Who invented the vacuum cleaner?

Welcome to History's Not Boring by Kidopoly.com. I'm Mira! And I'm Finn! Before we dive in, a big hello to Mason in Perth, Western Australia, who listens with his mum every night before bed. Mason, you asked how the very first vacuum cleaner was invented, so this one is for you.

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Now, Finn, when it's time to clean the floors in our house, we just plug in the vacuum, right?

Yeah, and our cat runs away to hide under the bed.

Well, imagine if our vacuum was the size of a giant carriage, painted bright red, and had to be pulled up to our house by a real horse. Oh, and the hose was 82 feet long.

What? A horse-drawn vacuum? That sounds like a giant fire engine!

Haha, it totally looked like one. Today we are exploring the crazy history of the vacuum cleaner, from giant puffing monsters to strange pillowcases on broomsticks. For most of history, keeping floors clean was a ton of hard work. Imagine it is the year 1890.

Okay, I'm imagining. No electricity, right?

Exactly. So if your carpet was dusty, you couldn't just plug something in and suck up the dirt. You had to roll up the heavy rug, carry it outside, hang it on a line, and literally hit it with a special paddle called a carpet beater.

Just thinking about that makes me sneeze. The dust must have flown absolutely everywhere.

It did! Or you just swept the floor with a broom, which tossed the dust straight up into the air. People really wanted a better way. In 1899, an American inventor named John S. Thurman came up with an idea.

Did he invent the very first vacuum?

Not exactly. He invented a gasoline-powered machine that blew air. He charged $4 a visit, which is over $100 today. A horse carriage brought the machine to your door, and it blew compressed air into the carpet to blast the dirt away.

Wait, if it blew air, wouldn't the dirt just fly all over the room?

Yes. It just blasted the dust onto the walls and furniture. You still had to wipe down all the tables and chairs afterwards. Enter a British engineer named Hubert Cecil Booth. In 1901, he went to a demonstration of one of these blowing machines at the Empire Music Hall in London. Did he think it was silly?

He did. Booth asked the inventor, why don't you just suck the dust out instead of blowing it around?

I mean, that makes perfect sense to me. What did the inventor say? Was he like, great idea, Hubert?

Nope. The inventor got angry and told Booth that sucking up dust was totally impossible. He said it had been tried and it just couldn't be done.

I bet Booth wanted to prove him wrong.

He did. To test his idea, Booth went to a restaurant, put his own cloth handkerchief over his mouth, leaned down, and sucked as hard as he could on the seat of a plush chair. Ew!

Did he get a mouthful of dirt? That sounds like a terrible idea.

He actually choked because so much dust flew up into his throat. But when he looked at his handkerchief, the bottom side was completely black with dirt. He proved that a cloth filter could trap dust while letting air pull through.

That's genius. Gross, but genius. So he built a machine.

He built a massive machine in 1901. He called it the Puffing Billy. It was powered by a loud petrol engine. It had five horsepower and it was painted bright red and gold.

But if it was the size of a carriage, how did it fit inside a house?

It didn't. Workers would park the puffing Billy out on the street. Then they would unroll hoses that were 82 feet long and snake them through the front doors and windows of the house.

Wait, London Street in 1901. Weren't there lots of horses pulling carts? Wouldn't a loud puffing petrol engine scare them?

You nailed it, Finn! The puffing Billy was so incredibly loud that it terrified horses in the street. Booth actually got sued a few times because his noisy vacuum caused horses to panic and run away. Oh no! Did he have to stop making them? No way! He proved in court that his machine was the only thing that actually got carpets clean without throwing dust into the air.

It was super expensive though. A visit cost about £13, which was equal to an entire year's wages for a junior maid.

A whole year's salary just to vacuum the house once? That is wild.

Yep, it became a huge status symbol for the ultra-rich. In 1902, the puffing Billy was even hired to clean the giant blue carpet at Westminster Abbey right before the coronation of King Edward VII.

Whoa! If it's good enough for a king, it must be good.

The king loved it so much, he bought machines for Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle. But regular people couldn't afford a giant horse-drawn vacuum. Fast forward to 1907 in Canton, Ohio. What happened in Ohio? A nighttime department store janitor named James Murray Spangler was having a really hard time.

He had a lung condition called asthma. Sweeping the massive store every night sent clouds of dust into the air, and he couldn't breathe. That's terrible. He needed a puffing billy, but much smaller. Exactly. Since he was desperate, Spangler built his own invention. He took a wooden broom handle, a tin soapbox, an electric motor from a ceiling fan, and his wife's sateen pillowcase to use as a dust bag.

A pillowcase and a soapbox? Did it actually work? It worked perfectly. The ceiling fan motor created suction, and the dirt was sucked right into the pillowcase. Instead of a carriage-sized machine, Spangler's invention weighed only £40. £40?

That's like the weight of a medium-sized dog. So did Spangler get rich from his pillowcase vacuum?

Well, Spangler patented his electric suction sweeper in 1908, but he didn't have the funds to build a factory or hire workers. So he showed it to his cousin, Susan Hoover.

Did Susan have a factory?

Her husband did. His name was William Henry Hoover. He was a leather goods maker, but he realised this little machine was a brilliant idea. Hoover bought the patent from Spangler, and the famous Hoover Vacuum Company was born.

I know that name. So Spangler's idea finally made it into normal houses. Exactly.

They built a factory where six employees assembled six vacuums a day. Within a few decades, vacuums became smaller, lighter, and affordable. It totally changed human health, especially for people with asthma, because homes were finally free of deep trapped dust.

That's such a great ending for Spangler. He solved his own problem and helped millions of people. Okay, do you have any weird fact about the early days of vacuuming?

I sure do. When Hubert Cecil Booth's giant puffing billy first became popular with rich people in London, they used to throw vacuum tea parties.

What is a vacuum tea party? Do you vacuum up the tea?

No. Rich ladies would invite their friends over, serve fancy tea and cakes, and they would all sit around the parlour watching the workers vacuum their carpet through glass tubes. They actually liked watching the dirt slide by. Alright, Finn, time for the quiz. Let's see how much you remember about the history of the vacuum cleaner.

Oh boy, I hope I don't choke on a dusty question.

First question. What year was the giant horse-drawn vacuum cleaner invented? Next one. What was the name of Hubert Cecil Booth's huge bright red machine? Question three. Who did the puffing Billy clean the blue carpet for in 1902? Here's number four. What did James Murray Spangler use as a dust bag for his first portable vacuum?

Last question. Who bought Spangler's patent and turned the invention into a massive company? Great job! Let's see how you did. The first answer is it was invented in 1901. For question two, the huge machine was called the puffing Billy. Number three, the answer is it cleaned the carpet for King Edward VII's coronation.

Question four. Spangler used his wife's satine pillowcase as a dust bag. And the final answer is William Henry Hoover bought the patent. Phew!

I'm just glad I can vacuum our rug without hiring a horse and an 82-foot hose.

Me too, Finn. A £40 pillowcase vacuum sounds much easier to manage.

Hey, if you enjoyed learning about giant puffing vacuums, please leave us a five-star review. Just scroll down on your app and tap those five stars.

Oh, and we have sister shows too. Science and philosophy is not boring, and maths is not boring. Go give those a listen and a follow as well.

And if you want a shout out on the show, or just want to say hi, email us at hello at kidopoly.com.

Thanks for listening, everyone. See you next time on History's Not Boring. Bye.

Who invented the vacuum cleaner?

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