Vacuum cleaner
A vacuum cleaner, also known simply as a vacuum, is a device that uses suction, and often agitation, in order to remove dirt and other debris from carpets, hard floors, and other surfaces.
The dirt is collected into a dust bag or a plastic bin. Vacuum cleaners, which are used in homes as well as in commercial settings, exist in a variety of sizes and types, including stick vacuums, handheld vacuums, upright vacuums, and canister vacuums. Specialized shop vacuums can be used to clean both solid debris and liquids.
Name
Although vacuum cleaner and the short form vacuum are neutral names, in some countries hoover is used instead as a genericized trademark, and as a verb. The name comes from the Hoover Company, one of the first and most influential companies in the development of the device. In New Zealand, particularly the Southland region, it is sometimes called a lux, likewise a genericized trademark and used as a verb. The device is also sometimes called a sweeper although the same term also refers to a carpet sweeper, a similar invention.History
The vacuum cleaner evolved from the carpet sweeper via manual vacuum cleaners. The first manual models, using bellows, were developed in the 1860s, and the first motorized designs appeared at the turn of the 20th century, with the first decade being the boom decade.Manual vacuums
In 1860, a manual vacuum cleaner was invented by Daniel Hess of West Union, Iowa. Called a "carpet sweeper," it gathered dust with a rotating brush and had bellows for generating suction.Another early model was the "Whirlwind", invented in Chicago in 1868 by Ives W. McGaffey. The bulky device worked with a belt-driven fan cranked by hand that made it awkward to operate, although it was commercially marketed with mixed success.
A similar model was constructed by Melville R. Bissell of Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1876, who also manufactured carpet sweepers. The company later added portable vacuum cleaners to its line of cleaning tools.
Powered vacuum cleaners
The end of the 19th century saw the introduction of powered cleaners, although early types used some variation of blowing air to clean instead of suction. One appeared in 1898 when John S. Thurman of St. Louis, Missouri, submitted a patent for a "pneumatic carpet renovator" which blew dust into a receptacle. Thurman's system, powered by an internal combustion engine, traveled to the customer's residence on a horse-drawn wagon as part of a door-to-door cleaning service. Corrine Dufour of Savannah, Georgia, received two patents in 1899 and 1900 for another blown-air system that seems to have featured the first use of an electric motor.In 1901, powered vacuum cleaners using suction were invented independently by British engineer Hubert Cecil Booth and American inventor David T. Kenney. Booth also may have coined the word "vacuum cleaner". Booth's horse-drawn combustion-engine-powered "Puffing Billy", maybe derived from Thurman's blown-air design, relied upon just suction with air pumped through a cloth filter and was offered as part of his cleaning services. Kenney's was a stationary steam-engine-powered system with pipes and hoses reaching into all parts of the building.
Domestic vacuum cleaner
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 ", 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 became known as the Kirby Vacuum Cleaner. The Cleveland, Ohio factory was built in 1916 and remains open currently, and all Kirby vacuum cleaners are manufactured in the United States.
In 1907 department store janitor James Murray Spangler of Canton, Ohio, invented the first portable electric vacuum cleaner, obtaining a patent for the Electric Suction Sweeper on 2 June 1908. In addition to suction from an electric fan that blew the dirt and dust into a soap box and one of his wife's pillowcases, 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, 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, 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 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 German company Vorwerk started marketing vacuum cleaners of their own design which they sold through direct sales.
Post-Second World War
For many years after their introduction, vacuum cleaners remained a luxury item, but after the Second World War, they became common among the middle classes. Vacuums tend to be more common in Western countries, because in most other parts of the world, wall-to-wall carpeting is uncommon and homes have tile or hardwood floors, which are easily swept, wiped or mopped manually without power assist.The last decades of the 20th century saw the more widespread use of technologies developed earlier, including filterless cyclonic dirt separation, central vacuum systems, and rechargeable hand-held vacuums. In addition, miniaturized computer technology and improved batteries allowed the development of a new type of machine—the autonomous robotic vacuum cleaner. In 1997, Electrolux of Sweden demonstrated the Electrolux Trilobite, the first autonomous cordless robotic vacuum cleaner on the BBC-TV program Tomorrow's World, and introduced it to the consumer market in 2001.
Recent developments
- In 2004, a British company released AiRider, a hovering vacuum cleaner that floats on a cushion of air similar to a hovercraft, to make it lightweight and easier to maneuver.
- A British inventor has developed a new cleaning technology known as Air Recycling Technology, which, instead of using a vacuum, uses an air stream to collect dust from the carpet. This technology was tested by the Market Transformation Programme and shown to be more energy-efficient than the vacuum method. Although working prototypes exist, Air Recycling Technology is not currently used in production cleaners.
Modern configurations
Upright
Upright vacuum cleaners were not only popular in the US, UK, and numerous Commonwealth countries, but also in some Continental European countries like Germany. They take the form of a cleaning head, onto which a handle and bag are attached. Upright designs generally employ a rotating brushroll or beater bar, which removes dirt through a combination of sweeping and vibration. There are two types of upright vacuums; dirty-air/direct fan, or clean-air/fan-bypass.The older of the two designs, direct-fan cleaners have a large impeller mounted close to the suction opening, through which the dirt passes directly, before being blown into a bag. The motor is often cooled by a separate cooling fan. Because of their large-bladed fans, and comparatively short airpaths, direct-fan cleaners create a very efficient airflow from a low amount of power, and make effective carpet cleaners. Their "above-floor" cleaning power is less efficient, since the airflow is lost when it passes through a long hose, and the fan has been optimized for airflow volume and not suction.
Fan-bypass uprights have their motor mounted after the filter bag. Dust is removed from the airstream by the bag, and usually a filter, before it passes through the fan. The fans are smaller, and are usually a combination of several moving and stationary turbines working in sequence to boost power. The motor is cooled by the airstream passing through it. Fan-bypass vacuums are good for both carpet and above-floor cleaning, since their suction does not significantly diminish over the distance of a hose, as it does in direct-fan cleaners. However, their air-paths are much less efficient, and can require more than twice as much power as direct-fan cleaners to achieve the same results.
The most common upright vacuum cleaners use a drive-belt powered by the suction motor to rotate the brush-roll. However, a more common design of dual motor upright is available. In these cleaners, the suction is provided via a large motor, while the brushroll is powered by a separate, smaller motor, which does not create any suction. The brush-roll motor can sometimes be switched off, so hard floors can be cleaned without the brush-roll scattering the dirt. It may also have an automatic cut-off feature which shuts the motor off if the brush-roll becomes jammed, protecting it from damage.