The inventor of the first portable vacuum was James Murray Spangler in 1907 in Canton, Ohio. Spangler came up with the idea by using an electric fan, a box and a pillowcase and made use of a rotating brush to loosen debris. Because of a lack of funding to manufacture his product, he sold the patent to William Henry Hoover in 1908 who went on to develop the idea for his vacuum, for which it is used to this day.
Ives W.McGaffey invented a vacuum called 'Whirlwind' in 1868. McGaffey, from Chicago, USA, created a machine that was lightweight to use and also compact, but it required the user to turn a hand crank at the same time as they pushed it over the floor, thus it proved a difficult machine to operate.
Daniel Hess was the inventor of the carpet sweeper in 1860, and was from West Union, Iowa, USA. He came up with the concept of having a rotating brush which was quite like a vacuum, but also had a bellows system to generate enough suction to pick up the dirt.
Melville Bissell invented a vacuum in 1876 in Grand Rapids, Michigan in order to clean up sawdust from their carpet. In fact, Bissell carpet sweepers exist in various forms to this day.
The inventor of the first motorized vacuum was H. Cecil Booth in 1901 after watching a device that was used on trains to blow the dust of train seats, and wondered if a device could be created that instead of blowing the dust, in fact sucked the dust of seats.
P.A. Fisker invented a vacuum in 1910 that was described as the first electric vacuum cleaner to be used in Europe. The device was lightweight, weighing in at just under 17.5kg.
Walter Griffiths invented a manually operated cleaner in 1905, in Birmingham, United Kingdom. Griffiths wanted a vacuum that could be used by a single person, was portable and easy to store. The device was operated by a bellows-like device that was able to pick up the dust through a pipe that was indeed flexible and removable and that could have a variety of nozzles attached to it.
