A brief history of vacuum cleaner begins over a century ago when an
American inventor named Melville Ruben Presell made the first closest
thing to a modern day vacuum. It had rather ubiquitous, rotating brushes
and a large drum as a canister and a push handle. It was moved along
the streets or the roads as carpets would be normally taken outside to
be cleaned, the so called "Carpet Sweeper" would then be rolled over the
carpets as it was drawn by either a horse or two or a small buggy.
Then
in 1901 along came Hubert Cecil Booth, the British Engineer. He
invented the "Puffin Billy" which consisted of a horse drawn carriage
with an engine and a piston. He used the engine to pump out the air in
the empty carriage to create a partial vacuum and suck in the air from
outside with a big nozzle. In 1906 he also introduced the more compact
version of the "Puffin Billy" known as the "Trolley vac". It was a mere
45 kg; a great invention at that age and time.
1908 brought about a
new era of inventions including James Murray Spangler's nifty device
which introduced the use of pillow cases as air filters. James was a
janitor but he was also asthmatic. So he decided to use this useful but
simple machine to clean carpets without dust flying everywhere. James
mounted a sewing motor on a wooden box, made an incision down the back
of the box and fitted fan blades through it. A broom handle made the
handle and a leather strap made the on/off switch. Carpet sweeper
brushes rotated to take the dusty air through the wooden box and
filtered into the pillow case. The leather strap was pulled to start the
motor. But due to James' financial situation he had to sell the patent
to his close relative, William Hoover Boss. He started mass producing
the new vacuum along with James as his lead designer. The first HOOVER,
as you know it was born. In 1930 after the Great Depression Hoovers were
upgraded to have an agile Bakelite body, convenient electrical and
vacuum suction systems, improved vacuuming efficiency and increased
overall performance. Hoovers were introduced to the mass consumer market
and made its way continually up the ladder to being one of the
important household items throughout the world.
The North American
version of the Hoover finally started to be called VACUUM CLEANER as we
know it now. In the modern day, there are basically five main types of
vacuum that use the same principle of suction and filtering as the
previous Hoovers.
Upright vacuum cleaner:
1. Moved along with a handle.
2. Intake port sucks in air with the help of an electric motor. The higher the power of the motor the better the suction.
3. Air moves up to the upright chamber and dust get trapped into the porous air filters, covering the chamber.
4. Clean air is pumped out through exhaust port.
Canister vacuum cleaner
1. Smaller in size, lightweight and usually portable.
2. Air filters are placed right after the nozzle.
3. Other principles are the same as Upright vacuum cleaner.
Wet and Dry Vacuum cleaner
1. Looks big and round and pulled along on small wheels
2. Air is taken in and passed through a spacious chamber (the bucket)
3.
As outside air enters the spacious chamber, the air is slowed down and
the heavier particles of liquid, dust and debris fall into the bucket.
Cyclone
1. Main body has canister full of tubes.
2. Air is sucked in and moved around in spiralling passageways at high speed.
3. This device introduces the use of centrifugal force to deposit the dust filter in the canister.
4. Device may have further air filters for better proficiency.
