The first hand-powered cleaner. But the first person to patent a version of the vacuum cleaner is Daniel Hess, from West Union, Iowa, in 1860. (umwblogs.org)
Thursday, June 15 — Dealing with one of the oldest challenges to house cleaning — dust — motivated Ives McGaffey of Chicago to patent the first vacuum cleaner in the United States this week in 1869. It was hand powered, made of wood and canvas, and sold under the name “Whirlwind.”
Thirty years later, a motorized vacuum cleaner was patented. The problem with it was that the motor was gas powered, and thus had to run outside the house, using very long hoses for the cleaning. In 1905, the first electric-powered home vacuum was patented, but it weighed 92 pounds and had an 18-inch fan.
Today, vacuum cleaners are lightweight, powerful and often self-propelled. Making household vacuums is an $852 million a year business for 32 manufacturers nationwide.
You can find more facts about America from the U.S. Census Bureau online here.
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