Who invented carpet beater

The crudely-made machine collected dirt and blew it out the back, where it was caught by an attached dust bag the pillowcase. They're still making vacuums with the Hoover name today. Kat Eschner is a freelance science and culture journalist based in Toronto. The familiar home vacuum was immediately predated by the carpet sweeper.

Library of Congress Hubert Cecil Booth was born to suck. And while the electric vacuum cleaner took a long while to catch on, the arrival of hand carpet sweepers signaled the demise of the carpet beater, and by carpet beaters had all but disappeared from the sales catalogs.

But with the onslaught of the Great Depression, carpet beaters once again gained popularity. A variation of the carpet beater was the smaller "pillow fluffer" used to fluff feather pillows. Carpet beaters have become a popular collectible. But now on eBay even the rarest ones go for just a few bucks.

Posted by Bob Brooke at PM. Labels: antiques , beaters , bedding , carpet , Civil War , clothing , collectibles , discipline , Dutch , families , feather , fluffer , Great Depression , pillow , punishment , rug , spanking , vacuum cleaners , World War II. No comments:. After review, selected comments will appear on this page along with the name you provide. Please note that we generally cannot answer questions about the history, rarity, or value of your personal artifacts.

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Collected dust ends up in a container which has to be emptied when filled. Melville and Anna grabbed the marketing opportunity and started producing them after Melville patented it the same year he invented it. They started small. Brushes were made local women in their homes, and then complete sweepers were assembled in a room above the store by Melville and Anna. They also sold sweepers alone. They would load their buggy with carpet sweepers and sold them by walking from door to door, Melville selling them on one side of the street and Anna on the other.