Nowadays, we see vacuum cleaners in nearly every house. But I am sure that only few people know who first invented a vacuum cleaner.



The first manually-powered cleaner using vacuum principles was a vacuum cleaner called the "Whirlwind", invented in 1868 in Chicago by a man called Ives W. McGaffey. The machine was lightweight and compact, but was difficult to operate because of the need to turn a hand crank at the same time as pushing it across the floor. McGaffey obtained a patent for his device in 1869, and enlisted the help of The American Carpet Cleaning Co. of Boston to market it to the public. It was sold for $25, which was considered a high price in those days. It is hard to determine how successful the Whirlwind was, as most of them were sold in Chicago and Boston. McGaffey was but one of many 19th-century inventors in the United States and Europe who devised manual vacuum cleaners. The first patent for an electrically driven "carpet sweeper and dust gatherer" was granted to Corinne Dufour of Savannah, Georgia in December 1900.

For many years after their introduction, vacuum cleaners remained a luxury item; but after World War II they became common among the rising middle classes. They tend to be more common in Western countries because, in some parts of the world, wall-to-wall carpeting is uncommon and homes have tile or hardwood floors, which are easily swept, wiped, or mopped.

A vacuum cleaner is a device that uses an air pump to create a partial vacuum to suck up dust and dirt, usually from carpeted floors, but also from tiled floors and other smooth surfaces. The dirt is collected by a filtering system or a cyclone for later disposal.

But if the air pump or any other part of the vacuum cleaner breaks, most people go to see someone to fix it.

You could actually save time and money by buying domestic appliance spare parts in a shop and fix your vacuum cleaner by yourself.