. Hardly a success. The next model used suction to draw air, and dirt into a filter. The unit was so big it had to be parked in the street.
We have come a long way since those days. The upright, still popular now, was the first truly commercial vacuum cleaner and was sold by door to door salesmen. The Goblin brand, one of the first manufacturers, had over 2500 sale people throughout the UK in the early 1920’s.
Since then we have evolved first to the barrel type vacuums, then to canisters and on to portable and backpack style vacuum cleaners. The latest are the robotic style of vacuum cleaners that propel themselves around your room extracting any dirt and dust along the way.
Filter technology has made the biggest leap where vacuum cleaners originally relied on large cloth bags hanging off the side of uprights to the latest HEPA triple filter air cleaning pollen reducing filters that leave the air as pure as possible.
We often take our modern vacuum cleaners for granted, however one thing I do know, I am sure glad we no longer have to park them in the street to clean our carpets.
